How often do you hear someone ask what you don’t like about their product? Our guess—Not very.

Most companies treat criticism like it’s the plague. And because they avoid looking at their organization and products honestly, they end up spending a good deal of money covering up defects instead of on front-end resources that create ultimate success. 

We can’t help but shake our heads at the futility of that mentality.

Somewhere between the global economy hitting the brakes and the explosion of real-time feedback loops on the Internet, the way we traditionally did business was turned on its head.

The top-down model—where elite brands picked what colors would be hot next season, what news was important and what consumers really wanted—has pretty much been blown to bits. In its place now stands a construction project, being built from the bottom up—and by the way, no one knows what the finished product will look like, much less whether it will ever be complete.

Let us start by saying this: Everyone has a dark side. Dr. Jekyll. Oprah. Even Gandhi.

Yes. Even Gandhi.

If you haven’t heard the news: Things have changed. Your company no longer operates in a profit vacuum, where your only consistent feedback comes from shareholders. While business scrambled to stop our economy from completely imploding, the consumer acquired a substantial hold over the success and failure of brands.