By Jay Whitehead

The CRO can relate to the pains of transparency.

Due diligence; it’s like standing helplessly nude in the mall.

As many readers of this column know, I have started many media companies, mostly involving special interest business magazines—corporate responsibility, human resources, law, venture capital, finance and accounting, personal computing, investor relations. Occasionally, someone comes along to buy them. Right now, one of my other companies is in the process of being acquired.

Buyer due diligence for closely held firms is a little harder than for public companies. No SEC filings to look up. And the most gruelingly self-revealing part of the due dilly process is when the buyer meets your top 10 or 20 customers and asks them what they think about you and your enterprise.

It’s a naked moment. You open the kimono to an outside inquisitor who comes face to face with your customers, asking hard questions, getting brutally honest answers.

As it turns out, due diligence feels like life in the corporate responsibility era. It’s transparency, writ large. So if you, as a corporate responsibility practitioner, ever feel that CRO as a media enterprise is unable to relate to your odd feelings about opening up, remember this column. We know exactly how it feels. We feel your pain.