“For there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” This is a famous quote from the Shakespeare play Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2. In this scene, the main character Hamlet, thinks of his family’s kingdom of Denmark as being his prison.
Hamlet was written some 400 years ago, around the year 1600. It is fascinating how this insight into human perspective is so relevant today. When it comes to today’s information technology, nothing is either good or bad, but our purpose makes it so.
Profit over people and planet
Information technology is agnostic to the ethics and morals of individuals, organisations, communities, and society. It is the overarching goal (the purpose) of those in power in an organisation, that ultimately determines the outcomes achieved by information technology within that organisation.
Today, organisations are using information technology for all kinds of nefarious purposes. Government-sponsored cyber warfare, corporate-sponsored misinformation campaigns and professional scammers stealing billions are a few examples of how information technology is being weaponized for wicked purposes.
As a society, we focus far too much on the impacts of information technology, rather than the ethics and accountability of those who hold power over the technology. Instead, we are told that information technology is the risk and that is where we should focus. This is a half-truth that offers no solution. It is the information technology and the purpose of the people who control it that determine if an outcome is good or bad, and for whom. When profit is the purpose of an organisation, outcomes for people and the planet will always hold lesser priority.
“It is the purpose of the people who control the information technology that determines the outcome, not the tech itself.”
Using information technology for good begins with a purpose of good intent. However, intentions alone are not enough. There must also be accountability over those who control the information technology.
The unaccountable master of information technology
When we place profit as a purpose in our organisations, people are incentivized to take action to achieve that end. The cost to people and the planet will only be considered if there is a real risk of accountability for the decision-makers. When an information technology causes unintended consequences, the elimination or mitigation of impact requires a proactive effort. The motivation to do anything about this will be determined by the risk of accountability from external sources. Accountability in digital transformation is delivered through external mechanisms such as customer impacts, media scrutiny, regulation or political action. That is to say, profit-driven organisations are incapable of changing for the public good unless there are external forms of accountability upon the executives of the organisation.
One example is the privatization of public electricity services in Australia. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, much of Australia’s electricity assets were sold from public ownership to private investment. The promise was that the policy would see increased competition, reduced prices, and improved service. Over the past 15 years, there has been a huge investment in the digital transformation of the electricity industry. Yet, electricity prices are at record highs. Progress towards decarbonization of the electricity grid is slow and entirely driven by government intervention and regulation.
The privately owned electricity industry has stifled all innovation that puts at risk the interests of private investment. This is the direct and predictable outcome of placing public services at the whims of the profit motive.
Profitability is not the profit motive
It is important not to confuse the profit motive with profitability. Profitability is an important performance metric for any organisation. Profitability ensures that an organisation can pay its bills. Every sustainable organisation must do this.
The profit motive is when the people in charge make increasing profitability for owners and shareholders the core purpose of the organisation. In such organisations, options in digital transformation that are perceived to risk profitability will always be undermined or avoided, regardless of the potential outcomes for employees, community, society or the environment. This can be so blatant that organisations prefer to invest in the corruption of politicians and public institutions rather than accept any role in providing public outcomes if these options risk annual profits.
Digital transformation without the profit motive
Digital transformation is changing the way our society works. The information technology at the heart of this global megatrend is neither good nor bad. The outcomes of any given digital transformation initiative are predetermined by the core purpose of the Executives in charge of the organisation. If their purpose is the profit motive, then it is unlikely the initiative will deliver benefits for anything or anyone else.
This raises some interesting questions:
- How do we use digital transformation to bring improved accountability upon organisations for public good outcomes they create or negate?
- Can we deliver digital transformation without the profit motive?
- What happens within a transformation team when we align our core purpose with people and the planet?
AGContext is here to explore and answer questions like these. Through my work, I hope to imagine, educate, and demonstrate a way of digital transformation whereby the purpose is to benefit people and the planet beyond profit.
