The UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) dropped a clanger this week, showing they did not know how to use the web responsibly. Almost an hour before the Chancellor of the Exchequer was due to deliver her statement to the House of Commons, a Reuters journalist discovered that the entire speech was already available on the OBR website. Oops..! Before long, it was the main news item on many TV and radio stations, as well as on the websites of leading newspapers. All before the speech was delivered.
The head of OBR said he was “mortified” by the error and that he was calling in the former head of the National Cyber Security Centre to lead an investigation. Two other senior figures have been added to the investigation team, including the Chair of Scottish Water and a former member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s board. The OBR is not messing about when it comes to the seniority of the investigators. However, is this really necessary, you might ask. It seems to me to be more like “security theatre” than anything else.
The Reuters journalist guessed the location of the speech on the OBR website. The reporter looked at the web address of the previous budget speech and simply substituted the word “March” with “November”. Hey presto, the report appeared.
This does not need an investigation. It just needs someone who understands technology to get it right. And if you think it needs an investigation, then that suggests you don’t understand technology either.
Setting scheduled publication dates for web pages so they are not available until a specified date and time has been around as long as I can recall. I was doing this at least 20 years ago. It is not a new idea. If you don’t know about this feature, then frankly, you shouldn’t be doing the job of adding material to websites. The OBR simply needed to schedule the page. Their website is run on WordPress, so that is really easy to do. Even if someone guessed the URL, it would not be available until the web editor specified it.
My colleagues will tell you that every day I put my head in my hands and ask, “How did that happen?” when some kind of technological glitch occurs. It could be a TV reporter who forgot to wear trousers online, or a member of the US House Committee on Financial Services who admitted he did not know how to stop himself from appearing upside down on a Zoom call. But it’s bound to make me wonder if these individuals should be allowed to use technology.
If our leaders struggle with the basics of a URL, how on earth are they going to manage the complexity of the incoming AI revolution? They certainly would not fall into the category of “tech-savvy leaders” as defined in a recent McKinsey article. It says that business leaders today need to understand how to use technology to solve problems. The article suggests that perhaps “the most important habit is having the discipline to get into the details of technology.”
In other words, it is no longer good in business to have a poor understanding of technology details. Your success depends on knowing those details. And it is going to get worse. Currently, the world has spent around $250bn on artificial intelligence. In the next couple of years, it will almost double. By the time we reach 2030, it will have reached $1.2 trillion. If you think AI has overwhelmed you already, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Getting to grips with this technology is fundamental.
Some businesses are realising this. Adidas, for instance, has 41 people in leadership positions responsible for AI. Yet IKEA has only 12 AI leaders, though it has four times as many employees as Adidas. Most businesses are struggling with AI, with skills gaps being a significant issue.
Poor technological understanding is rife and blatant. Whether it’s appearing upside down on Zoom or not being able to schedule a web page, it’s apparent that people ought to know better. That doesn’t need an investigation. It requires a commitment to training and skills development. Your business’s future success depends upon everyone having much higher technical knowledge and skills. And if you are a leader, that starts with you. Getting to grips with the details of technology is now a survival skill in business.
