Some 165 cities. Six continents. Sixteen time zones. An audience that combined represents more than $3.5 trillion in revenue, with nearly 13 million employees.
That was the scope of this year’s annual Fortune Global Forum, which I cochaired this week with my colleague Bernhard Warner. It was a jam-packed two days of fascinating (virtual) conversations that concluded earlier today. Below, some of the highlights.
If there are two more down-to-earth CEOs than Accenture’s Julie Sweet and Cisco’s Chuck Robbins, I certainly haven’t run across them. I had the pleasure of talking to both of them on day one of the conference. The topic? What the future of work will look like.
Interestingly, Sweet, who topped Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list, reports that her team has always worked remotely. Accenture hasn’t had a headquarters in three decades. She said that pre-COVID, other CEOs told her they thought that setup was “absolutely crazy”—but that as soon as the pandemic hit, she was getting calls to the effect of “Tell us how that works again?!”
Leading after a pandemic
Sweet and Robbins both stressed to me that some leadership traits that emerged during the pandemic are here to stay. “Empathy is not a trend,” said Robbins, whose business took the top spot on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For list this year. In other words, once you’ve seen your boss (or your employees) in their homes, with their pets, with their kids, that’s not going away even when people are working back in the office. This was a theme later echoed by McKinsey’s Liz Hilton Segel, who said that the old model of “my personal life lived behind a curtain” is just not realistic anymore. Interestingly, even though people might be feeling less wary about bringing their whole selves to work, McKinsey’s research shows that 44% of workers have negative feelings about returning to the office.
One final thing I found fascinating about Sweet: She does a quarterly “learning agenda.” She shares the topic she’s diving into with the entire Accenture workforce and hopes it will inspire others to keep challenging themselves. This quarter, she told me, she’s diving deep into “digital manufacturing, it’s the next frontier.”
Getting futuristic
On that note, I was keen to hear more from McKinsey partner and head of global manufacturing Enno De Boer. His team is doing research with MIT on 100-plus companies that have implemented machine intelligence. They’re finding that there is a clear difference in the outcomes of those that have done it well and everyone else, with leaders achieving three to four times the improvements when it comes to efficiency, cost, revenue, and other factors. I’m eager to see the full report later this year.
Speaking of the future, I loved Beth Kowitt’s interview with Virgin Hyperloop CEO Josh Giegel. The video of the hyperloop demo (which travels at 600 mph) was absolutely incredible. Giegel made the point that many of us won’t deign to use a phone that’s five years old, yet we’re relying on travel technology that is decades if not centuries old. I could tell Beth was eager for a demo ride, and frankly so am I.
Another great conversation dug into “A Tale of Two Green Cities,” featuring the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, and the mayor of Stockholm, Anna König Jerlmyr. From air quality sensors on bikes in Sweden, to handing over whole city blocks for companies to test new green tech in L.A., it’s clear that these standout cities are on the forefront of the green revolution.
Building back supply chains
If you build it, will they come?
Revathi Advaithi, CEO of electronics manufacturing firm Flex, told Fortune’s Clifton Leaf that consumer demand is now “looking fantastic,” but that “the big question moving forward” will be how quickly companies are able to procure the supplies and labor they need to return operations to pre-pandemic levels.
Despite the massive challenges COVID-19 is posing around the world, there was plenty of optimism and even a few lighthearted moments. One of my favorites was when Asia editor Clay Chandler asked Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons (one of India’s largest conglomerates) if he had maintained his running regime during the pandemic. Chandrasekaran said he had been posting some of his fastest 5K times to date and was looking forward to an in-person New York City Marathon next fall, an event Tata sponsors.
Why we buy
I loved Fortune writer Lucinda Shen’s conversation with Coupang CEO Bom Suk Kim, who runs the “Amazon of Korea,” which was one of this year’s most watched IPOs. He describes the company’s mission as making customers wonder, “How did I ever live without Coupang?” Lucinda talked about how Coupang started as a business similar to Groupon. Coupang was profitable, growing; Kim and his team had even started a process to launch an IPO. But when they looked in the mirror they asked, “Do we have the company we set out to build?” The answer was no, Kim says. A major pivot brought them to where they are today. Two things struck me. The first was Coupang’s “dawn delivery,” where you order at night, and your item is waiting for you first thing in the morning. The second was the company’s return service: You just leave a package outside your door, tap a button in the app, and the return is picked up and whisked away. I wish (ahem) some other companies offered that!
Meanwhile, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson spoke passionately about the “Great Human Reconnection” he wants Starbucks to be a part of. (Remember when they originated the “third place”?) He’s one of a number of CEOs who said that their companies didn’t just survive the pandemic, but emerged stronger because of what they went through. That view was echoed by Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden, who stressed that they used the pandemic as an opportunity to focus on the company’s culture as well as DEI.
On the retail front, Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass and Best Buy CEO Corie Barry and I had a lively discussion about a topic they are actual experts in (and I am a self-proclaimed expert in): retail. Both talked extensively about the dramatic pivots that happened as stores closed last spring. Barry said when they quickly shifted to curbside delivery only, they were able to preserve 80% of sales (formerly Best Buy’s CFO, she says her finance background helped tremendously during the pandemic). At Kohl’s, the shift toward casualization isn’t going anywhere, Gass told me. During our interview, she was wearing a jumpsuit made of technical material from Kohl’s (there’s also a matching blazer you can machine-wash), and she thinks the athleisure trend is here to stay. One great point that Barry made: When a customer has a great experience with a company (say, a great airline app) it raises their expectations for every company they interact with.
What’s next for finance and crypto
Fortune’s Robert Hackett, author of some truly terrific recent crypto stories, had a fascinating conversation with Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor. Saylor is one of Bitcoin’s longtime boosters, and he spoke about Microstrategy’s recent decision to offer high-yield bonds and use the proceeds to buy more Bitcoin. He described it as “carving a channel” from the “asset ocean to the crypto pond.” Why haven’t more companies invested in Bitcoin? Saylor posited that it takes a great deal of time to properly understand crypto, and most individuals “don’t have that much time.” He also said the accounting for Bitcoin as an intangible asset makes it difficult from an accounting perspective. Meanwhile, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao is also still extremely bullish: “Everything we hold is in crypto,” he said. (For the record, Binance is another headquarterless corporation: “We don’t really have offices” said Zhao.) Saylor’s last word on BTC: “Take the long view, and you’ll be fine.”
Seeing opportunity
One of my favorite parts of the Global Forum was seeing my colleagues from around the world interview a truly impressive roster of global CEOs.
The International Energy Agency says electric car registrations grew by 40% in 2020, despite the global downturn in car sales during the pandemic. That represents a huge opportunity, according to Nissan president and CEO Makoto Uchida. As Fortune‘s Jonathan Vanian explained, “It will take some time, however. Customers won’t suddenly change their preference for “full-size pickups” to electric vehicles overnight, Uchida noted. Additionally, Nissan needs to improve current battery technology to lower the overall cost of mass-producing electric vehicles.” It was fascinating to hear how Nissan—creator of the pioneering Leaf—plans to supercharge their EV business over the next decade.
Online Education boomed during the pandemic, and perhaps no single company capitalized on the trend quite so well as Indian startup Byju’s, which is now on the verge of becoming the most valuable startup in the country. Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran told Fortune’s Claire Zillman that the company has worked hard to find that perfect mix of fun engagement and hardcore learning that keeps students coming back for more. He stressed that online education really only works when students put in time on their own, outside of synchronous classwork. He says they can tell they’re getting the equation right because students are on average spending more than an hour per day working independently on the platform. I found Raveendran to be totally dynamic and it was impossible not to get excited about where he’ll take this company.
Meanwhile Mo Ibrahim, founder and chair of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, passionately made the case for investing in Africa in a moving conversation with Fortune’s Ellen McGirt. One particular area he sees opportunity? Solar power, given the continent’s abundance of the energy source.
Two more notable interviews: Indonesia’s two biggest startups, Gojek and Tokopedia, have merged into Goto. Fortune’s Clay Chandler interviewed GoJek’s co-founder and CEO Kevin Aluwi about his path to creating what is now Indonesia’s largest tech company. With healthcare in China marking another huge opportunity, the FGF audience also heard from Jessica Tan of Ping An Group. She’s the conglomerate’s co-CEO and has an impressive list of Fortune titles: She ranks #6 on Fortune’s list of the World’s Greatest Leaders and 2ndon Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International List. Clay Chandler wrote this profile of the company’s ambitions back in 2019.
Will travel rebound?
Finally one huge question hovering over the FGF was when global travel would rebound. The Asia-Pacific region suffered the steepest decline in air traffic in 2020, according to the International Air Transport Association. Claire Zillman spoke to Jane Jie Sun, CEO of Trip.com which is one of the largest online travel agencies in the world. She reports that in China there is a bit of a travel boom—but within China’s own borders. Travelers are exploring rural areas, and booking private trips, she says.
Similar trends are playing out in the United States. “Sometimes in life you value things when they’re taken away from you,” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told Fortune‘s Michal Lev-Ram. Chesky dropped a ton of interesting facts during their conversation, including that one-quarter of Airbnb’s business is now monthly stays, and that the average American lives a tank of gas from a national park, yet most people haven’t been to one.
I loved Michal’s question about the woman she called Chesky’s most important stakeholder: his mother, who moved in with Chesky to shelter in place. “Our business dropped by 80% in eight weeks, it was pretty scary,” he recalled. “I wouldn’t get out of my chair for hours at a time.” He laughed about the fact that when he told his mom he wanted to be a designer back when he was a teenager, she warned him, “Make sure you’re not 40 years old living with me.” And of course, “Here I was 40 years old living with her.”
There were so many other great sessions. Bernhard Warner’s interview with Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman, Brian O’Keefe’s interview with Chevron CEO Michael Wirth, Alan Murray’s interview with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. You can find more of our team’s coverage here.