Secrecy vs. Openness

This subject continues to pursue me as I work closely with my customers and continue to rely on the use of social media. I raised this subject more than a year ago in one of my blog posts Product Launch (1 of 3): Secrecy vs. Openness. Back then this was more of an open question than conviction.

A few weeks ago I was sitting on the Social Media panel at my company's annual event when I faced the following question:

• "Would Steve Jobs be as open and transparent with his customers as we sometimes aspire to be?"

My response was:

• Steve was genius and a great visionary, but he operated in a different space compared to our company. He built products for consumer space and took huge risks in developing his solutions in secrecy. Our company is engaged in developing solutions for much more complex problems in B2B markets, and I would not follow Steve Jobs' approach. I believe in openness, both because multiple minds are just more capable than few, and because it helps establish and nurture much needed trust between the vendor and the customers. A trust that goes way beyond brand loyalty in enterprise software market where these relationships are more like partnerships that extend over many years.