Paper Tiger Management
June 24, 2025
An opinion essay written by a dinobaby who did not rely on smart software .
I learned that Apple and Meta (formerly Facebook) found themselves on the wrong side of the law in the EU. On June 19, 2025, I learned that “the European Commission will opt not to impose immediate financial penalties” on the firms. In April 2025, the EU hit Apple with a 500 million euro fine and Meta a 200 million euro fine for non compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Here’s an interesting statement in the cited EuroNews report the “grace period ends on June 26, 2025.” Well, not any longer.
What’s the rationale?
- Time for more negotiations
- A desire to appear fair
- Paper tiger enforcement.
I am not interested in items one and two. The winner is “paper tiger enforcement.” In my opinion, we have entered an era in management, regulation, and governmental resolve when the GenX approach to lunch. “Hey, let’s have lunch.” The lunch never happens. But the mental process follows these lanes in the bowling alley of life: [a] Be positive, [b] Say something that sounds good, [c] Check the box that says, “Okay, mission accomplished. Move on. [d] Forget about the lunch thing.
When this approach is applied on large scale, high-visibility issues, what happens? In my opinion, the credibility of the legal decision and the penalty is diminished. Instead of inhibiting improper actions, those who are on the receiving end of the punishment lean one thing: It doesn’t matter what we do. The regulators don’t follow through. Therefore, let’s just keep on moving down the road.
Another example of this type of management can be found in the return to the office battles. A certain percentage of employees are just going to work from home. The management of the company doesn’t do “anything”. Therefore, management is feckless.
I think we have entered the era of paper tiger enforcement. Make noise, show teeth, growl, and then go back into the den and catch some ZZZZs.
Stephen E Arnold, June 24, 2025
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