Discretion is really the better part of business

When Falstaff said "The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life" in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One he positioned himself as a leading business consultant of our day if not his own.

Discretion is more than a way to protect a personal or market position, it is an attribute than can expand them, even at it encourages trust. In the pre-digital age of Elizabethan England, it was pretty easy to be discrete. After all, there was little heard beyond earshot and the social hierarchy held (except, perhaps, at the Globe Theater) each to his own. As those barriers wore down over time and media has become ubiquitous, it now sometimes seems as if private thoughts are accessible in real-time to anyone interested.

In this kind of few-rules, no-barrier-to-entry, whatever-can-be-said-will-be-heard open air market, discretion has become an even more valuable attribute in business than it is among friends. That's because one may only need a few good friends to have a full life, but it takes a legion to build a business.

It begins with the "a ha" moment that triggers a business plan and leads to a search for seed money. At any point in the chain, saying too much or too easily can unravel the opportunity. Then with the money in the bank, there are people to be hired, space to be rented and distribution partners to be seduced. Again, at any point in the chain, the right thing said at the wrong time can alert competitors and stall a new initiative.

Finally, with product "rolling off the assembly line," attention turns to customer relationships, market expansion and business model "tweaks" that can drive growth on the top and bottom lines. It may be that the discussions that take place in advance of a decision on these matters are the most valuable. It is why the small groups that run most companies don't easily or often change their membership.

And the value of discretion does not stop there. When the subject is a potential merger or acquisition, when the business plan calls for shifting or building plants or, maybe especially, when hiring, firing or personnel re-assignment are on the agenda, if the conversation can’t be held in confidence, it will not end well. It will be too closely held, too quickly decided and too narrowly reviewed.

Of course, if discretion were common among us, all this would be less of a worry. But as we have moved to a fully-formed, information-based services economy, what each of us knows is the most important measure of our professional value and self-worth. Hard to keep that kind of light under a bushel.

Unless, of course, you are willing to protect the business you are helping to build. In fact, it is that last bit – “the business you are helping to build” – that is the essential element to discretion. And it has less to do with the values of employees than it does the values of the company.

Companies with a clear and valuable mission, a consistent and supportive set of values, a set of products and services to which the market clearly responds, a willingness to listen and act on what it hears, an equitable rewards systems that still recognizes individual contribution and a management track record of making all the right moves are staffed by among the most discrete people and teams. Until there is a slip or two in any quarter which becomes a cause for concern and, in turn, leads to upsetting the balance between personal ambition and corporate mission.

No wonder Falstaff drank.

Everything in Moderation

“User generated content” is this era’s hammer because the problem confronting companies, candidates, government and institutions is a nail aimed at the heart of public credibility.

Advertisers are losing their effect on consumers, government is losing its status among citizens, newspaper circulation is in a downward spiral and institutions created to promote an agenda have helped accelerate skepticism for all.

The concern has reached every corner of an economy built on making and selling stuff. If we believe less of what we hear, we are likely to buy less of what we are told we need – whether a car, a candidate or a charitable contribution.

Can’t have that.

So, if consumers or voters won’t believe what they hear from us, let’s get ‘em to say what they believe to each other. We’ll even let them say some bad things, too, because it will make the good they say sound better. At least, that’s the thinking and the underlying logic to the accelerating corporate commitment to a smorgasbord of technologies and communities wrapped up in what is being called “social media.”

The blogs, pod casts, viral videos, advertising produced BY consumers FOR consumers, web casts, user reviews and more comprise an array of technologies that make it easy for people to speak up. And, in the hope of finding a way to connect with consumers now that the old ways have been devalued, this array is getting the investment, interest and involvement it needs to root and grow. The question is: will it work?

Why have the “old ways” been devalued? Simply, all the “crying wolf” that has been done so as to be heard over an increasingly crowded, noisy, boisterous, multi-lingual marketplace has inured people to the inducements. We are less willing to listen let alone believe the offers, sales and solutions we are offered daily. Too many of them have fallen short of the promise, they have no credibility.

It is not that we have lost faith in what others say – the mediated content of newspapers, ads, reports and speeches – but we have narrowed the list of others to whom we will listen. Rather than reporters, professors, Senators, singers or actors, we are turning to people for advice.

The way we look for a doctor, dentist or accountant – by talking to people like us, near us who could speak from experience – is now the way we look for a car, a washer/dryer combination, a shave cream and a President. We still rely on mediated content to make decisions, but we are now relying on different moderators.

Smart companies and candidates recognize the trend and are trying to figure out a way to participate. Rather than being “the” voice of their products and services or programs and proposals, they are trying to instigate and moderate the conversation. They are seeking to participate without suffocating the discussion. And they are trying to showcase without co-opting the best of what is said.

Only in this way can credibility be encouraged, first as a spark and then as a viral fire. Even then it might not work. There is still some magic to moving a market, but it cannot happen without a willingness to promote a thing by letting go of its control; to participate in the back-and-forth without seeking to dictate terms; and working to moderate a conversation, warts and all, without trying to dominate.

Everything can be found in moderation