If you're not a hardcore blogger and/or technology industry insider, you may not know about Mini-Microsoft, a MSFT employee who has maintained anonymity while becoming a highly visible critic of the internal workings of largest company in tech-dom. The Seattle Times has a profile and summary of Mini, which does a nice job of summarizing his impact:

I ask him what he considers his biggest success. His answer: increased transparency, a sense that Microsoft management now has to be more open with its workers. Funny it took someone going underground to achieve that.

The idea that Mini has changed Microsoft isn't just delusions of grandeur. None other than MSFT uber-blogger Robert Scoble recently wrote: "Can one person change a huge company? Mini did. And we don't even know his name."

But this isn't a post about Microsoft. It's about your company. What would you have to change if you couldn't keep certain secrets locked behind the firewall or hiding behind the executive washroom door? Are there flaws in your products or services, issues with your employees, untruthes in your marketing materials, dangerous limits in your capacity or capabilities?

Every business is full of these things, not because anyone is evil but because there are only so many hours in the day. The urgent overwhelms the important and days turn into months and then years. Over time those most impacted by whatever shortcoming we're talking about just get used to it or accept it. The reality is, most customers or employees didn't used to have many effective tools for complaining or lobbying to change a whole range of things. But that now has changed. Now any one of your current or ex-employees or customers or competitors or just about anyone else who can become 'Mini You' in an instant.

So spend a few minutes thinking about Mini-Microsoft, and how you might prioritize things differently if you were either honest with yourself or someone chose to force your hand. This might not be the most pleasant way to come to grips with the new world order (where customers are in charge and transparency is the rule) but like Microsoft it could help you to make some smart and important changes to your business.