This is the web version of CEO Daily. To get it delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
Lots of good responses to my request for predictions for the next decade, with two issues predominating—the rapid advance of data and A.I., and the rapid deterioration of skills as a result.
This from Doug Merritt, CEO of Splunk:
“The world will be generating 175 zetabytes of data by 2025—10x the volume of data the world sees today. But the value of data remains trapped for most organizations. In the 2020s, I suspect that data will become a business imperative—organizations who embrace it will lead their markets, while organizations who don’t act on dark data will fall behind and falter.”
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty wrote in with this thought:
“When it comes to innovation, we see business leaders moving to the next chapter of using data as their most powerful source of competitive advantage. This includes scaling A.I. everywhere. …And, to enable it all, it means expanding the pathways through which students and professionals can build their skills—in what I’ve coined as ‘new collar’ jobs, where skills matter more than degrees.”
And Insigniam founder Shideh Bina wrote this thoughtful response, with which I’m in full agreement:
“More than any decade I can recall (in the six I have lived through), the next decade will be defined by how well we, as leaders, and as citizens, respond to challenges and threats to our foundational beliefs, structures and institutions. Will we respond with wisdom, courage, accountability and creativity to our climate, our political storms, our vast inequities, our soon-to-be obsolete skills base and our deeply engrained biases about each other and about how things “ought to be”? If we respond well we can turn these threats into glorious, transformative opportunities. If not, we will preside over tragedy. The transformation required to prevail also requires a transformation of ourselves as leaders and how we think and act. The decade has not been written, the pen is our hands.”
That’s my final word for the decade. I’ll be back on Jan. 6. Enjoy the holiday.
News below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Google Fine
France's competition authority has fined Google $167 million over antitrust abuses in its ad business. The watchdog said Google's rules for advertisers were non-objective, non-transparent and discriminatory. The monetary fine is accompanied by an order for Google to change its terms and procedures. Reuters
Goldman Guilt
Goldman Sachs may pay a $2 billion fine to settle a Justice Department probe into its part in the 1MDB Malaysian corruption scandal. According to a report, the bank would also admit guilt to the violation of bribery laws, and agree to the installation of an independent monitor to oversee changes to its compliance procedures. Wall Street Journal
Bank of England
Mark Carney's replacement as Bank of England governor will be Andrew Bailey, the current head of the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority. Bailey's appointment (effective at the start of February) comes despite criticism of the FCA over its handling of financial scandals in recent years. London School of Economics director Minouche Shafik was apparently rejected for the role due to her critical views on Brexit. Financial Times
Equifax Settlement
People who applied for their $125 payout over Equifax's enormous data breach a couple years back will not be getting $125. Lawyers will take around a fifth of the $380 million settlement fund, and only $31 million of that fund is being set aside for cash compensation anyway. So instead of $125, most people will get… $7 at most. CNBC
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Airbnb Halloween
Fortune's Aric Jenkins has a deep piece on Airbnb's terrible Halloween, when IPO plans were overshadowed by scandals over scams and shootings. As the piece notes: "Airbnb faces this trustworthiness crisis even as it seeks to show that it has a winning long-term business model. Underwhelming post-IPO performance by tech darlings Lyft, Uber, and Slack, and the pre-IPO meltdown of WeWork, mean that any Airbnb offering will be watched particularly closely." Fortune
UPS Tour
Want to know what a UPS package-sorting center looks like in the age of e-commerce? Fortune's Aaron Pressman has you covered, with a piece that explains how the 112-year-old logistics giant is trying to make its $20 billion evolution pay off. Fortune
Retail Decade
The 2010s were a heck of a decade for the retail industry, with key themes including post-crisis frugality, consumer exhaustion and the relentless march of technological development reshaping the landscape. But, as Fortune's Phil Wahba writes: "One key takeaway lesson from the past decade in retail is that products and stores still matter." Fortune
2020 Markets
Bloomberg has a rundown of money managers' predictions for next year. According to various contributors: China will remain a tricky investment destination; there probably won't be any "phase two" deal ahead of the U.S. election; a recession won't come but neither will "big euphoria"; and oil and gas stocks present a "potential opportunity for some." Bloomberg
A note from CEO Daily editor David Meyer: The future of Fortune is coming. Next month, we will be launching (deep breath) a new site and app, a new video hub, a new magazine, plus a subscription package that offers the best of business, all in one place: strategic insights, deep-dive stories, and exclusive access to what the C-suite is thinking. We'll keep you updated on the launch, and you can also tell your friends to keep tabs on developments by leaving their email addresses here.
But that's not all! Fortune is also getting ready to launch a raft of new newsletters, two of which you can sign up for in advance. Fans of the Sino Saturday edition of CEO Daily will be excited to learn that Clay Chandler and the Hong Kong team are preparing a daily newsletter on business in China, called Eastworld. And our Rome-based ace, Bernhard Warner, will write a daily newsletter on finance news, awesomely named Bull Sheet.
That's it from me for the next few weeks—I'm off to visit family and friends in Cape Town. Have a terrific break, and see you next year.
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
