Get over it: There's good reason to share data with your customers, suppliers and subcontractors.

By Jim Lawton, senior vice president, D&B

Lawton calls for a new kind of collaboration. Photo: D&B

Toothpaste, dog food or children's toys: Which one of these tainted products could have been prevented from coming to market?

The fact is that all of them could have been stopped – well before any consumers were harmed.  How? Manufacturers and retailers could have shared "secrets" about supplier quality, preventing bad actors from getting their wares onto store shelves.

That's a big change from the way most companies operate today. But businesses need to change their ideas about what matters – and bring 'transparency' into the supply chain that tracks the product at each stage of production.

Isn't this heretical? Maybe. More