Great morning.
Readers of this column know I’ve been a fan of employee activism. Employees–millennials specifically –have been in the forefront of forcing companies to focus more on their societal effect. At a time when talent is the key business differentiator, gifted millennials are currently forcing companies to bow to their own desire to work for businesses which are currently doing good on the planet.
But all good things get taken to excess. Two illustrations :
–Wayfair workers walked out of the company’s Boston headquarters because of a contract to sell furniture to a contractor furnishing migrant detention centers. Wayfair management responded it was”proud to have such an engaged team that is focused on impacting our world in meaningful and important ways,” but said it is company practice to fulfill all lawful orders.
–Google employees petitioned SF Pride to”reverse Google’s sponsorship of Pride 2019, also exclude Google from representation at the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30th, 2019″ because of controversial YouTube practices.
Both seem signs of activism run amuck. It is hard to see how stopping Wayfair furniture from reaching detention centers is an effective means of changing immigration policy. And even harder to see why preventing Google from giving money to LGBT causes is good for the LGBT cause.
But both events signal that these employee pressures are becoming increasingly difficult for companies to navigate.
News below. And be sure to read Mary Pilon’s deep dive into the difficulty of valuing girls’ own lives in the Larry Nassar case.
Alan Murray
Top News
Boeing Woes
Trouble for Boeing–that the FAA found another software difficulty in its own 737 Max jets, and will need to stay grounded into the autumn. The new problem relates to stabilizing the aircraft. Wall Street Journal
Democrats Debate
Last night saw the first big debate between Democratic candidates–largely the ones that were most popular from Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Beto O’Rourke. (The spreads have been picked at random.) Warren, the highest-polling candidate of this team , held her well. And if a subject was it was Medicare for All. Fortune
Huawei Revelation
The case for visiting Huawei as being connected to the Chinese nation has been boosted with a Bloomberg report which notes at least 10 research collaborations involving the telecom giant’s employees along with the Chinese military–these are merely the publicly disclosed examples, that came to light through printed periodicals and research databases. But, Huawei claims the projects were not sanctioned by it. Bloomberg
Tesla Batteries
Tesla is working on its production capability, so it doesn’t have to rely on Panasonic so much. Based on CNBC, the move could enable Tesla to provide”cheaper, higher-performance electric vehicles than it does today, without having to pay or share data and resources with outside vendors or partners.” CNBC
Around the Water Cooler
Facebook Fakes
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged that the company took to flag and remove a doctored video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that has been edited and slowed down in parts to make her appear incoherent. Zuck: “One of the issues in the example of the Pelosi video… which was an execution mistake on our side, was it took a while for our systems to flag that and for fact-checkers to rate it as false.” BBC
Trumplomacy Latest
President Trump, who is about to attend to the G20 summit in Japan, has lashed out in Japan over exactly what he said was an military alliance. “If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War Three. . .with our lives and with our treasure. . .If we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all,” he said, indicating that Japan would watch this kind of attack”on the Sony television.” CNN
Brazil Cocaine
A member of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s advance guard for his trip to the G20 summit might have been carrying 85lb of cocaine, Spanish police. Total marks to the Financial Times for its awesome headline,”Cocaine in Spain puts Bolsonaro under strain.” FT
Splinternet Fears
Booking.com’s new CEO, Glenn Fogel, writes for Fortune it’s still feasible to avoid the Internet splintering, particularly involving China and the U.S.”As business and technology leaders, it is our responsibility to resist the prevailing narrative,” he writes. “Ideally, we’d all live in a unified global market that properly protects intellectual property rights and allows businesses to freely operate in any jurisdiction. In this world, consumers and businesses would adopt the best elements of each national system.” Fortune
This variant of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer. Find past variations here, and subscribe to other Fortune newsletters here.
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