Many people around the world woke up on June 24, 2016 wondering how so much could have changed overnight, and what is Brexit? This important information came to us from Outsell in their article, “Brexit and What It Means for the Information Industry.”
The important things to know about Brexit are these: Britain voted to leave or “exit” (Br-Exit, get it?) the European Union (EU). David Cameron stated that he will resign as prime minister ahead of the Conservative Party conference in October because of this. As a result, the pound sank to a 30-year low and stock markets in London, the United States, Europe, and Asia plunged into turmoil in the opening minutes of trade.
As if that isn’t enough, the EU referendum has divided the United Kingdom, with Scotland and Northern Ireland strongly voting to remain and England and Wales voting to leave.
Why this matters is a little more complicated to explain and I urge you to read the complete article (and others) to fully educate yourselves, but in a nutshell it comes down to confidence, or the lack of.
There was already uncertainty in the global economy before Brexit, and now businesses face a prolonged period of uncertainty that will impact investment decisions. Ultimately global economic instability is the biggest single threat to the information industry as a whole. These uncertainties and the measure of power that is now in the hands of national trade and regulatory negotiators will make it hard for any company to act on any contingency plans they may have had in place. Information companies face the same general uncertainty and risks as all other businesses and in the end no contingency plans could prepare our industry for this. We need to find the way to maintain unvarying focus on customer needs and be prepared for more change.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
