Leadership Next

Recently, you may have noticed that when you buy almost anything online - clothing, furniture, even groceries - there's an option to Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). This usually means splitting the total cost of your purchase into a series of smaller payments, and it doesn't require a credit card up front. The BNPL business is taking off as a payment alternative, thanks in part to Affirm. Affirm is a financial company that allows its 14 million active consumers to pay for purchases over time, without a credit check and without late fees.In this episode of Leadership Next, hosts Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt speak with Affirm's founder and CEO Max Levchin. Levchin, also a co-founder of PayPal, struggled to build credit in the U.S. after immigrating from Ukraine. He shares how this led him to eventually found Affirm and shares his hopes for making financial services more equitable. He also explains how Affirm plans to make money without collecting late fees, and discusses the ups and downs the company has experienced since its January 2021 IPO.

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 like me at the top," she tells Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt on this week's Leadership Next. "And we had to change that."Today, Progressive's board of directors is led by a woman and the board has gender parity. Griffith talks about the work it took to get to that point, and details DEI initiatives she's launched and supported over the years."We've been working on this for probably 15 to 20 years," she says.Also in today's conversation: how Progressive is thinking about climate change, the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and the impact of inflation on the insurance business.

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, Alan Murray typically scores an invite too! On today's Leadership Next Alan and Ellen McGirt share some of their favorite moments from this year's Summit.Melinda Gates talks about advocating for women and the fight for women's equality. Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, shares how she's grown the semiconductor company. Thasunda Brown Duckett reports on her first year as CEO of financial firm TIAA. And finally, the inspiring Cynt Marshall tells how she came to be the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and why it was so essential for her to be in that role.

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 More Prepared Than Before. In this episode of Leadership Next, Dean James talks to host Alan Murray about how leadership has changed over the past decade and what fundamental truths about leadership are evergreen. Dean James also discusses what it means to be a prepared leader, how the pandemic changed her understanding of preparation and why humans are usually so poorly prepared for a crisis. Finally, she shares her hopes for the next generation of leaders and how the role of educational institutions is evolving in an increasingly hybrid world.

This week Alan Murray is at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, gathering material for an upcoming episode of Leadership Next. In the meantime, check out Where's My Village? Fortune's NEW podcast co-hosted by Leadership Next's Ellen McGirt. Where's My Village is a limited series about the childcare crisis in America and the stories of people who are trying to fix it. Like what you hear? Subscribe!Thanks to the COVID pandemic it's become very clear that the issue of America's crumbling childcare infrastructure extends far beyond individual families. The lack of formal support for working parents is a problem that all company leaders – and frankly anyone interested in building a better economy – needs to understand. Over five episodes Fortune reporters will introduce you to politicians, community leaders, entrepreneurs and corporate executives who fully believe that doing right by kids and families ultimately drives economic growth. In this episode, also available here along with the series' prologue, Fortune's Beth Kowitt investigates what happens when state and local governments take it upon themselves to try and fix this broken system. Kowitt tells the story of how one New England state and a city in Kansas are finding both the political will and financial resources to provide reliable, affordable childcare to their residents.

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 this episode of Leadership Next, CEO Michel Doukeris tells Alan Murray this focus is not a passing fad."We, as a company, have been doing this for many, many years," Doukeris says. "And we do this, first, because it's good for the business. Every time that you can be more efficient, you are doing something that is good to your business."Doukeris has been in the CEO role for just over a year, but has spent 26 years at the company. He shares his career journey to AB InBev's top job, discusses his approach to leading a global company and explains why the brand's digital platform could one day eclipse its current beverage business.

Ray Dalio's approach to investing has netted his hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, billions of dollars. He's taken that same analytical approach and dug into history in an effort to decipher what today's turbulent economic and political period tells us about the future. Here's a hint: it's not pretty. He laid out the findings in a book last year, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and on today's Leadership Next he and Alan Murray discuss the details. With markets down, fears of recession continuing to grow and elections on the horizon, Dalio's reading of history is more timely than ever.While today's conversation is different from those usually held on the podcast, Dalio's insights are likely helpful for all leaders.

Zoetis is a Fortune 500 company that makes medicine, vaccines and other products for pets and livestock. When the COVID pandemic hit - just weeks after Kristin Peck became CEO - animals still needed those products, and Peck had to figure out the best way to support her team to enable their work to continue. This ultimately led her to reimagine how she operated as CEO - details she shares with Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt in this episode of Leadership Next."My big saying was, we may all be in the same storm but our boats are pretty different, so let's find out what your boat looks like ... What was it that was making it challenging for you? And how as a CEO could I create policies, benefits and leadership that supported you?"Also in today's episode: why Zoetis cares about sustainable agriculture, Peck's take on the future of stakeholder capitalism, and pandemic puppies.

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 President of the New York Stock Exchange, and only the second woman to hold that role.On today's Leadership Next, she tells Alan Murray and Ellen McGirt about the path that led her to this job and the mentors who helped her get there.But first, she digs into the growing interest around ESG investing, the impact of technology on financial markets and explains why being a CEO is more challenging than ever before.

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 episode, Murray and co-host Ellen McGirt dive into Levie's time heading a leadership course at Stanford, exploring lessons learned about digital disruption in long-standing industries.Also in the conversation, Levie's approach to hybrid work and his take on Web3 technologies.