Tapscott: new roles for info professionals

Information Outlook, July, 2005

Information professionals are in the transparency business, and it works in both directions. There's the obvious role of finding information--plus a role in making their organization more transparent.

That's the emerging new business model, opening general session keynoter Don Tapscott told a nearly SRO audience Monday morning.

Tapscott, a business strategist, consultant, and educator--and author of the recently published book The Naked Corporation--said transparency is more than just disclosure.

"All the people are getting unprecedented access to information," he said. And, he added, "If you're going to be naked, you'd better be buff."

By that, he means that with more information than ever available about organizations, there's a need to maintain high standards of business practice and product quality and value.

"Transparency is not something to be feared; it's something to be embraced."

The drivers of transparency, he said, are:

Technological. Faster Web connections, portability of communication devices, greater bandwidth all make it easier for people to get information about companies, products, and services.

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Economic. Enabled by technology, organizations are becoming less vertically integrated and forming networks of partnerships.

Demographic. The children of the Baby Boom have grown up digital. "They aren't scared of technology. It's just there."

Socio-political. Technology has created a global community and enabled grass-roots communication about organizations, their practices, their prices.

Tapscott is president of New Paradigm Learning Corp., which he founded in 1993, and adjunct professor of management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.