Cloud and Single Source Dependence in a Cancel Culture
Heads Up for CEO’s and CIO’s in Today’s Politically Correct Environment
If you already know what I’m going to say in this article, you may want to just quit reading and pull together a strategy meeting on how you are going to avoid losing your company and/or job if one of your key IT vendors or eCommerce marketing channels suddenly decides to de-platform you — justified or not.
Although you may not consider yourself or your company to be “radicalized” or “political” in any significant way compared to, say, Parler, you certainly don’t want the fate of the entire operation in the hands of one vendor which could suddenly decide that they need to distance themselves from you. You may think it can only happen to someone else because you are in a completely non-political business (like pillows or Hispanic food, for example), but it may just take one statement, spokesperson, whistleblower, or relationship to trigger a disaster in today’s cancel culture environment. “Now more than ever” is certainly a worn-out phrase, but here we are — now more than ever!
You may think that you are on the politically correct safe side of things given your market, marketing clout, corporate philosophy, customer relations, or political connections — but things can turn in a minute in today’s environment. It’s almost impossible to be 100% clean in all areas on all issues from every point of view. A climate change advocate taking a private plane or owning a few large houses can suddenly become a target. A small vocal group, or even one outspoken Representative in the US House, can suddenly make your company (or you) the focus of their remarks and campaign.
In years past, you had a list of risk factors associated with any outsourcing, vendor, or partnering decisions. The “cloud” became very popular because the benefits clearly outweighed the costs and risks for many companies. You looked at the vendor financials, market position, technology, cybersecurity, performance, up-time, costs, scalability, etc. You compared these to other alternatives and made a decision. Some companies covered their bets by dividing their business among multiple vendors, but many decided, based on simplicity and cost, to go with one strong strategic vendor.
“It’s not you, it’s me” was a line often used (or heard) when breaking up a personal relationship to minimize hurt feelings. “It’s not me, it’s you” would be, 99%, reserved for the customer telling the vendor that the contract needed to be dissolved due to customer dissatisfaction. In today’s cancel culture, “It’s not me, it’s you” on the part of your cloud “partner” or key eCommerce marketing channel hangs over many businesses as a possible death knell — apparently to be invoked with less than 24 hours’ notice if the vendor chooses. They can, apparently, even team up with other vendors to coordinate these decisions.
Why would any business continue to do business with a vendor (or “team” of vendors) if they have demonstrated a willingness to unilaterally de-platform one of their customers — even if you have little in common with that customer victim? There are reasons, of course, but you, at least, need to start protecting yourself ASAP.
You need to add “cancel culture proclivity” to your list of vendor risk factors.
I’m sure you have disaster recovery strategies in place to handle natural disasters. In fact, ironically, one major justification for putting your IT infrastructure in the cloud was probably to provide a fail-safe IT service to your internal and customer users. You need to develop a similar disaster recovery strategy to handle a “cancel culture disaster”.
So, without making this a long read, I am simply saying that you need to do the following to avoid becoming a “dead as a duck” victim of a sudden “It’s not me, it’s you” announcement:
· Add “they may suddenly decide to dump us without warning due to some real or contrived political position” to your list of disaster possibilities.
· Add “cancel culture proclivity” to your vendor evaluation risk factors.
· Add specific language to your contracts to protect yourself. This can include a notification window, non-disclosure of notification, large penalties, larger penalties for potential collusion, migration assistance, defamation/reputation protections, golden parachutes for your executive team, severance packages for all employees, etc.
· Spread your bets among multiple vendors — even if it costs a little more. My personal experience is that keeping two or more vendors in the game can actually reduce your costs and improve the service they offer — even if managing them takes a little more effort. If you have adopted proprietary technologies, this will be much more difficult.
· Bring a “survival” level of capabilities back in-house.
Ask your team what would happen to your business and their jobs if vendor X told you they will no longer be doing business with you tomorrow because you are suddenly in the bullseye of some politically correct cancel culture event. Can you survive?
About the author: Lee Nicholson has over 35 years of experience in the computer business as a Regional Director, Manager, and Account Executive for IBM, HP, Silicon Graphics, and Cisco. He has observed, first-hand, a multitude of customer/vendor relationships, open-source and proprietary product offerings, in-house vs. outsourcing/cloud, disaster recovery, reliability, and IT management organization situations.
