Iceberg Theory

Companies most often try to hide as much as they can from the outside world. Some call it trade secrets, other call it competitive advantage. Whatever name you call it, it's common notion; something that's assumed from companies. And the interesting fact is that people can't control that feeling. If a company has some information on its website, the common reaction is to assume that the company has 10x more information internally.

This is what I call the Iceberg Theory.

Why does this matter? Because this view is based on perception rather than facts, companies can use this to their advantage to both fight competition and gain customers. The key here is that perception is most often the same as reality.

How do you fight your competition? If the competition has fallen prey to the theory, they will take anything you expose, multiply by 10, and assume your intellectual size (however you measure that) from that. Therefore, if you expose all of your information (or at least close to that), your size will grow overnight by 10x in the eyes of your competition!

The interesting side effect of this is that this will help you gain customers as well, since more information is something the average information junkie today appreciates. It conveys honesty and openess, another important aspect customers value in a company.

So, this leads to the interesting, but non-intuitive conclusion that companies should expose more information rather than hide it all away from the outside world.

One final note: don't interpret this as being leaky or overpromising about your intentions to the outside world. Give out as much information as you can about products or services (icebergs) that you already have in the market, but don't be tempted to talk about other icebergs that are simply on the horizon; you never know whether they will melt before they reach the market, damaging your companies reputation.