Is Transparency the key to good governance and better productivity?
- Meena Vaiyanathan and Ramya Gopalakrishnan
- Dec 10, 2025
- 3 min read
In the year 2016, Wells Fargo was fined 185 million dollars (1) because 5300 of its employees had opened bank accounts in their customers’ names without their consent. Wells Fargo had strict quotas regulating the number of daily ‘solutions’ that its bankers must reach; these ‘solutions’ include the opening of all new banking and credit card accounts. The quotas imposed by Wells Fargo on its employees were often not attainable because there simply were not enough customers entering branches on a daily basis for employees to meet their quotas.
Is Transparency the key to good governance and better productivity? In the evolving landscape of organisational effectiveness, transparency is increasingly recognised as a foundational element, especially within the realms of Impact Consulting & Strategy. Whether within social impact consulting, impact consulting firms, or nonprofit strategy consulting, open communication is essential to drive both social innovation consulting initiatives and Organisation Change Management efforts. This also extends to Non-Profit Leadership Development, where transparent processes foster trust and leadership growth among teams.
When I read about this fiasco, the thought that crossed my mind was: a culture of open communication and transparency would have given a channel for the harassed employees at Wells Fargo to express their difficulties, instead of choosing to betray customer trust. When an organisation encourages candour and the sharing of information at every level, it paves the way for a more uniform understanding of company goals. In this scenario, it is a lot more likely that employees will stay honest about company goals and aspirations and it is less likely they will cut corners to ‘make the grade’.
Yes, information has always been valued, especially in the realm of consulting, where knowledge is an intangible asset for the organisation. However, I realised early on, that rather than guarding knowledge, the intent should be to enable the best use of it. I have found that a focus on purpose, going beyond profit, leads to trust, which is the bedrock of transparency. This philosophy is also mirrored in Finance, ESG & CSR domains, where social return on investment (SROI), SROI reporting, and ESG consulting highlight the value of openness in CSR strategy and CSR reporting, ensuring that stakeholders remain well-informed and engaged.
Transparency within – more benefits
Organisations have embarked on initiatives to be transparent inside the organisation and outside. Information flow and openness about pay are two important areas.
At SumAll, a business automation company, employees use work management software, instant messaging, Google Drive, and face-to-face communication to make sure everyone is in the loop, beyond knowing what is happening within their own teams. A company Wiki holds all of SumAll’s policy information, including the company’s core values and information about the corporate culture. In my experience, this kind of transparency is related to productivity because it leads to more trust between employees and management, better communication, and a greater level of
dedication and engagement.
Furthermore, in the sphere of Entrepreneurship & Inclusion, transparent practices help promote women entrepreneurship, rural women entrepreneurship, and rural entrepreneurship, ensuring that gender inclusion is embedded within organisational policies and initiatives. Such openness can empower diverse groups and foster an inclusive workplace culture.
Transparency with the world outside
Being transparent with all the entities it deals with is important for an organisation - be it investors, business partners or the general public. For example, investors associate corporate transparency with good management, while a lack of it is linked to a hidden agenda. Such an impression can hamper investments in the long run.
Steps to build a transparent organisation
While the benefits of internal and external transparency have been understood at a conceptual level, widespread practise of these values need a cultural shift rather than more control measures (2).
There are tangible steps (3) through which a culture of transparency can be built: frequent conversations with work
colleagues, open admission of learning from mistakes and errors, especially by programme leaders and management, discussing expectations upfront and periodically with business partners as well work colleagues.
The Path to Transparency
“Too much reliance on regulatory
oversight for enforcement of
transparency and ethical behaviour is
often not very effective, and there has
to be a cultural shift towards such
practices.”
Tom Everett Heath - Global Head of
Business Intelligence and Investigations,
Kroll
As our experience of building a virtual company like niiti has shown, transparency is key not just in terms of building open communication and ownership. Transparency in terms of systems and processes, in terms of sharing work updates, providing access to clients and partners, all go a long way in building a culture of transparency, which eventually lead to a culture of good governance.
The 21 st century is an era of openness, can the world of business, social or otherwise be left behind?
Certainly not!
2 ‘Indian firms have a long way to go in transparency, governance’ - The Hindu BusinessLine
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