Open business


Open business is an approach to enterprise that draws on ideas from openness movements like free software, open source, open content and open tools and standards. The approach places value on transparency, stakeholder inclusion, and accountability.
Open business structures make contributors and non-contributors visible so that business benefits are distributed accordingly. They seek to increase personal engagement and positive outcomes by rewarding contributors in an open way.

Main ideas

Central to the concept are:

Knowledge

Business means the state of being busy. The concept of business includes all the activities of earning money.

Management

Businesses that sell consumer products can operate in open ways, for example by disclosing prices for components and publishing operating information. There is an interest in the benefit of most stakeholders, whether shareholders, workers, families etc.
The risk of bankruptcy of such open-movement businesses is reduced because the fruits of their work remain in the commons and therefore remain as a permanent base for recovering the open business, even in their most critical situations.

Focused on transparent services

A service orientated business can also operate in open ways. A business that documents all transactions real-time on their websites in public, is very open. Another example might be Canonical Ltd..
Open businesses can be more attractive to donors, especially if the name of the donors in social networks are made public too. So in this case even the donors participate in the charity as business and beyond by increasing their positive community karma and building their reputation.
The risk of bankruptcy of such transaction-oriented businesses is reduced due to the fact, that
The degree of freedom to participate may vary: