How much unique information is in your records?

30 years ago, copies got cheap (thank you electronic documents).

20 years ago, general knowledge got cheap, and even specific technical knowledge got cheap (thank you google and ebooks).

Businesses though, aren't driven by copies of generally available information.

They're driven by unique information that is almost always recorded by employees, or by people for the specific purpose of transacting with the organisation.

How fast we can find and use that unique information determines a large percentage of how successful our organisations can be.

Every copy and every piece of google-able content we add, gets in the way of that.

Every unique piece of information increases the value of what we hold, and the value of our professional practice to our organisation.

Every moment we spend on a copy or a piece of generally available information puts us into a competition we can't win, and shouldn't try to.

We're just never going to be as fast as ctrl-c or google.

Unless what we have is unique, and then it doesn't matter how fast those things are, they can't compete.