Over the past few years, I’ve been in numerous discussions about how social media (and blogging in specific) is driving a new level of transparency in marketing, public relations and corporate communications, while also providing unprecedented opportunity for thought leaders to carve out a niche in new and powerful ways.

In my consulting engagements when talk comes around to discussing crowdsourcing and ways to spark creativity and innovation through social media means, Apple often is brought up as an example of how to innovate: "We’ve got to create an iPod" is often brought up as a successful innovation.

Often this occurs without much talk of how Apple really succeeded with it by focusing on the entire value chain. Nailing the value chain was the secret sauce in delivering a three-tiered value chain offering by tying that iPod to a desktop application (iTunes) so people could rip their CD’s and manage their music, alongside that same application (iTunes) acting as a Web hosted application (iTunes connected to an iTunes Store). Then they offered this whole package up to an industry on its knees as its product (music) was being stolen out from underneath them.

But then I’m quizzed by clients. "Hey, wait just a dang minute Borsch. You’re promoting and pushing us to be transparent and let employees blog when a company you laud, worked for and own stock in is polar opposite?" Apple is a different beast that needed to be opaque since they were close to being out of business in the 1990′s, but the problem is they haven’t changed direction about their lack of transparency now that they’re a resounding success.

I’ve been troubled by that paradox until just now.

[Read more...]