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Wouldn’t be awesome if every company could be run like Zappos? A Twittering CEO. An open and authentic culture. I would teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I would buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

But CEOs can’t all be Tony Hsieh. There’s a brazillion reasons for this, but I would argue – they shouldn’t all be Tony Hsieh. In most cases, the best way to serve your customers is to be the best damn CEO, CMO, CIO, etc., that you can be 100% of the time. Same goes for your staff. Transparency is critical now, but it can’t ever come at the expense of delivering value in the product or service you offer.

If transparency and authenticity becomes a distraction, nobody wins. If your output suffers, no one will care that you blog, or Twitter, or that the CEO sits in a cubicle with the rank and file.

So ask yourself: How do I serve my customers best?