Xi Jinping, Liu He, Yi Gang, Vladimir Putin, Facebook, Apple || Marc Ross Daily

Xi Jinping, Liu He, Yi Gang, Vladimir Putin, Facebook, Apple

Marc Ross Daily
March 19, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross

Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia

Marc Ross Daily  = Global Business News at the Intersection of Politics + Policy + Profits

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TOP FIVE

✔️ With grip on power assured, China’s Xi elevates lieutenants

✔️ Yi Gang named head of People's Bank of China

✔️ Smuggling of US technology is outpacing Cold War levels

✔️ Putin won more than 76% of the vote

✔️ Newly emboldened, Trump says what he really feels

ROSS RANT

How to think about communications + content + commerce and why thought leadership is important

Today the customer is in control.

Full stop.

Just this week, Snapchat, United Airlines, and Toys R Us were discounted, disrupted or defeated because customers took control.

No longer is the seller in control of the sales process, and hard sales are losing effectiveness daily. 

Gone is the day when the seller could show up, make a presentation, offer some price reducing inducements, close the deal, and move on.

So what is a seller to do? 

A seller must think thought leadership.

With so many goods and services available from providers around the planet, this abundance of choice can be a thought leader's differentiator.

Buyers want to be led. 

They want to be informed, guided, and managed in a respected manner that makes them feel like they are part of a special cause bigger than themselves.

Enlightened organizations that embrace thought leadership from the start can develop lasting relationships with customers. Such a relationship which is shaped by forwarding thinking leadership will move a buyer to new thinking, a unique viewpoint, and a new paradigm.

Thought leadership is a choice and is not off is some inaccessible Ivory Tower. 

We all have the power to be thought leaders.

Thought leadership demands merely that we are committed to working with customers and clients in a respectable manner by creating value in every step of the buyer's journey and thinking long-term.

But many of organizations continue to struggle with how to do that and connect in a meaningful manner.

As a first step, organizations must abandon aggressive sales behaviors that buyers are resisting and employing behaviors shaped by thought leadership management.

Working with boardrooms and C-Suite executives from multinational corporations, trade associations, and disruptive startups, I have seen first-hand leaders who do create compelling communications, focused content, and winning commerce are thriving and making a difference.

To harness the power of thought leadership to foster sales in this new environment, employ strategic thinking and thought leader tactics.

Use a strategy that thinks education, experience, entertainment, and easy.

Use tactics that reinforce, reward, recognize, refresh, and supported by research.

GEOECONOMICS

With grip on power assured, China’s Xi elevates lieutenants: Xi, inner circle look to shore up a sluggish economy, eradicate poverty and enhance country’s global standing amid threat of trade war with US. https://goo.gl/xA7VcE

China’s Liu He takes broad economic role as vice-premier: FT reports, powerful portfolio for Xi Jinping lieutenant who cautions against financial risk. https://goo.gl/mPYPG6

Yi Gang named head of People's Bank of China: BBC reports, China has a new Central Bank governor: Yi Gang. Yi, who has been deputy governor for the last decade, succeeds Zhou Xiaochuan and appears to represent more of the same—although he takes over a bank that has expanded powers as of last week. That includes a greater role in devising new laws for the financial and insurance sectors, although China's Central Bank is not independent of the government. https://goo.gl/bJj3N8

NYT: China to name new central bank chief as it seeks continuity amid change

Xi could rule China for decades, says US Pacific commander: AP reports, China’s removal of presidential term limits could see leader Xi Jinping stay in power for decades, the commander of US forces in the Pacific said Thursday. Adm. Harry Harris said he viewed the move as a harbinger of the authoritarian nation’s direction and the strategic threat it poses to America. https://goo.gl/vp6g29

Bloomberg - Editorial: Xi's ambition is a gamble and a challenge to the West: Xi seems out to prove nothing less than that China's model is superior -- not for the time being, not until China's most pressing problems are fixed, but for as far ahead as one can see. Whatever happens, the Chinese president will own the outcome. https://goo.gl/HmSXXY

NYT: Smuggling of US technology is outpacing Cold War levels, experts say

Crypto-criticism: G20 finance ministers: Economist reports, “a Ponzi scheme”, “a will-o’-the-wisp”, “a bubble”. As the prices of the largest crypto-currencies halved in the early months of this year, after a spectacular rise in 2017, regulators made no secret of their qualms. No surprise, then, that crypto-regulation is on the agenda when finance ministers from the world’s 20 largest economies meet in Buenos Aires over the next two days.

Russia votes: Exit polls showed that Vladimir Putin won more than 76% of the vote in Russia’s presidential election.

CNN: Putin tightens grip on power with overwhelming Russian election win

Alarm bells in Tokyo: Bloomberg reports, PM Shinzo Abe apologized in Japan's parliament as a spiraling scandal involving a discounted sale of government land showed new signs of threatening his future when the ruling party leadership comes up for a vote in September.

50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach: Guardian reports, whistleblower describes how firm linked to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon compiled user data to target American voters.

NYT: How Trump consultants exploited the Facebook data of millions https://goo.gl/VMg7wX

CNBC: Facebook suspends Cambridge Analytica for misuse of user data, which Cambridge denies

NYT: Facebook’s role in data misuse sets off storms on two continents

The “Wild West era” is over for big tech companies: That’s what UK Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has told The Telegraph. https://goo.gl/1o1qzt

AMERICAN POLITICS

What Hope Hicks knows: NY Magazine, the departure of the Trump whisperer has left the White House in even deeper chaos. Which surely pleases some outsiders angling to get back in. https://goo.gl/mDGqzr

Election 2018: An NBC News/WSJ poll suggests the Democrats have a 10-point lead over the Republicans in the run-up to this year's midterms

Why Trump slayed his own masters of the universe: Politico Magazine reports, Trump vowed to bring business acumen to the White House. He just didn’t like it when the ideas came from someone else. https://goo.gl/DG2oCV

"Trump is simply returning to who he's always been, a one-man reality show who prefers to be surrounded by admirers who will praise and fawn over him and confirm that all his instincts are correct and brilliant and certain to succeed. The wonder is that anyone is surprised."

NYT: Newly emboldened, Trump says what he really feels

Federal budget: Lawmakers are expected to introduce a bill today that would fund the government until October at the higher spending levels agreed to last month in a two-year budget deal. The federal government runs out of money on Friday at midnight.

Trade associations to petition Trump administration to halt China-tariff plans: WSJ reports, forty-five trade associations are begging President Donald Trump to steer away from levying tariffs on China, warning that doing so "would trigger a chain reaction of negative consequences for the US economy, provoking retaliation; stifling US agriculture, goods, and services exports; and raising costs for businesses and consumers." Signatories represent the likes of Apple, Google, IBM, Nike and Walmart, among many other concerns. https://goo.gl/pFWnLH

In America, a political coalition in favor of protectionism may be emerging: Economist reports, Trump’s mercantilism is gaining steam. Straight after saying he would slap hefty tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, he is setting his sights on China, a favorite stump-speech bogeyman. This week he blocked the takeover of an American chipmaker by a Singaporean rival, because of fears of Chinese technological leadership. He is poised to act against China over its theft of intellectual property and its trade surplus. https://goo.gl/d8Z4Bq

@DanAnthonyDC: There are nearly 13,000 US tariff lines. *SHOES* alone can fall under 147 classifications that face 37 different tariff rates.Only way for “reciprocal” country/product tariffs is for all countries to eliminate all tariffs.

MBS in WDC: Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives in Washington on a grand tour of the US seeking to burnish his credentials as a decisive reformer to do business with. He’ll meet Trump tomorrow.

ENTERPRISE

NYT: Streaming soon: A fight over AT&T, Time Warner, and the future of TV https://goo.gl/4VDNb8

AT&T and the US Justice Department will face each other in court this week to decide the fate of the telecom company’s $85 billion proposed merger with media company Time Warner.

How can large legacy companies compete with the largest tech companies—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and so forth—if they can’t scale up through M&A? 

Don’t call it a car: China’s internet giants want to sell you ‘mobile living spaces’: WSJ reports, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are betting the auto industry will shift from selling hardware to selling subscriptions to internet-equipped autonomous cars.

UPS's entire central London fleet will soon be made up of electric vehicles, marking the "beginning of the end" of what the company called reliance on the internal combustion engine

FN: JPMorgan claims AI funds played ‘major role’ in market sell-off

Analysts at the US bank think 12 funds played a part in the market volatility last month.

Bloomberg: Apple is secretly developing its own screens for the first time

“The reality is, we’re not a news organization. We’re not there to say, ‘Oh, let’s fact check this.’” -- YouTube's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, is very clear about what her firm is not.

CULTURE

Why Wikipedia works https://goo.gl/VnD9L7

SPORT

NCAA basketball: For the first time since seeding began in 1979, a region will not have a single team left in the Sweet Sixteen who entered the tournament a top-four seed — in the South, No. 1 Virginia, No. 2 Cincinnati, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 4 Arizona all lost.

Villanova and Duke, pick your poison: 538's 2018 March Madness predictions https://goo.gl/2F5VVZ

The University of Connecticut, the top seed in the NCAA Women’s tourney, won their opening round game 140-52 against Saint Francis University. They put up 94 points in the first half.

Broadcom + Qualcomm deal highlights a new age of tech protectionism and national security fears

On Monday, Trump ordered Singapore-based chipmaker Broadcom to drop its $117 billion bid for US rival Qualcomm, citing security concerns over the deal.

When he killed Broadcom’s pursuit of Qualcomm, President Trump put his administration in uncharted territory. The White House has made no secret of its concerns about Beijing and seems to have been motivated by the prospect of Qualcomm losing its lead in 5G.

The move highlights growing sensitivity in the US that acquisitions by foreign companies could jeopardize the country’s leadership in critical technologies—in this case, next-generation 5G wireless networks. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which vets foreign takeovers of US companies that are considered strategic, probably recommended that the deal be blocked.

Some now worry that this could be another front in a potential global trade war. 

Here’s Jason Furman, a senior economic adviser in the Obama White House, talking to the New York Times: “If every country in the world conducted policy like that, it would make cross-border investment difficult to the detriment of American and foreign companies,” Furman said. “Foreign direct investment is an important part of the strength of the US economy.”

In the short-term, America's voters will be protectionist, anti-trade, and no major presidential candidate in 2020 will be pro-WTO. 

Mark this post. 

You can't put all this anti-globalization back in the bottle.

Marc A. Ross is the founder of Caracal Global and specializes in global communications and thought leader management at the intersection of politics, policy, and profits. Working with boardrooms and C-Suite executives from multinational corporations, trade associations, and disruptive startups, Marc helps leaders create compelling communications, focused content, and winning commerce.

Term limits: Who needs them?

This weekend some 3,000 delegates gathered in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing as part of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC is China's annual rubber-stamp national legislature under strict control of the Chinese Communist Party.

The NPC voted almost unanimously to approve an amendment to China's constitution to abolish the term limit on the presidency, opening the way for Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.

With a vote of 2,958 votes in favor, two against, three abstentions and one invalid ballot, the 35-year-old line in China's governing document limiting the president to two consecutive terms was removed.

A few thoughts on this move to consider:

There is no President in China: In the must-read book The Party by Richard McGregor, he goes to great lengths to explain there is no "President" in China. It is a word that has been hijacked by the Chinese Communist Party to appease Western diplomats and soften how foreigners see the rulers of China.

The New York Times reports, in China the political job that matters most is the general secretary of the Communist Party. The party controls the military and domestic security forces and sets the policies that the government carries out. China’s presidency lacks the authority of the American and French presidencies.

The newspaper goes on to say, China’s president is called “zhuxi,” which translates as “chairman.” Foreign presidents get a different title, “zongtong.” So in effect, Chinese people are referring to Xi as the “state chairman,” though in English his title is officially translated as “state president” to put him on an even footing with other world leaders.

The way the world comprehends the Middle Kingdom (frequently too often based on how we see and interact with our American government) has caused the Chinese presidency to become increasingly prominent thanks to China’s growing global stature. At home, Xi usually speaks as party leader; abroad, he appears as president, who is the formal head of state ensuring the prestige of state visits to the White House or Buckingham Palace.

No lame duck in Beijing: As posted earlier this month, markets have welcomed China’s plan to change its constitution. Many business analysts say the political certainty should be mostly positive for Chinese assets and global business in the short term. The move bolsters the Xi’s ability to drive through policies, such as deleveraging, proper economic reform, and anti-pollution campaigns. 

There is no doubt Xi needs more time to reform and improve China - as well as build the China Dream (whatever that means). Frankly, the Party has done well improving the quality of life for many Chinese, but it has done all it can under the current economic model. 

China needs a new plan, a new mission, and more competition to become a genuinely world-class economy and country. This will take more time. Just like we have special interests, factions, Blue and Red state voters, so does China. Politics across the globe remains the realm of doing what is possible and leading diversified coalitions. So Xi is telling his country and the world he needs at least ten more years, and not only five more years as a lame duck leader.

Two decades on top with an adjective: A top leader can probably efficiently govern for 15 to 17 years. The French president can lead for a total of 14 years, and even Americans picked FDR to win four presidential elections. Where the real problem comes into play is when a nation's top leader starts approaching years 20 and on and when feelgood adjectives like great, supreme, and wise are added before leader's name. 

When this occurs, you are going to experience more problems internally and externally. The absence of checks and balances and inability to keep factions at peace, no doubt raises the risk of policy errors and making too many financial moves solely for political, faction pleasing reasons, and not sound business and national reasons. As we have seen around the world, staying in the big chair for too long rarely ends well for the occupant and places the country under much distress.

Not a clueless dreamer: China's state-managed news media have said that Xi wants to abandon the term limit so he can keep his trinity of leadership posts. Xinhua reports, having a term limit on just the presidency is unreasonable because neither of Xi’s other two major posts — party leader and military chairman — has a similar ceiling. Xi seems determined to remain “three-in-one” leader because he sees himself on a historic mission to make China into a great power believing achieving this ideal will take more than a decade - if not longer.

People’s Daily said earlier this month that ending the presidential term limit does not “imply a system of lifelong leadership.” The point seems to be that while Xi may be around for a while, he won’t be another Mao, who remained in power even as he grew ill and incoherent with age.

I realize this is optimistic and requires the mindset of an enlightened statesman - but it would be foolish not to take these viewpoints into account. China's leadership has well telegraphed the need for a leader to have more than two terms for years. This decision didn't just happen on this weekend. No one can deny China is overwhelmed by emperor culture, burdensome bureaucrats, and special interests who have won using the past model are unlikely to give up their gains without being pressured.

The two who voted against: If I were to make an educated guess, the two votes against this idea were cast by Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. Governing China looks tough for those in power, but there is always someone in the wings ready to sit in the big chair.

Marc A. Ross is the founder of Caracal Global and specializes in global communications and thought leader management at the intersection of politics, policy, and profits. Working with boardrooms and C-Suite executives from multinational corporations, trade associations, and disruptive startups, Marc helps leaders create compelling communications, focused content, and winning commerce.