Typically, company CEOs also serve as Chairman of the Board. But that's not the case at AT&T. Bill Kennard is the newly installed Chair at AT&T and today, he's our guest on Leadership Next. The pandemic has made clear the importance of universal broadband access - and just how far the U.S. is from that goal. Kids struggling to connect to remote school "hits us in our gut" Kennard tells Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt. He lays out the history of this problem, and explains what needs to be do...
Mar 23, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Ever since he fell ill with COVID-19, Visa CEO Al Kelly has made sure his 21,000 employees know they have a role to play in ending the global pandemic. And while he's made a full recovery, he admits Visa is still feeling some pain as the coronavirus continues to depress spending on travel and entertainment. But long-term, it seems as though the pandemic may wind up being good for business. Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt dig into why that is, and then move on to a variety of other topics: how Bitco...
Mar 16, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 8
One year ago we were just beginning to feel the impact of COVID-19 here in the U.S. And our efforts to fight the virus were in early innings. But it was already clear to 3M's Mike Roman that the coronavirus was a force to be reckoned with. 3M is the company behind N95 respirators. Demand for the product took off early last year, and has remained incredibly high ever since.. Today on Leadership Next, Roman tells Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt what the early days of the pandemic were like for the co...
Mar 09, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Has the stock market lost touch with reality? That’s the first thing Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt want to know from this week’s Leadership Next guest, S&P Global CEO Doug Peterson. The conversation quickly turns to talk of ESG investing – the desire by investors to know their money is being invested in companies that are doing good for people and planet. Recent studies have shown that not only are big dollars flowing into these types of investments, but the funds themselves are outperforming...
Mar 02, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Jeff Immelt was the CEO of General Electric for 16 years. It was a controversial run to say the least. During his tenure company stock plunged, wiping out well over $100 billion in market value. Now, Immelt is ready to talk about what went wrong – and, what went right. He’s written a new book called Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company. And today, he joins Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt on Leadership Next. Also in today’s episode, Fortune’s Geoff Colvin who has spent years chr...
Feb 23, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Years ago, the average person didn’t have a cell phone – mobile phones were a tool used primarily by big business. Of course today everyone has a phone in their pocket. Peggy Johnson believes augmented reality tech is going to follow this same trajectory. She’s the new CEO of Magic Leap, a startup founded in 2010 that makes augmented reality headsets. When it became clear that selling these devices to consumer gamers wasn’t going to sustain the company, Magic Leap decided to pivot to the enterpr...
Feb 16, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Fed up with razor blades that irritated his skin, and tired of walking down “ethnic” beauty aisles, entrepreneur Tristan Walker decided to start his own company. In 2013 he launched Bevel, a suite of shaving products designed for Black men. Walker & Company Brands was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 2018, making Tristan the first Black CEO of a P&G subsidiary. In this episode of Leadership Next he tells Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt that he believes all companies should have a plan to...
Feb 09, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Each year Fortune assembles about 50 of the top CEOs in the world for a dinner on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Of course this year, the annual event was postponed due to COVID-19. But Fortune still wanted to convene this group to discuss how business could best join forces to make a positive impact in 2021. How can all of us emerge from the global pandemic stronger than before? And today, on Leadership Next, our listeners are getting a special seat at that eve...
Feb 02, 2021•27 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Leadership Next kicks off a new season with important discussions around Black Americans and work. Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt speak with tech executive Charles Phillips who is a founding member of OneTen – a coalition of business leaders committing to hire one million employees of color over the next ten years. Phillips explains how the group came about, and why it’s so important. He talks about his own experiences - how he became interested in computers, how his upbringing prepared him to suc...
Jan 26, 2021•30 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Leadership Next has wrapped for the year. We’ll be back with more CEO interviews in January, when we kick off Season 2. In the meantime, we invite you to check out - and subscribe - to a new Fortune podcast: Fortune Brainstorm. Each week hosts Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe talk about how tech is reshaping our world. They’ve explored how robots are identifying COVID-19, how AI is preventing wildfires, and why we should all care about the government’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. Today, Al...
Dec 22, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 42
The first episode of Leadership Next launched on March 17th, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was gearing up to wallop the U.S. Over the next nine months, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt talked to CEOs of some of the world's largest companies about how they were making decisions during this difficult time. Because of course the difficulty didn't stop with a health crisis. It led to economic upheaval too. And, in the midst of that, the country faced a reckoning on racial justice spurred by the killing ...
Dec 15, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 41
It has not been an easy time to be leading an oil company as the pandemic pushed down both oil demand and prices. Meanwhile, the UN is pushing for a future of zero net carbon emissions, and many countries and global companies have signed on to meet the goal. Does all of this mean we've hit "peak oil?" Chevron's CEO, Mike Wirth, says no. He explains his thinking on this episode of Leadership Next, and lays out his vision for the future of the company. Wirth also spends time talking about how the ...
Dec 08, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 40
With coronavirus hitting the U.S. with renewed force, are we on the verge of a double-dip recession? That’s the first question Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt had for Roger Ferguson, the CEO of TIAA. Before leading the money management firm, Ferguson spent several years at the Federal Reserve. This background gives him great perspective on the roles business and government play in building a strong economy, and how the two can – and should – be working together. In his conversation with Leadership ...
Dec 01, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 39
When Ethan Brown set out to look for a job, he wanted to tackle what he saw as one of the world’s biggest problems – climate change. After stints in government and the non-profit world, he found himself frustrated with the plodding pace of change. He decided business had the most power to move the needle on the problem. Enter Beyond Meat: his company that had a wildly successful IPO last year. His plant-based meat products are available at restaurant chains and grocery stores across the country,...
Nov 24, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 38
In March of 2020, Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass was preparing to unveil a retooled strategy for the retailer. Instead, she had to shelve those plans and face the coronavirus pandemic. In this episode of Leadership Next, she details many of the hard decisions she and her team had to make to keep employees safe and the business running. Kohl’s has long called itself an omnichannel retailer and, as Gass shares, its digital footprint certainly helped blunt the economic blow of COVID-19. During this time ...
Nov 17, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Not many people obtain the title of CEO. But John Donahoe has held the position four times. He’s currently the CEO of Nike. Before he accepted that job, however, he took a year off to figure out what he really wanted the next decade of his life to look like. He solicited advice from 50 people during that period – much of which he summarizes and shares with Alan and Ellen. Ultimately, that search led him to the top post at Nike – a company whose board he had sat on for several years. Soon after m...
Nov 10, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 36
In a nod to Election Day, Leadership Next is engaging in a hallmark of American democracy: debate. Part of the thesis on this podcast is that business is changing. The best leaders recognize that to motivate their employees, customers - and sometimes their investors - they need a purpose beyond profit. And they need to be willing to address some big social problems like climate change and inequality that may be seen as existential threats to society and therefore to their businesses. But of cour...
Nov 03, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Paul Hudson became CEO of pharmaceutical company Sanofi in September 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic. His company has moved quickly to develop vaccines for the illness. In this episode of Leadership Next, he shares the progress they’ve made. He also shares his enthusiasm for the new technology and tools the company is using to fight disease – COVID-19 of course, but also Parkinson’s, breast cancer and more. Alan Murry asks if Hudson believes his industry will continue to collabora...
Oct 27, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Here’s a first for Leadership Next: an episode that begins with a story about being mauled by an elephant. The victim of that event: Tom Siebel, CEO of C3.ai, and a long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Almost equally as unusual, in this episode Siebel lays out the case for government regulation of artificial intelligence – not something you expect to hear from the leader of an A.I. company. “If we don't regulate this, we're going to have to live in a very scary place,” Siebel tells Alan Murray...
Oct 20, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 33
HP – the company perhaps best known for outfitting homes and businesses across the world with computers and printers – is widely considered the original Silicon Valley tech company. It was founded in a small garage in 1939; at the time it was called Hewlett-Packard. Today, HP is run by Enrique Lores, who started at the company as an intern and moved into the corner office about a year ago. Leadership Next listeners will not be surprised to learn that he believes HP can benefit both shareholders ...
Oct 13, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 32
In its first year of life, Whole Foods Market had a “near-death” experience. Founder and long-time CEO John Mackey tells Leadership Next that a flood nearly destroyed the store – none of the damages were covered by insurance. But employees and customers banded together to clean things up, and a local banker personally guaranteed a loan to get Whole Foods back on its feet. This was Mackey’s first real understanding of how important all stakeholders are to a company. And from that day forward he’s...
Oct 06, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Ursula Burns is not afraid to speak her mind. And she has lots to say in this episode of Leadership Next. As the CEO of Xerox, Burns was the first and only Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company. She stepped down from that position in 2016 and has refocused her energy on a new goal: diversifying corporate boards. She’s doing so through a new group, The Board Diversity Action Alliance. But calling this “a make or break moment for companies,” Burns says the challenges facing business extend beyo...
Sep 29, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 30
Ab InBev may be the world’s largest brewer, but in many ways it’s a local company. CEO Carlos Brito tells Leadership Next 95% of the company’s products are brewed locally from local ingredients, and then sold locally. That means the company’s policies have a direct impact on communities around the world. And it makes caring for those communities a clear business imperative. Brito shares some specific ways AB InBev is helping farmers thrive, and how it’s offered support to retailers during the co...
Sep 22, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 29
Marvin Ellison is one of just four Black CEOs to lead a Fortune 500 company. And the company he runs - home retailer Lowe's - has been booming since the pandemic struck. Sales rose 35 percent in the most recent quarter, and online sales were up 135 percent. Leadership Next's Alan Murray asks if that demand will continue. The heart of the episode however comes when Ellison talks about his efforts to boost diversity at Lowe's - from the executive ranks, all the way through his newest initiative ce...
Sep 15, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 28
It’s no surprise that the coronavirus pandemic has pushed more people than ever before towards digital payments. What is surprising is just how dramatic that shift has been. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman lays out those details in this episode of Leadership Next. But what he truly wants to talk about is what this means for all of those who have been left behind by America’s economic system. He’s convinced “capitalism needs an updgrade,” and he’s doing what he can to make that happen. He tells Alan Murr...
Sep 08, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Chip Bergh doesn’t know what the future holds, but he's certain it includes people wearing jeans. The CEO of Levi Strauss & Co says even when much of the world was on lockdown in April, 50 percent of us were still wearing jeans. That’s not to say this has been an easy time for the company. It’s lost a lot of money, and been forced to lay off hundreds of employees. But online sales are growing fast and Bergh tells Leadership Next that by closely tracking what consumers want, Levi’s will emerg...
Sep 01, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In this episode of Leadership Next, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt have a wide-ranging conversation with the CEO of Land O’Lakes, Beth Ford. The farmer-owned cooperative has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic in some pretty unique ways. For instance, with nobody flying, airlines don’t need all of those mini tubs of Land O’Lakes butter. So what do you do with all of that butter? Ford’s supply chain team has been hard at work on some creative solutions. The pandemic has also shone a spotlight on a...
Aug 18, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 25
The coronavirus pandemic has touched every industry and every business. But the hospitality industry has been hit particularly hard. As Mark Hoplamazian, the CEO of Hyatt, shared with Leadership Next, hotel bookings were down 94 percent this spring. Demand basically went to zero overnight. So how do you continue to take care of your employees when the bottom falls out of your business? Mark’s answer: it’s painful. He details the steps Hyatt took to try and soften the blow of layoffs and furlough...
Aug 11, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Aneel Bhusri, the CEO of Workday, runs an employee-first company. He believes taking care of employees translates into better business results. And Workday - which supplies customers with HR and other business software – seems to bear this out. In 15 years it’s grown into a $40B+ business. And it tops Fortune’s “Future 50” list which identifies companies with the strongest long-term growth potential. In this episode of Leadership Next, Bhusri and Alan Murray talk about the challenges of building...
Aug 04, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 23
At the heart of today’s Leadership Next episode is the question, “How do you measure stakeholder capitalism?” We’ve been measuring shareholder returns for years – think earnings reports and stock market moves. But how do you judge if a company is successfully caring for its employees, customers and society? Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, is on a mission to figure that out. After all, identifying the companies doing this well is just as important for big investors as it is for job se...
Jul 28, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 22
