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performance management is frequently conflated with strategy—producing all sorts of unwelcome consequences. The problem is that business metrics are inherently imperfect; most are used to quantify an intangible goal. Even earnings, the most common measure, represents an abstract concept. As the authors say, “Your performance management system is full of metrics that are flawed proxies for what you care about.”

Consider what happens when a company makes “delighting the customer” a strategic objective. As Harris and Tayler note, the company will probably track its progress through online customer surveys. But then employees start thinking that the strategy is to maximize survey scores rather than to deliver a great customer experience. So they may begin pestering customers to give them high scores or send out constant nudges to take the survey—pop-ups, follow-up emails, robocalls. These make for a decidedly undelightful experience.

Harris and Tayler show that we often confuse what’s being measured with the metric itself—a tendency called surrogation. This can be especially dangerous when the metric is not in fact well matched to the strategy. Consider what happened when Wells Fargo made long-term banking relationships a strategic priority and used cross-selling as its metric. Employees scrambling to meet sales goals opened up millions of deposit and credit card accounts without customer consent. The impact has been staggering. The bank has faced billions of dollars’ worth of fines, legal damages, and litigation expenses.

From The Tyranny of Numbers:

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It just happened to Steve Kirsch, for example. He wrote on Medium that at 18:10 on 11th August he received an SMS message from AT&T informing him that his “transfer request was in progress and to call AT&T if the change wasn’t authorized”. A mere five minutes later At 6:24pm, just 5 minutes later, my mobile phone service was disconnected and the hacker immediately used this to start breaking into my accounts using password recovery.

From My mobile number was just stolen. It can happen to you and there is nothing you can do to stop it. | by Steve Kirsch | Aug, 2020 | Medium:

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The central bank highlighted growth of renminbi payments in countries involved in its “Belt and Road Initiative”. Ren minbi cross-bor der re ceipts and pay ments in those countries stood at 2.73 trillion, up 32 from a year ago, the PBoC says.

By the end of 2019, the PBoC had established renminbi swap lines with 21 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. It also set up renminbi clearing mechanisms in eight counties including Russia and Kazakhstan.

From PBoC says it wants greater international use of renminbi – Central Banking:

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The PBoC’s 2020 report on internationalising the yuan indicates that Chinese authorities increasing their efforts to promote the currency’s use abroad. The move comes amid growing tensions between China and the US.

The report, published on August 14, says Chinese authorities expect the yuan to play a bigger role in international transactions and reduce reliance on the dollar.

From PBoC says it wants greater international use of renminbi – Central Banking:

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Credit brueau Experian has suffered a data breach that exposed the personal details of 24 million South African consumers and almost 800,000 businesses.

Experian admitted that it handed over the data to a fraudster posing as a client.

From Experian handed over the details of 24 million SA consumers to a fraudster:

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Venezuela might soon mandate collecting taxes in Petro, the state’s digital currency, as the Bolivarian Council of Mayors have signed the “National Tax Harmonization Agreement.”

From Venezuela Moving to Accept Taxes in State-Issued Crypto:

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Offering a Google checking account makes sense for large regional and mid-size financial institutions who are playing digital catch up to the large banks. They can certainly benefit from the whiff of innovation that sitting close to Google can provide. In addition, a Google partnership will help them reduce their cost of acquisition.

You have to wonder, though, if banks are selling their souls for the opportunity to partner with Google. As little more than the “provider of the banking license” what else are the banks bringing to the table?

From Who Wants A Google Checking Account?:

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New York-based Haystack AI Inc. says its customers use its race-classification feature for ad targeting, market research and to help authenticate people’s identities. Germany’s Cognitec Systems GmbH offers ethnicity detection for retailers and other companies to collect statistical data about their visitors

From The Quiet Growth of Race-Detection Software Sparks Concerns Over Bias – WSJ:

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I have been unable to receive a payment I am owed because automated messages repeatedly inform the sender that the payee’s name doesn’t match the name on my account.

Because nearly all my work has dried up due to the pandemic, payments are more important than ever. A friend tried to send me a bank transfer and also got the “name does not match” warning.

From Spelling out the problems as banks’ name-checker rejects vital payments | Money | The Guardian:

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aze on Thursday rolled out a new feature that allows US drivers to link the navigation platform to fuel partner apps for contactless payments at participating Exxon, Mobil and Shell gas stations.

When drivers arrive at those stations, a notification in the Waze app will prompt them to securely pay using the fuel partner’s contactless payment app (the Exxon Mobil Rewards app or the Shell app). They’ll then be able to earn rewards through those loyalty programs. If a driver doesn’t have those apps installed, Waze will direct them to download it.

From Waze rolls out contactless fuel payments with ExxonMobil, Shell – CNET:

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