Oct
27
Wikileaks does it again!
‘At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports (‘The Iraq War Logs’), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009.’
Source Wikileaks
Whether you agree with the reasons given for doing this or not is beside the point. What businesses now need to realise is that despite the vast resources the US government has at its disposal they have been exposed again to the issues of authenticity and information security by the internet and social platforms.
Wake up!
The reasons for this post are not to dissect the morals behind the recent security leaks, I will leave that to the rest of the world who are debating whether it was right or wrong. No, the reason for this post is to discuss the story that seems to get lost in all that noise, the issue of spin and how it is so easily unravelled in today’s connected world.
The message is simple, whoever you are, whatever your size or business you just can’t say one thing and do another it’s completely counterproductive.
In my first post ‘The 1st rule of social media’ I discussed the need for authenticity in your online activities, the need to be reliable. What the Wikileaks cases have shown with the two separate incidents of vast quantities of highly classified information finding its way into the public domain is that there really is no merit in conducting your business in any other way than in an open and transparent manner.
Why?
In todays social age anyone from anywhere can can comment on any subject they like. It’s the power of the platforms that are now available to anyone with an internet connection or a smart phone. What this really means is that regardless of how carefully you craft a brand or public persona if it is just a facade covering issues that you would rather remain hidden there is nothing you can do to prevent it being exposed. All it takes is a disgruntled employee, associate, customer, supplier, family member etc etc to take exception and the whole house of cards can very quickly fall down.
The US government is currently having to deal with the sticky situation of their own creation, they told us one thing whilst the situation on the ground was very different. It can be argued that in this case it was necessary to do this for security reasons but how is this any different to business.
On the large end of the scale there are multinationals that are out there spending vast amounts of money on PR and marketing to present a clean image whilst at the coal face their employees are involved in less than ideal activities. Like it or not this is the dark side of business, profit and shareholders are powerful driving forces and this is unlikely to change but perhaps what we are about to witness is a paradigm shift in the way business is conducted?
Of course business has to make a profit and shareholders need to get there dividends but at what cost? As social media takes a greater part in our lives and information can be passed around the globe in an instant business is going to need to become mindful of these issues more and more.Just consider Gerald Ratner in the 80′s where one slip of the tongue saw that business quickly closed down as word spread. A slip of the tongue that exposed dislocation between perception of the brand and the reality from behind the scenes. Unfortunately for Gerald that slip was caught on camera and quickly found it’s way onto the news and as we all know the rest is history. With the development of the internet the means of distribution have now shifted away from the news organisations to the rest of society. It is now possible for anyone anywhere to do a Ratner
Corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility is a term that has been bandied about now for a few years, it is a term the refers to a process of self regulation where a business balances the need to make a profit against the social environment in which it operates. What I am suggesting is that this environment is rapidly changing as the internet continues to evolve around us. Every business and organisation is now at risk of having their very own ‘Wikileaks’ situation regardless of how tightly they have their sensitive information locked down.
Things are going to get very interesting
In my honest opinion things are going to get fairly interesting over the next few years. As the means to publish and distribute information get even easier we are likely to see ever increasing leaks of sensitive information and the subsequent exposure of dodgy practices and unauthentic behaviour.
My advice is, simple don’t say one thing and then do another because if you do get found out all that hard work will have been for nothing. Be honest, be authentic and be responsible.
