Distribution Network
Content
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
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
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