LinkedIn掌门人的保密之道

    昨晚，LinkedIn CEO杰夫•韦纳尔与《财富》杂志资深编辑亚当•拉什斯凯在《财富》杂志科技头脑风暴晚餐会上。图片来源：杰西•亨佩尔/《财富》杂志

    为何商务社交网站LinkedIn从未像雅虎（Yahoo）等公司那样，遭遇信息泄露的麻烦呢？昨晚在旧金山的《财富》杂志头脑风暴（Fortune's Brainstorm Tech ）晚餐会上，LinkedIn公司 CEO杰夫•韦纳尔简单地概括道：透明才是关键。

    韦纳尔很清楚自己在说什么。他曾在雅虎供职七年，在华纳兄弟（Warner Brothers）工作了五年。他说：“这些经历让我认识到，信息透明会带来良性循环，而混沌不清则会产生恶性循环。”人都拥有贪得无厌的好奇心，如果官方拒绝让他们获取信息，他们自己就会想方设法去挖掘。一旦他们找到了想要的信息，就会义愤填膺想要将信息散布出去。“于是，高管们就会说，很显然，我们不能信任员工会对这些信息保密。所以，我们得尽量少发布点信息。”结果员工的怨念会更深，也就会进一步挖掘更多信息。于是，按照韦纳尔的解释，“政治迫害”便开始了。

    相反，韦纳尔主张应该将员工作为“成年人”来对待，做到绝对透明。这样一来，员工就能够了解公司正在做什么，或者哪些事情还没有做。此外，这样还可以在公司内部培养一种信任感，员工也就越不可能泄露敏感信息。

    这种策略似乎正在发挥作用。

    LinkedIn几乎很少发生泄密事件。虽然有员工在上周披露，韦纳尔给公司3,500名员工都发放了32GB版迷你iPad。公司为这项福利可能花了接近150万美元。在此之前，LinkedIn刚刚在上周发布第四季度财报，显示公司业绩远远超出华尔街的预期。公司营收年比增长81%，达到3.04亿美元；净收入同比增长了60%，达到1,150万美元。LinkedIn已经连续七个季度打破预期。发放iPad这样的礼物“具有重要意义，”韦纳尔说。

    过去七个月里，LinkedIn推出了一系列新功能，包括全新的用户资料页、通知和认证功能。认证功能支持用户在不同领域相互推荐职业技能，如写作、编辑和撰写博客等。目前，网站的用户推荐数量正迅速逼近10亿次，整个互联网上约有100万个独立域名都有LinkedIn“分享”按钮。虽然这些功能本身不属于收入增长源，但LinkedIn CEO却认为，他们对于公司的持续成功至关重要。用户使用这些功能的时间越长，用户的参与度与忠诚度就会越高，反过来便会影响LinkedIn的盈利方式，其中包括如何向2亿多用户兜售高级订阅服务等。

    不要以为这样的创新会就此停止。据韦纳尔表示，产品团队将继续发挥奇思妙想。不论是全新产品，或是对现有功能的小幅度改进，或者其他幕后工作，所有团队都有能力每天“启动”两次。如果这些团队推出的产品足够引人注目，无论对公司还是用户来说都是好事。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner with Fortune Senior Editor-at-Large Adam Lashinsky at last night's Fortune Brainstorm Tech dinner. Credit: Jessi Hempel/Fortune

    Why doesn't LinkedIn (LNKD) suffer from the same news leaks as companies like Yahoo (YHOO)? As LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner put it simply at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech dinner in San Francisco last night: It's all about transparency.

    Weiner knows what he's talking about. His previous experience includes seven years at Yahoo and five years at Warner Brothers. "I've come to learn there is a virtuous cycle to transparency and a very vicious cycle of obfuscation," he says. People have an insatiable curiosity, and if they're officially denied access to information, they're going to dig for it on their own. And if they find it, they'll become resentful and want to leak it. "That's when executive management says, well, clearly we can't trust our employees with this information. So, we're going to have to buckle down and release even less information." Employees become even more resentful, dig even deeper, and that, as Weiner explains, is when the witch hunt starts.

    Instead, Weiner argues to treat employees "like adults" and be completely transparent. It provides optics into what's working around the company and what's not. It also breeds a sense of trust within the company, so employees are far less likely to leak sensitive information.

    The strategy seems to be working.

    LinkedIn leaks are few and far between. Although employees this week revealed Weiner gave 32-gigabyte iPad minis to the company's 3,500 employees -- a perk that may have cost the company nearly $1.5 million. The award comes on the heels of LinkedIn's fourth-quarter earnings last week, which came in far above Wall Street's expectations. Revenues soared 81% year-over-year to $304 million; net income jumped 60% to $11.5 million from the same time last year. The news marks the seventh consecutive quarter LinkedIn has handily beat estimates. Gifts like the iPads "just make all the difference in the world," says Weiner.

    Over the last seven months, LinkedIn has rolled out a slew of new features, including new profile pages, alerts, and endorsements which allows users to recommend one another in different skill areas like say, writing, editing, and blogging. Now, the company is fast approaching 1 billion user endorsements, and 1 million unique domains across the Internet now feature the LinkedIn share button. Though such features aren't revenue drivers themselves, LinkedIn's CEO argues they're critical to the company's ongoing success. The more time users spend using them, the higher the user engagement and loyalty, which in turn spills over into the way LinkedIn does make money, which includes selling premium subscriptions to 200 million-plus users.

    Don't expect that kind of innovation to stop. According to Weiner, product teams will continue to crank. Whether it's a new product, a minor improvement to an existing feature, or behind-the-scenes work, every team is capable of "launching" twice a day. Provided what they launch is compelling, it's a win both for the company and for its users.