#WhoBrokeTheInternet

This morning I have just been in the throes of writer's block, racking my brain for some inspiration of what to write about for this blog entry. To try and gain some inspiration I turned to the trusty internet to get the synapses firing and creative juices flowing.

But, to my horror, today the internet has broken…

Not the whole internet, just most of it. I can access Twitter, Google Drive and a few other bits and bobs, but not much. In my search for answers I have just found a hashtag #WhoBrokeTheInternet is trending worldwide, and so it seems my worst fears have come true - armageddon is upon us!

At first I want to be angry, ‘Who’s responsible? Who did this?’, to which the obvious answer is Kim Kardashian’s bottom...but then I get a grip and rational thought processes take precedence.

Now all I can think of is one poor chap in an office somewhere that has inadvertently spilt coffee on his keyboard and caused ‘Netageddon’ and will likely become the whipping boy for what the media will no doubt dub ‘NetGate’.

The truth is, when something like this occurs, the world really does seem to genuinely freak out. What becomes even more apparent is just how reliant we now are on the internet. I have no doubt we will soon hear about how many billions of pounds or dollars this outage has cost us globally, and more than a few fingers will be pointed at the Chinese.

I find these statistics all very tedious; in the end they’re just figures that apparently matter, but to whom I’m unsure. What really interest me are the real stories - SME’s whose business is dependant on ecommerce or advertising revenue. The loss figures may only be in the hundreds or thousands of pounds for these people, but the actual, real life, effect is dramatic on a small business.

I myself rely on the internet for many of my day to day workings. I use Any.Do to organise my tasks and monitor my staffs productivity (without breathing down their necks). I use Google Calendar as it allows me to sync very easily across my devices and plan my day. I use Buffer to schedule social media posts and LinkedIn to keep up with colleagues around the world. I can’t remember the last time I read an article printed on actual paper - Twitter, Facebook and Google are my go-to news sources.

When I lose access to these applications, I lose productive time, and that in turn costs money to my employer because I’m not really doing anything.

But really that’s a load of rubbish...I have a choice: I can fold my hand and twiddle my thumbs, or I can use this hurdle as inspiration and find a way to make it productive.

And therein lies the point - business leadership is best seen when one can remain calm while all around them are losing their cool. The ability to see through the chaos to productive solutions. Too often we make excuses, rather than owning a situation, taking control and doing something about it. Do we, for example, complain about the death of the high street, or look to other solutions to enhancing our business model?

Many large businesses desire to become ‘agile’, yet still their size means that they have an unwieldly amount of red tape to get through on any decision. Realistically, the term ‘agile’ for any large enterprise is greatly ironic.  

For small businesses, though, this agility is easy to achieve simply because there’s far fewer people to consult and to act upon. Decisions can be made and implemented quickly and with minimal disruption, an advantage that should be exploited at all times as it is impossible for enterprise to work in the same way. David beat Goliath because he was small and agile...and smart about how he used his advantages.

So the next time you’re faced with an obstacle, no matter how large it appears, take a step back and consider its actual impact, and then what you can do simply and quickly to minimise the consequences. You’ll be surprised at what you can come up with.

Oh look - the internet’s been fixed :)