Good morning.
Day 2 of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit was a wide-ranging idea fest that touched on many of the hottest topics in business today. Some of the questions that came up:
When do you speak out on social issues?
“I try to focus on policy, not politics. And I focus on the things that are relevant to my business…If I’m not the relevant person holding that conversation based on my business or based on my background, then I’m just one other voice, and there’s already just too much noise.”
—Beth Ford, CEO, Land O’Lakes
Is Netflix an entertainment company or a technology company?
“We are an entertainment company…It’s always about creativity. It’s about working with writers and directors, having that relationship, having that trust, and really supporting that vision…The core of it is always judgement, gut intuition, creativity. There’s not an algorithm in the world to tell you the next thing that’s going to actually connect or resonate with people.”
—Bela Bajaria, chief content officer, Netflix
How do we fix our political system?
“I think all of us know and feel Washington is broken. The question is, what to do about it?…I don’t think there’s a silver-bullet fix….But I do think we can create and energize people to get involved, hold people accountable, and understand the issues.”
—Heather Manchin, founder and CEO, Americans Together
Would you ever run a different company?
“No. It’s my heart. I’m not looking for a different husband either. I am fiercely loyal. I am to a fault loyal. …I think if you are super present in what you are doing, and you are not always thinking about the next thing, and you give it your all, people notice. And they connect better with you and you get more done.”
—Laura Alber, CEO, Williams-Sonoma
What’s your advice to other companies that want to cultivate a deep bench of female executive talent?
“I think we need to open up the perspective of what leadership looks like…I don’t think I am a traditional leader. Somebody said to me, ‘You need to behave like this, because that’s how a CEO behaves.’ And I thought: Well I’m not going to be a very good CEO because I’m just going to be me. That’s all I can do. I can just turn up and be me, and I can do my very best every day. And I think that’s what is required of the role.”
—Kathryn McLay, CEO, Walmart International
On having hard conversations
“Feedback is a gift. It’s not a right. Whatever, whenever you can get it. However you can get it. You should be excited about it.”
—Mellody Hobson, co-CEO, Ariel Investments
On making Barbie, the movie
“[Greta Gerwig] wanted to make this Barbie movie, but she really didn’t know what it was going to be. And I remember flying to New York and sitting down with her, and she says: ‘I just had this idea. I see this Birkenstock and I see this high heel. And somehow, she’s living between the two of them.’ It’s not very often that you go off to make a movie where you have really no idea what this movie is going to be about until it lands in your inbox.”
—Robbie Brenner, president, Mattel Films
On creating responsible AI
“It’s not about one company or one country. It’s how we do this at a global level.”
—Lila Ibrahim, chief operating officer, Google DeepMind
More coverage from the summit here. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Private equity poaching
Lower-level executives now have a new career path: Jumping ship to lead a smaller, private-equity-owned company. For these wannabe CEOs, running a smaller company offers fewer distractions, a bigger potential payout, and time away from public scrutiny. That’s leading to “a draining of succession talent from public companies with their best people being plucked away,” Jordan Brugg, the global head of private equity at executive search firm Spencer Stuart, says. Fortune
Mozambique lawsuits
Survivors of a 2021 terrorist attack on a gas field off the coast of Mozambique are suing TotalEnergies, accusing the French energy firm of abandoning independent contractors working on the site. The company has rebuffed the claims. The world’s natural gas is increasingly extracted near conflict-prone areas—including near Gaza, the site of renewed fighting between the militant group Hamas and Israel. Fortune
Walgreens’s new CEO
Walgreens Boots Alliance is hiring Tim Wentworth, a retired Cigna Group executive, to serve as its new CEO after the surprise resignation of Rosalind Brewer. Wentworth used to lead pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts–and now, as Walgreens CEO, will need to hold off other PBMs as they try to drive down drug costs. Brewer, Wentworth’s predecessor, tried to invest more in health care services, yet the company’s board was reportedly dissatisfied with the plan’s performance. The Wall Street Journal
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Generative AI won’t kill graphic design jobs any more than the invention of cameras eliminated painting, Adobe exec says by Rachyl Jones
Netflix exec downplays AI: ‘There is not an algorithm in the world to tell you the next thing that’s going to actually connect and resonate with people’ by Kylie Robison
Prize-winning real-estate economist says the office market won’t improve for years: ‘This is a trainwreck in slow motion’ by Sydney Lake
A software CEO spotted a golden opportunity to squeeze more money from his paying customers. Now he’s out after the idea blew up in his face by Christiaan Hetzner
CVS CEO sees changes coming ‘faster than a freight train’ for Medicare. She’s betting billions she can build a new American health care system by Fortune Editors
Commentary: How corporate America is forgoing growth to avoid diversifying its workforce by Robert F. Smith and Henry Louis Gates
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.
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