Making Yourself Redundant

The article compares today’s web work with the early use of electricity. Just as businesses once needed people to integrate electricity into their thinking, organizations now need someone to champion digital until it becomes part of ordinary operations.

It argues that web professionals should see their main role as temporary. They should teach others, enable contribution across the organization, and avoid turning digital into a separate domain they own. The goal is a business strategy that includes digital, not a permanent digital empire.

Reading notes

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• Many businesses once failed to understand electricity’s impact and kept old operating habits in place.
• Many organizations make the same mistake with the Web by treating it mainly as a marketing tool.
• A digital evangelist or equivalent role may be needed, but only as a transition.
• Web professionals should aim to make their role redundant once digital is part of everyday work.
• The work is not mainly about owning digital assets; it is about knowledge transfer.
• Teaching others how to own digital is presented as the real job.
• Web teams and agencies can lead for a time, but should step aside when they become a bottleneck.
• The article asks whether professionals are building an empire or helping organizations change.
• Digital work is framed as part of the wider shift from an industrial economy to a digital one.