Do businesses need paper?

I’m going to introduce you to a theory I’ve been formulating today that many old-school businessmen and women would reject instinctively – the paper business document is effectively dead in the water.

My father, a respected and well-known IFA in the UK, often has to refer to legal texts and various volumes in order to make sure he’s doing things “by the book”. A lot of people have this problem – piles or shelves full of books – hardbacks, softbacks, A5, A4, cracked spines, pages falling out, overuse, damage, spilt coffee. It’s a nightmare. But what’s the biggest problem?

Dad seems to feel it’s the weight. If you, like him, are slogging it through Moorgate and Bank with a laptop bag that holds not just a netbook, but a 400 page, hard-bound, A4 legal text, it’s going to hurt after a while. That’s a big thing, for a man who could walk from here to Manhattan without stopping for breath. “One block further,” he used to tell us, and we’d mentally prepare ourselves for the inevitable marathon to the finish.

Now he uses an Amazon Kindle. I met him for breakfast in Farringdon soon after he’d bought it, and I will admit: I was excited. I adore paper – the feel of the pages, sticking a paperback in my back pocket, reading on the train. But I picked up the Kindle and wanted it more than I’ve wanted most material objects I’ve seen, as appetising as the scrambled eggs on toast I had that morning. It also contained PDF files, many of them, and some of them hundreds of pages long. Was his back as sore? Not any more.

Currently, Amazon’s sales of hardback books have been overtaken by its ebook sales, and by 2011, the company predicts ebooks will outsell its physical form. Admittedly that’s just one company, but let’s not mess around, here – it’s Amazon. The online store sells everything bar the kitchen sink, although they do outsource a fair few items (DVDs from IndigoStarfish in the UK, for example). The fact they’re seeing the light when it comes to a digital page isn’t just because the Kindle is their platform.

Let me put you in a situation, and picture it for me if you will. You’re in a conference, and you need to read a speech, and refer to several documents. Either you somehow organise several pages of A4 onto a small lectern, or you whip out a Kindle. Ooh, everyone will say, this person’s done this before.

Yeah, it’s an image thing – so what? Why have you all bought the iPhone 4 even though it’s broken? Image. Why do we still buy most things in life? Image. Image is important, and it goes beyond your company logo. Someone with a portable database of files, speeches and charts on what is no larger than a thin paperback is going to feel a lot more organised and less chaotic. I can’t stand ploughing through reams of paper, but I could read PDFs for hours.

Many businesses would argue that the 50 cent price per PDF converted (read: downloaded) by Amazon for your Kindle would amount to thousands within the month. Allow me to debunk this one as well. Buy a USB cable, and do it yourself. It’s no more difficult than using a USB dongle, and it saves you a good tenner a week if you’re getting a lot of client portfolios or sales reports.

The new 3G functionality seals the deal – have a document on your Blackberry, but not the Kindle, and need to transfer on the move? Your Kindle has its own PDF-receptive email address and free wi-fi everywhere it goes in the UK. Add Wikipedia and Google searches, and you’re golden.

Paper is quaint, but we all work on laptops, not typewriters. Let’s move forward, and move on.