The latest round of WikiLeaks on Cyber Monday (November 2010) is ironic. Cyber Monday got its name from early days of the Internet when folks would go to work on the weekend after Thanksgiving and use the high speed office broadband for Internet shopping for Christmas and the holidays.Now the Cyber Monday deals start on Sunday night,and in any case, since most people have broadband at home no one really shops from the office computer.
As earlier mentioned on this blog it is the scalable nature of digital information on the Internet that allows this huge quarter million documents to be actually be put out. In fact, perhaps all this material did not have paper copies to begin with.
Now that we live in a world where all information and opinions may be available and searchable online we need to reassess the value we bring to our professions. This value is not information but the ability of combining it to highly relevant knowledge that adds value to the next point in your value chain.
Merely being “diplomatic” as diplomats is sort of difficult if what you really think is put out on the web ! And so it goes for all professions from teachers (materials are available on the web- so what value does the teacher bring to the student?),doctors (patients read up all kinds of unnecessary medical stuff before coming in to see the doctor- so what is the doctor’s value add? ), marketers (customers read all kinds of reviews – does your value add service come out supporting the positive reviews?), supply chain managers (suppliers grade their customers from information available on the web- so if the supplier deals with you will they give your organization the “prefered customer” status?).
Something to reflect on this Cyber Monday as you evaluate and weigh many alternative purchase options for the same product on the web.