DailyPost 783
NO FACE SAVING!
If you can’t face the world, Facebook, has been the adage, today there seems to be no face saving for Facebook. The recent New York Times well researched article has completely pulled the lid off the tonnes of face saving stories that has been dished out in the recent past. The criticality is leadership is the clarity of vision and the capability of taking the vision through in neat tangibles. Unfortunately, it was conspicuous by it’s absence both at the level of Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operations Officer, Sheryl Sandberg.
Being the ‘Deciding Duo,’ they decided to “Delay, Deny and Deflect” as per the New York Times. This is a methodology which the Facebook leaders have adopted when faced with crisis. The crisis has not been one odd, it has been happening on a regular basis from 2016. Its a different story that it had not come out in the open. Russian meddling, data sharing and hate speech. The backlash was bound to happen; the congressional one was natural, now its the consumer backlash as well. On current sentiments new grads are not keen on joining Facebook.
The suspicious Russian activity was known in 2016 and the Federal and Congressional investigators were zeroing in by September 2017. It was a certain cause of alarm. But the Duo was more worried about its own security chief, Alex Stamos informing company board members about the Russian infestation. Ms. Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, was throughly quizzed by the Board and so was his Boss. This was taken as a betrayal. This could have well become the watershed moment in the history of the company to change gears, develop a company fit enough to take onslaughts, rectify and move ahead. That was not to happen.
Stamos and other high profile executives have since left the company on disputes over it’s priorities. There has been clamor for Zuckerberg to step out over the last year. The Duo is still in control of the company and the personal data of 2.2 billion people, a one of it’s kind global nation. Global manipulation seems to the imminent route. Can we wait & watch?
ITS TIME FOR FACEBOOK TO MEASURE UP OR FACE DISASTER.
Sanjay Sahay