BUSINESS
Why write a shareholder letter? Ask Dimon or Buffett
The annual shareholder letter has taken on a new significance in corporate America
BUSINESS
Iger won the battle — but Disney’s ‘woke’ war isn’t over
The CEO handily beat back activist Nelson Peltz, but his declaration that the culture wars have ‘quieted down’ is wishful thinking
WORLD
The Kate Middleton mess should terrify brands on social media
The British monarchy is essentially a massive global brand and the mess it finds itself in right now should be a warning to any business that thinks it can control its own messaging. Recognising that they can seem out of reach and out of touch, brands have taken to social media to meet their consumers where they are. When you attempt to regularly engage with an audience in order to come across as accessible, it only amplifies the decision to go silent when things take a turn
BUSINESS
It is the end of an era at Starbucks
Howard Schultz didn’t start Starbucks, but he built it into the company it is today. And in him, we saw how the best and worst parts of founders and longtime CEOs are often one in the same. Everything is personal for them. They inject a company with passion and dedication, but that also can mean they make decisions using emotion rather than reason. So for Schultz, the arrival of the union was deeply personal. He believed that only badly behaved companies needed unions to protect their workers; in his mind, Starbucks was not that kind of a company, and he was not that kind of a CEO
BUSINESS
Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders is required reading on managing investors
For decades now investors have pored over Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders, hoping to soak up whatever wisdom they can from the business icon. Every year Buffett uses the letter to muse on economic cycles, as well as the perennial investing principles that have powered Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into an enterprise valued at almost $1 trillion
BUSINESS
The Silicon Valley Founder-CEO is no longer indispensable
A recent analysis found that between 2018 and 2021, companies led by founders in the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index outperformed those that weren’t by about 50%. But by the beginning of 2022, that edge had evaporated
BUSINESS
C-suites are more diverse, but CEO door is still blocked
There are signs that the door is starting to crack open. A study has found 49% of the C-suites of Fortune 500 companies are now made up of women and people from historically underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds. But just 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, while 12% are people from historically underrepresented ethnic and racial groups
TRENDS
The New Work Vocabulary: Quiet layoffs, chaotic working, career cushioning
The emerging vocabulary of work is no longer coming from those at the top but is instead bubbling up from the bottom. Employees, not their bosses, are the ones developing the TikTok and Twitter friendly words
BUSINESS
For America's social media savvy politicians, CEOs summoned for hearings are just perfect for grandstanding
With politicians getting bigger payoff for creating TikTok and Twitter moments rather than actual laws, CEOs are getting caught in the crossfire of political partisanship with Congressional hearings reduced to spectacle and nothing else
BUSINESS
Meta layoffs reveal a deeper truth: Tech exceptionalism is dead
Silicon Valley for too long equated head-count growth with success. Tech companies are instead turning to more traditional ways to measure success, partly because that’s what Wall Street is demanding
BUSINESS
Women in tech are forever cast as ‘adults’ but rarely as CEO
Departures of high-powered women in tech show how limiting that label can be in perpetuating a false image of women as incomplete leaders and shouldering them with “office housework” that’s not career advancing
BUSINESS
Disney’s Bob Iger starts to clean up some of his own messes
Reversing losses from streaming will be a huge challenge even as cost cuts and an end to a proxy fight give the newly returned CEO some breathing room
BUSINESS
The robots coming for our jobs will also help fire us
Artificial intelligence has infiltrated decision-making on hiring, training and evaluations. Now it’s creeping into the layoff process as well
TRENDS
Jacinda Ardern's resignation is the ultimate flex
By stepping down on her own terms, Jacinda Ardern is rebelling against the status quo rather than simply falling victim to it
