Good morning,
Running an airline during a pandemic is tough enough. But Delta’s Ed Bastian made it more challenging by also becoming the poster boy for conservative politicians and journalists decrying “woke” CEOs. Bastian first landed in their crosshairs in 2018 by cancelling a discount program for NRA members after the Parkland high school shootings. Then the real attacks came in 2021, when he criticized Georgia’s proposed new voting rules, which were seen by many as an effort to depress Black voter turnout.
Many of his fellow CEOs looked at the attacks on Bastian and privately vowed not to follow in his footsteps. But he is unbowed. In an interview with Michal Lev-Ram and me on Fortune‘s Leadership Next, here’s what he had to say about the episode:
“Our goal is to keep ourselves out of the headlines. We don’t want to be seen as politicians. We want our customers to love us…But there are times where the values you stand for, particularly for your employees, matter. And you need to be their voice…And what I’ve learned is if you are always clear about who you are, and what your company stands for, when those times come, it’s appropriate to speak up in the right way.
“And no, I don’t regret it. What I did wasn’t fun. It was an awful, awful experience…But we stood by our people, which was the most important…Our African American community felt targeted, and we are the largest employer of Black Americans in the state of Georgia.”
You can listen to the full interview on Apple or Spotify.
Separately, which companies on the Fortune 500 do the best job of driving purpose through their organization? That’s a question our partners at Indiggo have attempted to answer with their new Return on Leadership ranking. The data mavens at Indiggo use a wide array of publicly available information in an attempt to measure a company’s clear and meaningful purpose, its strategic clarity based on that purpose, the alignment of its top leaders around that purpose and strategy, and focused action in support of that purpose and strategy.
The top-rated companies? In order:
1. Microsoft
2. IBM
3. Cisco
4. Thermo Fisher Scientific
5. Pfizer
6. Deere
7. Coca-Cola
8. HCA Healthcare
9. Elevance Health
10. UPS
You can find the full list here. Indiggo’s research also found that those companies with high ROL rankings also demonstrated better economic outcomes, stronger employee experiences and better external impact. More on that here.
Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Sequoia split
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital will split into three separate entities by the end of March 2024, it announced on Tuesday. Sequoia’s funds for China and India/Southeast Asia will ditch the Sequoia name after the breakup. Worsening U.S.-China relations are making it more difficult for Sequoia to operate in both markets. Bloomberg
Thirsty Google
Residents of The Dalles, Ore., are fighting with tech giant Google over its secretive culture. The town of 16,000 is home to three of Google's data centers. Locals fear the company is using too much water in its operations and are angry that neither the company nor the town will make public estimates of future water usage. Fortune
Air India
A San Francisco-bound Air India flight made an emergency landing in a remote Russian airport on Tuesday, adding fuel to a debate over carriers’ use of the country’s airspace. A few Asian carriers continue to fly over the country for U.S. flights, which U.S. airlines argue gives them an unfair advantage while being unsafe for American passengers. CNN
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Salesforce is luring staff back to the office by donating $10 to local charities each day they come in by Kylie Robison
4 Fortune 500 companies are led by openly LGBTQ CEOs. Here’s what they’ve said about their experience in corporate America by Paige McGlauflin
Marc Andreessen, the VC who famously said software will ‘eat the world,’ now says A.I. will save it — so people should stop ‘freaking out’ about A.I. by Andrea Guzman
The Fed’s man-made housing market recession hit so hard that 4 real estate titans just lost their Fortune 500 status by Lance Lambert
Harvard’s future of work professor sees one job in particular disappearing because of A.I. by Jane Thier
‘You simply can’t ignore the rules because you don’t like them:’ SEC sues Coinbase over securities law a day after suing Binance by Leo Schwartz
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
This is the web version of CEO Daily, a newsletter of must-read insights from Fortune CEO Alan Murray. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
