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????昨晚，LinkedIn CEO杰夫?韋納爾與《財富》雜志資深編輯亞當?拉什斯凱在《財富》雜志科技頭腦風暴晚餐會上。圖片來源：杰西?亨佩爾/《財富》雜志

????為何商務社交網站LinkedIn從未像雅虎（Yahoo）等公司那樣，遭遇信息泄露的麻煩呢？昨晚在舊金山的《財富》雜志頭腦風暴（Fortune's Brainstorm Tech ）晚餐會上，LinkedIn公司 CEO杰夫?韋納爾簡單地概括道：透明才是關鍵。

????韋納爾很清楚自己在說什么。他曾在雅虎供職七年，在華納兄弟（Warner Brothers）工作了五年。他說：“這些經歷讓我認識到，信息透明會帶來良性循環，而混沌不清則會產生惡性循環。”人都擁有貪得無厭的好奇心，如果官方拒絕讓他們獲取信息，他們自己就會想方設法去挖掘。一旦他們找到了想要的信息，就會義憤填膺想要將信息散布出去。“于是，高管們就會說，很顯然，我們不能信任員工會對這些信息保密。所以，我們得盡量少發布點信息。”結果員工的怨念會更深，也就會進一步挖掘更多信息。于是，按照韋納爾的解釋，“政治迫害”便開始了。

????相反，韋納爾主張應該將員工作為“成年人”來對待，做到絕對透明。這樣一來，員工就能夠了解公司正在做什么，或者哪些事情還沒有做。此外，這樣還可以在公司內部培養一種信任感，員工也就越不可能泄露敏感信息。

????這種策略似乎正在發揮作用。

????LinkedIn幾乎很少發生泄密事件。雖然有員工在上周披露，韋納爾給公司3,500名員工都發放了32GB版迷你iPad。公司為這項福利可能花了接近150萬美元。在此之前，LinkedIn剛剛在上周發布第四季度財報，顯示公司業績遠遠超出華爾街的預期。公司營收年比增長81%，達到3.04億美元；凈收入同比增長了60%，達到1,150萬美元。LinkedIn已經連續七個季度打破預期。發放iPad這樣的禮物“具有重要意義，”韋納爾說。

????過去七個月里，LinkedIn推出了一系列新功能，包括全新的用戶資料頁、通知和認證功能。認證功能支持用戶在不同領域相互推薦職業技能，如寫作、編輯和撰寫博客等。目前，網站的用戶推薦數量正迅速逼近10億次，整個互聯網上約有100萬個獨立域名都有LinkedIn“分享”按鈕。雖然這些功能本身不屬于收入增長源，但LinkedIn CEO卻認為，他們對于公司的持續成功至關重要。用戶使用這些功能的時間越長，用戶的參與度與忠誠度就會越高，反過來便會影響LinkedIn的盈利方式，其中包括如何向2億多用戶兜售高級訂閱服務等。

????不要以為這樣的創新會就此停止。據韋納爾表示，產品團隊將繼續發揮奇思妙想。不論是全新產品，或是對現有功能的小幅度改進，或者其他幕后工作，所有團隊都有能力每天“啟動”兩次。如果這些團隊推出的產品足夠引人注目，無論對公司還是用戶來說都是好事。（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/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.