Smart play by the 1% & a Libra follow-up
WinSocially Weekly
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Bad Company
Last week we pointed out that a key issue with Libra was the reputational damage that Facebook has suffered over the past couple of years.
This was confirmed in an NYT article this week.
the social media company had 27 partners, including prominent outfits like Visa, Mastercard and Uber, helping out on the project.
But some of those partners are approaching Libra warily. They signed nonbinding agreements to join the effort partly because they knew they weren’t obliged to use or promote the digital token and could easily back out if they didn’t like where it was going, said executives at seven of those companies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Companies are hesitant to associate themselves too closely with the Libra project because of Facebook’s issues with regulators around the world, the company’s shaky track record on privacy and how it treats corporate partners, and the uncertain legality of cryptocurrencies.
It’s also worth pointing out these comments of prominent tech analyst Ben Thompson.
Still, that doesn’t mean digital currencies will never make it: I do think that Libra gets closer to a workable balance between trust and efficiency than Bitcoin, at least when it comes to being usable for transactions and not simply a store of value; the question is who can actually get such a currency off the ground. Certainly Facebook’s audacity and ambition should not be underestimated, and the company’s network is the biggest reason to believe Libra will work; Facebook’s brand is the biggest reason to believe it will not.
To reiterate the larger point — to make smart and winning choices in 2019, you need to have a holistic and 360-degree view of the environment.
Decision making has never been more complex or involving these many factors.
Smart choices by the super-wealthy
You may recall this from an early newsletter.
Note the last three points.
This week we saw a similar phenomenon, with a group under the microscope embracing and inserting themselves into an issue.
Leaving aside moral motivations, this is a smart move.
These ultra-wealthy individuals have assessed the state of play and understood that they need to be part of the solution.
Sixty-one percent of voters in a new Politico-Morning Consult poll say they support a tax on high levels of wealth such as the one proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Twenty percent say they oppose such a tax, with 19 percent saying they weren’t sure either way.
The tax received net support among Republican voters, with 50 percent supporting it and 30 percent opposing. Fifty-six percent of independents said they supported the tax, as did nearly three-quarters of Democrats.
Too often, when confronted with a crisis, decisions makers see the choices as binary — fight or flee.
At WinSocially, we see this as tactically incorrect.
Once a realistic and accurate assessment of the threat situation is made, a far better option can present itself.
