Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of the Digital Age

by Brad Smith

Away from the public glare of politics, we sometimes encounter a similar situation. A tug-of-war emerges over a single issue in the world of business or regulation. It becomes a contest that inevitably will produce one winner and one loser. It’s a recipe for a sustained impasse, for getting nothing done. Ironically, the answer to such problems is sometimes to broaden the challenge. One tenet I always employed in negotiations was a simple one: Never let a negotiation narrow to a single issue that can produce only one winner, even if it means holding open some other topics on which agreement might seem in reach. Instead, broaden the discussion so that more issues are on the table. Create the opportunity for more give-and-take and a round of compromises that can produce a scenario that enables everyone to claim victory in the final stage. It was an approach that had proven indispensable to our ability to work through difficult antitrust and intellectual property disputes with governments and companies around the world. It led us to believe that it could play a role in addressing immigration issues as well. After all, there needed to be a real and fair balance between filling new tech jobs in the United States with immigrants and creating even more jobs that would be filled by American citizens.