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Let's free up our businesses!
How the company responds to the demand for authenticity from its employees and partners
Companies put to the test of transparency
Society's desire for greater transparency is a logical extension of the struggle that individuals have been waging for over two centuries to free themselves from a traditional order based on secrecy and hierarchy. Applied to the company, transparency does not necessarily mean saying everything, but it does at least mean being sincere in what you say in order to regain the trust of customers and employees alike.
Company & transparency
Transparency is not a concept that companies take for granted. French-style capitalism is characterised by a culture of secrecy, "sociétés anonymes" and accounts that are only published because the law requires it. In France, society as a whole has often cultivated a form of opacity. We don't hesitate for long when it comes to showing off our private lives on social networks, but no one would ever think of publicly revealing how much they earn on Twitter. There are things that are said and things that are not said, particularly when it comes to power or money. The issue of privacy is a pillar of our concept of individual freedom. In this, we are very different from the Anglo-Saxons and their Protestant heritage, which inclines them to hide nothing, as if the simple fact of concealing information could make them suspect.
Economic liberalism is built on this notion of transparency. This habit of saying everything, showing off everything, being absolutely transparent is deeply rooted on the other side of the Atlantic. Lying is highly frowned upon there, whereas here it has long been more or less tolerated. But times are changing. The French, in turn, aspire to greater transparency, at least in their dealings with organisations. In an age of globalisation and the massification of information, French companies can no longer operate as they did in the past without running the risk of upsetting their customers or employees.
The need for companies to be more transparent is all the more pressing given the chronic disenchantment of our fellow citizens. Numerous financial, health and environmental scandals have damaged the relationship between companies and consumers. Contaminated infant milk, Dieselgate, the Paradise Papers, Levothyrox: a new case comes to light every month, reinforcing the idea that companies don't care about our health or our rights when it comes to making a profit. No sector is spared, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal proves that even a flagship company in the digital economy is not immune from seeing its bad practices come to light. Apart from the image issues, these repeated scandals are also very bad for the sales figures of companies caught red-handed.
Consumers are closely linked
The Internet has come a long way, consumers are closely connected to each other, and information circulates and spreads at dizzying speed. It is increasingly easy to launch petitions, call on the media or join mass actions in the courts. Relayed by social networks, calls for citizen boycotts are increasingly effective. So beware of companies that don't play the transparency game. Behind this phenomenon, there is above all a consumer demand for the right to know. A recent opinion poll showed that what users criticise most about SNCF is not so much the dilapidated state of the network or the repeated strikes, but above all the lack of information.
A right to information
Generally speaking, rather than absolute transparency, consumers are demanding a right to information. To reconnect with their customers and regain their trust, companies need to educate, establish a dialogue and explain what they do and how they do it. On the employee side, the picture is no better. It's rare for people to feel passionate about their company. Many employees feel that their creativity is restricted and that they are confined to repetitive tasks. Not sufficiently informed, they find it difficult to understand what their superiors expect of them. The malaise at work is real and also affects many managers, who sometimes say they feel trapped in complex, vertical organisations that leave them little freedom. Left out of the strategic decision-making process, they often feel that they are not properly considered by their management. And what can we say about the young generation Y who are struggling to find their place in a working world whose codes they do not understand? Companies owe it to their customers to regain their trust, but also to their employees to help them find meaning in their work.
The company on the road to liberation
Beware, however, of window-dressing: transparency cannot be just talk. Our times demand sincerity, but it's hard to be sincere when you have things to hide. Being transparent implies a global transformation of the company. It has to keep up with society and integrate its new moral references. Consumer expectations have changed. To continue to meet them, companies need to change their paradigm, starting by adopting the principles of good governance, which, according to the OECD, means helping to strengthen democracy and human rights, promoting prosperity and social cohesion, reducing poverty, supporting environmental protection and strengthening public confidence in government, no less.
Ultimately, companies can no longer behave as purely economic organisations, but also as political objects. Their role in society has changed. To regain the trust of consumers, companies have to change and lay themselves bare. When applied to the issue of human resources, the principle of transparency is easily linked to the concept of the liberated enterprise, a philosophy that proposes putting people back at the heart of the company to improve the well-being at work and the productivity of employees.
In practical terms, a liberated company is one that abolishes or greatly reduces hierarchical relationships, gives its employees a sense of responsibility, involves them in the decision-making process and lets them set their own objectives. The result is happier, more motivated employees who are more interested in the success of their company. This management style can only flourish if there is a climate of trust between employees and between employees and their management. It involves encouraging the free flow of information within the company. The remuneration and career management system, for example, needs to be known, understood and accepted by everyone, even though it is all too often shrouded in mystery. To give their best, employees need to know the rules of the game. There can be no free enterprise without transparency.
Hiding nothing is not the same as telling everything. A company has the right to have a private life, if only to protect its little manufacturing secrets. Consumers do not demand that a company disclose everything, but simply that it be sincere and not try to conceal practices that run counter to the principles of good governance. If it fails to do so, the penalty is immediate. The feeling of being duped is much more unbearable than before.
Transparency can't just be talk
These days, the slightest slip-up means that business leaders have to make an act of contrition to protect their reputation and that of their brand. Mark Zuckerberg's mea culpa before the US Senate and then the European Parliament would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. But despite his aversion to this type of exercise, the man in the world's most famous hoodie complied because the very survival of his company was threatened. The media and popular court are merciless. In the event of a scandal, no company is safe from sinking. Between whistle-blowers, investigative journalists and the millions of anonymous investigators armed with their Smartphones that we all are, everything comes to light. In this context, transparency is not an option for companies. Not to mention the fact that the absence of information, or the inability to access it, often leads to a feeling of powerlessness, mistrust and frustration that instils doubt in the consumer. The same applies to employees. If a company is experiencing difficulties, it has everything to gain by opening up to its employees.
In an age when keeping secrets is a miracle, we might cynically think of transparency as a necessary evil. But it would be wrong to see it solely as a constraint. Transparency is a wonderful opportunity for companies to build lasting relationships of trust with their customers. It also facilitates the establishment of new relationships between management and employees, thereby helping to free the company from its old shackles.