Leadership Next

A.I., Green Tech & Protecting Your Privacy

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fortune's 2023 Brainstorm Tech Conference took place over three days last week, and it was one of our buzziest conferences yet. CEOs, a former Vice Pr...

Mattel Is Betting Big on Barbie

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz took over the toymaker in 2018, he was the company's fourth CEO in four years. Mattel's internal culture was rigid and top ...

How Should CEOs Respond When Pride Celebrations Spark Backlash?

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The changing public expectations for how corporations should honor Pride month has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride over the past decade. P...

Dave Calhoun Became Boeing CEO at the Company's Lowest Point

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dave Calhoun took over as the CEO of Boeing in January 2020 in the midst of two major crises: the crash of two of Boeing's 737 Max aircrafts that led ...

DaVita Is Treating One of America's Leading Diseases

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over 30 million Americans suffer from some form of kidney disease, and roughly 600,000 people have their kidneys fail. It's a chronic disease that req...

Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines Is No Stranger to Bouncing Back

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Delta Air Lines soared twenty-eight spots up the 2023 Fortune 500 to reach number eighty-five. Demand for air travel is bouncing back to and beyond pr...

GSK's Emma Walmsley Rejects the Notion of 'CEOs as Superheros'

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Walmsley, who became CEO of drug giant GSK in 2017 after 17 years at L'Oreal, has led the company through several challenges: disappointing COVID...

Reid Hoffman Co-Wrote a Book with A.I.

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reid Hoffman might be best known as the cofounder of LinkedIn. He’s also a partner at the VC firm Greylock and was an early investor in OpenAI, the ...

Target CEO's Unpopular Decision Pays Off

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Brian Cornell became Target's CEO in 2014, the company was in desperate need of a turnaround. The retailer was plagued by supply chain problems, ...

What Private Investment Can (and can't) Do For Childcare

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

May 12th is National Childcare Provider Appreciation day. To show our appreciation for the workers who take care of our kids, Leadership Next is bring...

Marriott's CEO on Post-Pandemic Travel Trends

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the spring of 2020, the travel industry ground to a halt due to COVID. Marriott International's business dropped more than 90 percent. Where does t...

A.I. and Other Trends Reshaping Health Care

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Each year Fortune brings together experts from a variety of fields to talk about health care, how it's changing, and the vital role business plays in ...

What's Next for Moderna?

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, Moderna reported revenues of sixty million dollars. By 2022 it was number 195 on the Fortune 500 with over $18 billion in revenue. This meteo...

Christa Quarles Always Speaks Her Mind

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Leadership Next, Alan Murray is joined by his new co-host Fortune Editor-at-Large, Michal Lev-Ram. In Lev-Ram's first episode, she ...

Can You Be an Oil CEO and Be Serious About Sustainability?

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Vicki Hollub was named CEO of Occidental Petroleum in 2016, she became the first woman to lead a major oil and gas company. In the years since sh...

Chemours on Cleaning Up its Legacy

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Newman is the second CEO of Chemours, a chemical company that spun out of DuPont in 2015. Chemours is now a global company with almost 7,000 empl...

Will Drone Delivery Go Mainstream?

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zipline is the world’s largest commercial drone delivery system. Since the company’s founding in 2014, Zipline’s autonomous electric aircrafts ...

Prudential CEO Charlie Lowrey on Transforming an Almost 150 Year-Old Company

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prudential Financial was founded in Newark, N.J. in 1875 with the goal of providing insurance to everyday American families. Almost 150 years later, P...

CVS's Karen Lynch on the Future of Healthcare

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

CVS Health is ranked number four on the Fortune 500. And when Karen Lynch became the company's CEO in 2021, it was a big deal. No woman had ever led a...

For Kickstarter, Crowdfunding Is Key to a More Creative World

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has launched a lot of creative dreams, including those of household consumer names like Peloton and Allbirds. Since ...

Cotopaxi: Why Business Is the Best Way to Improve the World

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cotopaxi is an outdoor gear and apparel brand that pledges to give at least 1% of its annual revenue to charitable causes through its Cotopaxi Foundat...

Bernard Looney on BP's Big Announcement

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2020, BP CEO Bernard Looney announced the international oil company planned to significantly increase investments in solar and wind energy while cu...

Esusu Brings "Justice Capitalism" to the American Credit System

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Forty-five million Americans are credit invisible, meaning they do not have a credit score or have had very little opportunity to build credit. Many o...

The Biggest Opportunities for Business in 2023

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome back for season four of Leadership Next! In today's season opener, hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt present exclusive content from Davos, wh...

What We Learned About Leadership in 2022

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this final Leadership Next of 2022, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt are joined by Joe Ucuzoglu, CEO of Deloitte and long-time supporter of the podcast...

A.I. Is Still Human Intelligence

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tiger Tyagarajan is the CEO of Genpact. Originally a part of GE, Genpact is a professional services company that helps organizations undergo digital a...

Citi CEO Jane Fraser is Bringing Empathy to Banking

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Fraser became CEO of Citi in March 2021- a difficult time for the world and for the bank. Fraser was expected to turn around a bank that had stru...

Cigna's David Cordani is Expanding the Definition of "Healthy"

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it is leaning more on telehealth options or lining up outside our local pharmacies and walk in clinics for vaccines and covid tests, the pande...

Affirm CEO Max Levchin on the Potential of Buy Now, Pay Later

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, you may have noticed that when you buy almost anything online - clothing, furniture, even groceries - there's an option to Buy Now, Pay Late...

What Makes Progressive a Top Workplace for Women?

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tricia Griffith started her career at Progressive in the insurance giant's claims department. "I saw that there were not very many people that looked ...

Most Powerful Women on Leadership Next

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Each year Fortune hosts the Most Powerful Women Summit - a gathering of some of the most influential women in business. And, as the CEO of Fortune, Al...

Wharton's Dean on Prepared Leadership

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Erika H. James is the Dean of Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis ...

An Introduction to Fortune's Newest Podcast

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week Alan Murray is at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, gathering material for an upcoming episode of Leadership Next. In the meantime, ch...

Running a Sustainable Business Is Good for the Bottom Line

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At beer giant AB InBev, the company is focused on farming methods that conserve water. That's just the start of its focus on sustainability. And on th...

Ray Dalio on the Big Challenges Threatening the U.S.

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ray Dalio's approach to investing has netted his hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, billions of dollars. He's taken that same analytical approach and...

'We're In the Same Storm, But Our Boats Are Pretty Different'

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Zoetis is a Fortune 500 company that makes medicine, vaccines and other products for pets and livestock. When the COVID pandemic hit - just weeks afte...

ESG Investing Likely Here to Stay, Despite Political Pushback

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lynn Martin grew up loving math. She went on to be one of two women in her college cohort to major in computer science. Today, she's the 68th Presiden...

This Tech CEO Is Not Buying the Web3 Hype

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Murray describes the CEO of Box, Aaron Levie, as "a serious leadership nerd." And that makes him the perfect guest for Leadership Next! In this e...

Are You Happy at Your Job?

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The question Are you happy at your job? seems to be on the top of more people's minds than ever before. Employees are looking for employers whose valu...

Instacart Is Optimistic About Its Future

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Instacart was a pandemic darling. Its nationwide network of drivers, shoppers and grocery partners made it a go-to service for Americans stuck at home...

The Geopolitics of Semiconductors

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Even if you have never heard of Arm, you've likely used its technology. Arm is a semiconductor and software design company. It designs blueprint techn...

Arianna Huffington and Tony Bates on Empathetic Leadership

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two years, Arianna Huffington, CEO of Thrive Global, and Tony Bates, CEO of Genesys and co-author of the book Empathy in Action. have be...

Maven Makes Women's Health a Priority

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Ryder, the founder and CEO of Maven, was early to telehealth. Ryder founded Maven in 2014 after witnessing and experiencing gaps in the women's a...

Panera's Purpose Is Baked Into Its Brand

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Niren Chaudhary is the CEO of Panera Brands, which includes the popular chain restaurants Panera Bread, Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bagels. The brand ...

Shipping Is a Hot Topic

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shipping is an industry that is so invisibly essential to our lives, so much so that we might only think about it when something’s wrong. And the wo...

The Freelance Economy May Be Bigger Than You Think

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hayden Brown is the CEO of Upwork, a platform that connects freelance workers with companies looking to hire. Founded over twenty years ago, Upwork we...

Deloitte presents: Leadership Transformed

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two and half years, many companies have transformed at faster rates than ever before, as the sudden shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandem...

Our 100th Episode: Levi Strauss, Nasdaq and JUST Capital

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For two and a half years, Leadership Next has introduced listeners to a new CEO each week - exploring how these leaders are looking beyond the bottom ...

Doug McMillon on Walmart's Regenerative Future

07 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Doug McMillon is a Walmart lifer. He started loading trucks at a Walmart warehouse as a teenager trying to pay for college. He is now the company's CE...

Intuit's CEO Is Moving the Company Beyond Taxes and Accounting

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Sasan Goodarzi became Intuit CEO about three and a half years ago he wanted to move the company beyond its focus on taxes and accounting. Through...

Edward Jones CEO on Crypto, Recession and the Importance of Empathy

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To those who love online trading or flock to the latest cryptocurrency, Edward Jones may appear old-fashioned. The company has been offering clients f...

How did this healthcare provider's patients defy the COVID odds?

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Dr. Marlow Hernandez was a child in Cuba, he promised his grandmother he would become a doctor. He did so, and is now the CEO of Cano Health, a p...

War in Ukraine: 'There will be a food crisis,' says Yara CEO

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the war in Ukraine continues, it's brewing one crisis - threatening the global food supply - and deepening another - pushing millions of Ukrainians...

A Conversation With the Incoming CEO of FedEx

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Fred Smith envisioned FedEx during his time as an undergrad at Yale. By 1973 his school project had become a functioning business. He's been a part of...

Does Your Company Have a "Modern" Board?

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Leadership Next listeners know, the role of business in society is changing. Companies are being held responsible for their environmental footprint...

Pfizer's COVID Lesson: Set Big Goals and People Will Meet Them

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When the COVID pandemic struck, Pfizer was ready to tackle the challenge of developing a vaccine. That's due in large part to some key decisions CEO A...

How IKEA Decided to Pause Business in Russia

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On February 24, Russia fired missiles into Ukraine, launching a war that has displaced millions and likely killed thousands. One week later, mega ret...

Clorox CEO: 'I don't expect volatility to go away'

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Rendle is one of just a few women to be running a Fortune 500 company. She took over the top job at Clorox early in the pandemic when the compan...

You Won't Be Spending Bitcoin at the Grocery Store Anytime Soon

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Global Payments provides the technology plumbing for a lot of digital commerce. That means when life moved largely online for many in 2020, the compan...

What the Invasion of Ukraine Is Teaching Us About Cyber Warfare

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ahead of Russia launching attacks on Ukraine, businesses and governments were warned to brace for cyber warfare. That hasn't transpired yet, but it do...

Why CEOs Should Be Thinking Like Designers

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is design thinking, and why should you care about it? " You know, so many leaders today are asking the question, what comes next? How do we prepa...

The CEO Remaking GE

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bigger is no longer better for General Electric, according to CEO Larry Culp. When he took charge of the iconic company in 2018 it was clear change wa...

Who Buys Diamonds Online? Lots of People, Says Signet Jewelers

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Signet Jewelers - parent company to Zales, Kay and several other brands - has seen its digital sales quadruple since the start of the COVID pandemic. ...

How Chobani's CEO Built a Yogurt Brand Worth Billions

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya immigrated to the U.S. from Turkey, He purchased an old yogurt factory in upstate New York in 2005. Two years later, the com...

Working to Help All Africans Afford the Internet

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As recently as 1993, 80 percent of Africans had never heard a phone ring according to Cassava Technologies CEO Hardy Pemhiwa. Today, the vast majority...

How Companies Plan to Address Talent Wars, Inflation and Supply Chains in 2022

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Leadership Next, Alan Murray and Ellen McGrit take listeners inside the annual CEO meeting that Fortune typically hosts at Davos. D...

Investors Are Looking Beyond Silicon Valley, Thanks to the Pandemic

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For years Steve Case has been pushing venture capital investors to look beyond California, New York and Boston for startups to support. This has been ...

Leadership Next's 2021 Season: Trends and Takeaways

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this final Leadership Next of 2021, Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt are joined by Joe Ucuzoglu, CEO of Deloitte US and long-time sponsor of the podcas...

Why Carol Tomé Came Out of Retirement to Lead UPS

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After 24 years at Home Depot, Carol Tomé was ready to retire. But United Parcel Service - where she had served as a board member since 2003, had othe...

Can a Burrito Save the Planet, and Other Questions for Chipotle's CEO

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Before the COVID pandemic, roughly 10 to 15 percent of Chipotle's business came in through digital channels. Today, that number is closer to 40 percen...

United's Vaccine Mandate: "Clearly just the right thing to do"

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby was one of the first leaders of a major American company to insist all employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. The m...

How Adrian Gore Turned a Hunch Into a Winning Business Model

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Adrian Gore decided to build an insurance company in South Africa in the early 1990s, he took a novel approach: the company should aim to make pe...

Autonomous Vehicles Coming to a Road Near You?

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Cruise, backed by General Motors, plans to have one million of its self-driving cars on the road by 2030, according to CEO Dan Ammann. But the cars wo...

An Inclusive Approach to Training Company Leaders

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the past, offering executives leadership training was an expensive proposition. This meant only a handful of employees were able to participate. Bu...

Esri: The Private Company Whose Maps 'Run the World'

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Dangermond founded Esri over 50 years ago and has grown it into a giant private company that provides software to global corporations, government...

Michael Dell: We've Only Seen Tech's 'Pre-Game Show'

05 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Dell had a reputation for not paying attention in school. But apparently, reading computer magazines in the back of his high school classrooms...

Helping Women Build Families Is a Smart Economic Move

28 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to COVID-19, corporate America has been forced to reimagine how, where and when works gets done. And the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, is...

How to Create a Great Place to Work

21 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In today's race to attract and retain the best employees, creating an inclusive environment where people actually want to work is key to success. And ...

Can a Robot Do Your Job?

14 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Robots have been moving into factories and other manufacturing facilities for some time. But Daniel Dines is out to automate tasks traditionally done ...

Are CEOs Truly Committed to Stakeholder Capitalism?

24 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It's been almost exactly two years since the Business Roundtable - a DC-based advocacy group comprised of the country's biggest companies - updated it...

Why Business Cares About the $1T Infrastructure Bill

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why should business care if the government agrees to repair roads and bridges? The answer to that question is more complex than you may think. But thi...

Flex CEO: The Future of Manufacturing

10 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Flex is "one of the biggest companies you may have never heard of," Alan Murray says on this week's Leadership Next. The third-largest manufacturer in...

Best Buy Is Reimagining Retail

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When the COVID pandemic hit, Best Buy turned all of its stores into curbside service only - in the span of just 48 hours. And while stores have since ...

The Small Hedge Fund Pushing Big Change at Exxon

20 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Leadership Next's Alan Murray calls the board shakeup at Exxon one of the biggest business stories of the year. And today the man behind that shakeup ...

A Focus on Social Impact Led Grab from Ride Hailing to Financial Services

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Grab is widely considered Southeast Asia's most valuable startup. Founded in 2012, the company started as a riding hailing service and has grown to i...

Can Silicon Valley Build a Better Burger?

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While Leadership Next enjoys an extended Fourth of July holiday, check out this episode of Fortune's Brainstorm podcast - a weekly podcast which exami...

How Duke Energy Plans to Reach Net Zero by 2050

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Duke Energy, number 126 on the Fortune 500, delivers electricity to nearly 8 million customers in the Southeast and Midwest. A fair amount of that ele...

Running a Grocery Business During the Pandemic

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Vivek Sankaran was ten months into his tenure as CEO of Albertsons Companies when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. His roughly 300,000 employees immediat...

Dow Is on the Path to a Sustainable Future - Really

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dow is one of the world's largest producers of plastics, yet company leader Jim Fitterling is committed to ending reliance on single-use plastic produ...

Intel Wants to Build More Computer Chips in the U.S.

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pat Gelsinger has been CEO of Intel for about four months now. But he's not new to the company - he spent the first 30 years of his career at Intel. T...

Hilton CEO on How to Build Corporate Culture

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Nassetta has been CEO of Hilton since 2007. He tells Alan Murray that when arrived on the job "the business just wasn't functioning in the ways ...

The Nasdaq's Push to Diversify Corporate Boards

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Any time you propose a change that impacts thousands of companies, you're likely to hear complaints. That's what happened when the Nasdaq stock exchan...

PagerDuty: The Complexity of Hybrid Work

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Even before the pandemic, a large number of PagerDuty employees were working in a hybrid fashion. "I think maybe even some organizations are underes...

Stitch Fix CEO: Modeling a 'New Normal' in Business

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Katrina Lake is the founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, a personalized styling service founded ten years ago. When Lake took her company public in 2017, sh...

Crafting a Return to Work That Really Works

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, it's a question that seems to be plaguing most CEOs: How do you hold on to the benefits of remote work while ...

Patagonia on Voting Laws and Environmental Responsibility

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Patagonia - the 48 year-old outdoor equipment and apparel company - has long been passionate about protecting the environment. But when Georgia passed...

Etsy: An Amazing Year During a Terrible Time

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Etsy - the e-commerce site focused on handcrafted goods - saw its revenue more than double in 2020. CEO Josh Silverman describes the COVID-19 pandemic...

Why This CEO Wants to 'Democratize' Real Estate

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Williams is the CEO of Cadre, a company that's out to "democratize" commercial real estate. In other words, he's making it easier for the average...

Boosting Diversity in Drug Trials

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Biotech company Genentech has eight drugs in various stages of development as therapeutics for COVID-19. But early in the pandemic, the company decide...

Advice and Inspiration from Hint's Kara Goldin

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kara Goldin never planned to create a company that competes with giants like Pepsi or Coca-Cola. She just wanted to drink water that didn't taste bori...