INCREMENTAL FAILURE

What are you afraid of? If ever there was a time to open your accounting books to the world, publicize a unique strategy and put your CEO in the spotlight, this is it. It really doesn't matter if you are days from bankruptcy, hours from layoffs, or minutes from selling everything that doesn't matter and reverting to your core business. Don't spin. Just put it out there, warts and all. Wall Street is in love with the idea of full disclosure. Suddenly, business is about truth. What an amazing thing to sprout from the rotted earth of a spoiled economy. People in many industries are looking for lessons to learn from the Enron debacle: don't hire Andersen, don't trust the guy who wants to make everything virtual, don't appoint God as your legal advisor. The real lesson to be learned from Enron is to tell the truth and tell it now. The best thing you can do is admit that you're a jerk and say why, because tough people lead great companies. The best thing you can do is talk about that $100 million headquarters or that strange synthetic lease and explain how it saves your company money in the long run. The best thing you can do is admit that you lay off people in the dozens every couple weeks rather than the hundreds or thousands at one time to escape public notice — because at this point, who could blame you? Spinning a bankruptcy is in vogue, so the least you can do is admit how tough everything is and talk openly about how you are dealing with it and your plan to make it all better. The alternative is failing in increments. That's what the telecom industry has been doing for the last 18 months, and why we just can't seem to escape the curse of negative news. If you bury it, they will come.