Mike Elgan on Openness vs. secrecy – the case of Apple vs. Google  30.10.10

Mike Elgan compares the alleged openness of Google an with the notoriously secretive Jobsian empire. Suprising discovery is that every company has its secret sauce, the recipe of which is stored in iron boxes or, modern times, in encrypted databases:

The companies are different, and what they’re “open” about reflects that difference. For example, Trump is very secretive about pending real estate transactions, but would probably be happy to share the details of food served at one of his golf courses. McDonald’s on the other hand, isn’t all that secretive about real estate transactions but they’re very secretive or “closed” about their Secret Sauce.

In other words, companies are very closed, secretive, and controlling about the part of their business that makes the money. (via gruber)

Reminds me of the interesting question who has or wants which secret sauce in the area internet security?