From Publishers Weekly
The idea behind the sexy title is that information technology, chiefly the Internet, puts corporate misbehavior on display as never before. Thanks to the Web, consumers can compare product info, disgruntled employees and whistleblowers can air dirty laundry and upload embarrassing documents, investors can get wind of financial shenanigans and activists of all stripes are able to publicize a company's environmental and social transgressions. When mobilized, these hawk-eyed "accountability webs" precipitate "vortex states" that send a company's reputation, and maybe its business, spiraling down the drain. To head off such PR catastrophes, the authors recommend a policy of "transparency," whereby companies disclose all possible information, a practice they feel boosts employee morale and performance, facilitates business partnerships, and helps responsible corporations attract socially conscious consumers and investors. Tapscott and Ticoll, authors of Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, examine such obstacles to transparency as gene patenting and overextended copyrights, and discuss the misdeeds and controversies surrounding corporate megaliths like McDonalds and Coca-Cola. The book is really a restatement of the new "corporate sustainability vogue in management theory, which insists that social and environmental responsibility benefit the bottom line. The authors' sometimes turgid presentation, peppered with bewildering diagrams, gives it a New Economy gloss by invoking information theory, "network effects" and fulsome praise of knowledge workers and the Net Generation, for whom life is "an ongoing, massive multi-media research project." The premise, that the flow of information compels corporate accountability, is a dubious one; as the authors acknowledge, there was information aplenty about the problems at Enron and Worldcom, but these companies were never called to account until they went bankrupt. Still, high-minded executives will find much to enlighten and encourage them.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Pressestimmen
Malcolm Gladwell Author of
The Tipping Point The Naked Corporation argues, beautifully and persuasively, that there is no contradiction between good business and the values of honesty and openness. This book belongs in the briefcase of every right-thinking manager in the country.
A. G. Lafley Chairman, President and Chief Executive, Procter & Gamble Don Tapscott and David Ticoll hit the bull's-eye with
The Naked Corporation. The demand for openness and candor has never been greater.
The Naked Corporation is a leadership tool kit for turning the relentless demand for transparency from threat to advantage.
Robert A. G. Monks Author of
The New Global Investors, coauthor of Power and Accountability and Watching the Watchers Tapscott and Ticoll show, with abundant recent cogent examples, how concealment of truth is at the core of many corporate problems. Their solution is straightforward, clearly written, and compelling. You should read this book. More, you should buy it, as you will want to refer to it frequently.
Dr. Eric Schmidt Chairman and CEO, Google, Inc. They've done it again. Tapscott and Ticoll's capacity to combine a fresh and authentic perspective with real world data has once again opened the aperture on our emerging networked economy. A brilliant work.
Klaus Schwab Founder and President, World Economic Forum We need a corporate philosophy for the twenty-first century. Tapscott and Ticoll's book
The Naked Corporation provides this -- not only the rationale for a transparent corporation but also the principles of leadership in an open world.
