Leadership Next

L'Oréal is a longstanding giant in the consumer beauty industry. And despite being 114 years-old, the company shows no signs of slowing down. The L'Oréal group has a portfolio of 37 international brands, more than 87,000 employees and 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world. In 2022, the L'Oréal group generated $42 billion in revenue, a 10% year-over-year increase. Nicolas Hieronimus, who first joined the company in 1987, took over as CEO of L'Oréal in 2021. He is only the sixth person in the company's history to hold the title, and he is keenly focused on keeping the century-old beauty company relevant in a rapidly changing world.In this episode of Leadership Next, Hieronimus sits down with host Michal Lev-Ram to talk about L'Oréal's evolution into a "beauty tech" company and how it uses tech both in its consumer-facing products and in its internal R & D operations. He also discusses the luxury brands responsible for L'Oréal's historic 2022 revenue growth and how L'Oreal goes about strategically acquiring brands. Additionally, Hieronimus shares more about L'Oréal's sustainability efforts, using TikTok to gather consumer feedback and track beauty trends, and how he works to keep L'Oréal's core culture in place despite having employees scattered all over the world.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Fortune's 2023 Most Powerful Women Summit took place on October 10th-12th in Laguna Niguel, CA. Over the three days, women across a wide variety of industries (healthcare, politics, entertainment, retail, and tech - just to name a few!) took the stage to share their perspectives on the state of their respective businesses, what it means to be a woman in leadership and how to address global tumult while also running a business. In today's episode of Leadership Next, you will hear excerpts from conversations with three women who especially embody many of the MPW values like leadership, tenacity, vision and creativity. Leadership Next Hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram share their perspectives on the Summit throughout the episode.Up first, we hear from Senator Laphonza Butler who joined Fortune's Emma Hinchliffe onstage just one week after she was sworn in as a California senator, filling the seat vacated by Dianne Feinstein who passed away in September. Senator Butler discusses being an example of economic empowerment for women and girls and the power of coalition building across parties and the business sector to affect real change.In the second conversation of the episode, Lev-Ram sits down with #35 on the 2023 MPW list, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Starbucks and Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson. Hobson shares how she initially became interested in strategic decision making and how to keep DEI a priority in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action. Hobson also dives deeper into the origin of the idea for Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan to complete a six-month barista immersion.Finally, we hear excerpts from Lev-Ram's conversation with #53 on the 2023 MPW List, Netflix Chief Content Office Bela Bajaria. Bajaria discusses how the company chooses which content to produce and acquire, plus the importance of balancing the use of algorithms versus trusting her gut in that process.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

The Fortune CEO Initiative was formed in 2016 as a membership organization bringing together CEOs of purpose driven companies that are committed to addressing business excellence, diversity, and major societal issues as a core part of their business strategies. Each year since then, members have gathered for a one of two day conference to exchange ideas and discuss best practices. The 2023 conference took place last week in Washington D.C., with sessions that focused on topics like: staying committed to social impact programs in a tough economic environment, generative A.I. and sustainable business practices.In this week's episode of Leadership Next, you will hear two conversations from CEOi. First up, Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sits down with Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato. The two discuss why Duato thinks J&J is in its "golden era", as well as the potential of J &J's consumer brands to compete with companies like L'Oreal. Duato talks about J&J's ongoing R&D in the areas of robotics and A.I. Duato also shares his thoughts on how he approaches leading through the tumult of crises like the baby powder lawsuit and the pulling of J&J's COVID-19 vaccine from American markets.In the second half of the episode, Fortune CEO Alan Murray talks to Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen about the current state of the economy. They discuss the narrow avoidance of a full government shutdown, U.S. and global investment in industrial development of things like semi-conductors, and generative A.I. and how it may affect productivity. Yellen also shares her predictions for interest rates, job creation and the economy as a whole.Leadership Next if powered by Deloitte.

Laxman Narasimhan is six months into being CEO of the world’s most ubiquitous coffee shop. Narasimhan took over Starbucks from Howard Schultz in March of 2023. Before stepping into the CEO's office, he completed a six month immersion in Starbucks cafes around the country, where he learned the ins and outs of making each customer’s favorite drinks while also constructing a vision for the future of the company. In April of this year, Narasimhan sent out a letter with a revised company mission statement highlighting the need to nurture human connection while also promising big returns for shareholders. Those big returns may come in part from the company's plans to open 10,000 more stores across the globe by 2025.In this episode of Leadership Next, Narasimhan joins hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram to talk about how his six month immersion is informing his leadership of Starbucks. He also shares more details about Starbucks' plans for growth and why this is the right time to open thousands of new stores around the world. Additionally, Narasimhan gives his take on the state of Chinese and Western relations, and how that affects Starbucks' business. Woven throughout the conversation is how his personal story of growing up in India impacts his approach to leadership.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Julia Hartz started the event management and ticketing platform Eventbrite in 2006 alongside her then fiancée. The goal: bring the world together through live events. Hartz took over as CEO in 2016 and led Eventbrite through its $230 million IPO in 2018. The years following this promising IPO were rocky for Eventbrite. When the Covid-19 pandemic decimated the live events industry, Eventbrite lost 90% of its revenue and laid off 45% of its workforce. Yet as the world reopened and the live events industry bounced back, so did Eventbrite. In 2022, it pulled in $3.3 billion in gross ticket sales and made $261 million in revenue, an almost 40% year-over-year increase - all while maintaining an average ticket price of $40.In this episode of Leadership Next, Hartz joins hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram to discuss how the company navigated the challenging early days of the pandemic and how it bounced back alongside the return of live events. Hartz also talks about why Eventbrite is different than other ticketing platforms and how Eventbrite is democratizing live events for both organizers and attendees. Additionally, Hartz shares her perspective on the the post-pandemic state of live events, including why events are currently so expensive (even if you're not going to see Taylor Swift of Beyoncé). Finally, Hartz talks about the challenges and advantages of starting a company with her now husband, the reality of being one of the few women who have taken a tech company public and why women are uniquely suited to lead a company through a crisis.Leadership Next is Powered by Deloitte.

Paula Kerger has been the CEO of PBS for 18 years, making her the longest-serving CEO in the broadcaster's history. Kerger oversees 330 member stations across the country and led the transformation of PBS from a broadcaster to a multiplatform digital media organization that boasts a slate of podcasts, a YouTube channel, and programming on streaming services like Amazon Prime and Hulu. According to the company, PBS reaches 42 million adults through linear television each month and another 15 million through streaming platforms, with another 56 million people viewing PBS content on social media.In this episode of Leadership Next, hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram sit down with Kerger to talk about why public access media is still relevant in an increasingly digital, and increasingly divided, world. Kerger shares more specific details about the opportunities and challenges of PBS' digital transformation and what leadership lessons she learned in the process. Kerger also discusses PBS' commitment to climate and civic programming, the enduring power of PBS Kids, how PBS is affected by the ongoing SAG and WGA strikes and the politics of PBS' funding.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Diane Hoskins and Andy Cohen have been co-leading global design and architecture firm Gensler for 18 years. Gensler has 53 locations and 6,500 designers distributed across the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Gensler has designed some high profile projects including airport additions like SFO's T2 terminal, office redesigns like the Marriott HQ in Bethesda, MD and sports stadiums like the New York Mets' Citi Field. Hoskins and Cohen believe great design is researched-based and responds to the crises and innovations transforming our world. In fact, they've written a book about the need for great design, entitled “Design for a Radically Changing World,” set to publish in February 2024.In this episode of Leadership Next, hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram chat with Hoskins and Cohen about the return to work trends revealed in Gensler's 2023 Workplace Report and how the design of office spaces should change to accommodate these trends. They also discuss the opportunities and challenges of converting empty office space into housing, the demand for sustainable design, and how they've been able to successfully navigate being co-CEOs for 18 years.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

Due to deep disruptions caused by global crises like Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, the supply chain has been top of mind, and top of the media cycle, for more than three years. Even the most casual business news observers now have a basic knowledge of how the supply chain works, and how it breaks. But none of us are quite the expert that Dave Clark is. Clark is probably best known for his 23 year stint at Amazon. He joined Amazon in 1999 and is credited with building out its current logistics infrastructure and ended his tenure there as the CEO of Worldwide Consumer Business. He left Amazon in June 2022, and soon after he became the CEO of freight forwarder Flexport.In this episode of Leadership Next, Clark joins host Michal Lev-Ram to discuss his plan to transform Flexport from a freight forwarder into an end-to-end supply chain platform. He also reflects on how this moment in Flexport's history feels very similar to when he joined Amazon, and what elements of Amazon's culture he is bringing to Flexport- and which elements he isn't. Additionally, he shares his advice on building a team to lead the business you want, rather than the business you have. Clark also gives his take on the current state of the supply chain and what it means for this year's holiday shopping.Leadership next is powered by Deloitte.

The great crypto crash of 2022 was spectacular, to say the least. $2 trillion evaporated seemingly overnight. FTX collapsed. The price of Bitcoin fell to $18,000 in June 2022 just one year after it reached an all time high price of $69,000. The stablecoin company Circle was not also not spared. It lost half its valuation, had to delay going public, and was impacted by the SVB collapse. But things have turned around for Circle. It's USDC stablecoin regained its dollar peg in March and there is $26 billion of it in circulation.In today's episode of Leadership Next, Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire joins hosts Alan Murray and Michal Lev-Ram to discuss how Circle, and the entire crypto industry, is pulling itself out of last year's wreckage. He compares the crypto crash of 2022 to the dot com bust of the late 90s and predicts that crypto will one day be as ubiquitous as the internet. Allaire also discusses the underlying value of crypto beyond being a speculative asset and how Circle's focus on stablecoins sets them apart. He also shares his take on the importance of the regulation of crytpo, both by the U.S. government and global bodies. Additionally, Allaire talks about the increasing role of traditional finance institutions in the crypto market and Circle's partnership with the UN to make USDC usable by Ukrainian refugeesLeadership Next is powered by Deloitte.

In 2021, the popular mediation app Headspace merged with the enterprise teletherapy provider Ginger. The merger created a $3 billion mental health care company that serves both enterprise and consumer customers. The company says it now serves 4,000 employers across 200 countries and that several million people actively use the Headspace app each month. Headspace Health is keenly interested in the growing need for mental health support in the work place. A May 2023 Headspace Health survey of over 4,000 workers found that 49% of respondents felt a sense of dread at work at least once a week. That number climbed to 59% for CEOs.In this episode of Leadership Next, Headspace CEO Russ Glass joins host Michal Lev-Ram to discuss how the provider's services can help address these dreadful feelings and why he thinks these feelings have persisted beyond the pandemic. He also talks about how the company's approach differs for its enterprise and consumer customers, and why those differences matter. Additionally, Glass shares what he thinks business gets wrong about mental health and offers his advice to leaders on how they can support their employees' mental health while also protecting their own. Glass also discusses how meditation changed his life and why he stepped back from his career for over a year to raise his three daughters.Leadership Next is powered by Deloitte.