Earthscan, 2007. 184 pages, hardback.
In theory, transparency should be good for business generally
because it makes markets more efficient. In practice, individual
businesses and sectors for years have been throwing a cloak over some
of their activities, for all sorts of reasons. Adrian Henriques,
consultant and academic, has marshalled a very wide range of
information from different sources to produce this important book,
clearly and comprehensively unpicking the complex links between trust,
accountability, transparency, privacy and responsibility.
His core argument is that transparency is required wherever power is
exercised. This takes him into all sorts of interesting areas – not
only reporting and corruption, but also contracts, intellectual
property, whistleblowing, the role of the media, tax, and advertising –
making the book of interest to managers working in all areas of
business.
He is particularly good on the history of the struggle for greater
transparency in financial reporting, resisted for decades on grounds of
commercial confidentiality. The requirement for UK listed companies to
publish profit and loss accounts was introduced only in 1928 and it
took a further 20 years before these had to be audited. What
transparency exists today has arisen from power struggles between
stakeholder groups.
Many companies are intensely interested in information about
individuals. It is hardly surprising, then, that individuals want more
information about companies. Transparency, says Henriques, is a two-way
process.
Alistair Townley
