The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business

Robert W. Sexty is a professor of commerce and business administration
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the author of Canadian
Business: Issues and Stakeholders.

The authors of The Naked Corporation have written extensively on the
digital economy, defined here as knowledge-based and involving the
exchange of intangibles such as intellectual capital, knowledge assets,
and trust.

The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, Chapter 1
describes the naked corporation as an organization that is transparent
(whether voluntarily or not) in its dealings with stakeholders. Chapter
2 discusses the obstacles to transparency, including the fact that not
all corporations or managers welcome this new openness. In Chapter 3,
the authors point out how transparency changes corporate values and
becomes a value in itself.

Part 2 illustrates how five stakeholders are acting to achieve greater
transparency. Employees are encouraging it through whistle-blowing and
other mechanisms. Business partners such as suppliers co-operate in
introducing new technology. Customers are exercising consumer
sovereignty. Communities are represented by interest groups.
Shareholders are becoming more active in defending their rights.

Part 3, “Being Open,” outlines how managers can harness the power
of transparency, identifies the levels of transparency, and describes
how businesspersons must assume leadership by engaging stakeholders.

The Naked Corporation is readable and touches on most of the current
business ethics issues, illustrating them with examples and anecdotes
(some several pages long). It is timely in that it touches on many of
the “biz” words in corporate citizenship: accountability,
governance, eco-efficiency, integrity, networked world, relationship
management, socially responsible investing, and sustainability. The book
is a solid primer on corporate citizenship, although more in-depth and
more recent examinations of the concept are available.