The state of moral leadership among CEOs

Outgoing president Joe Biden called it an “oligarchy” but the issue isn’t so much wealth as power, and how it will be deployed. Will we create smart regulation to reduce risk and promote innovation amid seismic technological change? Do we want our tech infrastructure in the hands of a mighty few? Will public institutions bend to private gain? Can we mourn the death of an innocent man and understand public resentment against his company, which led its industry in rejecting healthcare claims and overcharged some cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%?

So let’s discuss the state of moral leadership in business. That’s an annual study of leader behaviors and practices by the HOW Institute for Society. I spoke with founder and chairman Dov Seidman last week, who noted that “we are talking about behaviors: How do you wield authority? How do you make decisions?”

Only 9% of CEOs and 11% of managers ranked in the highest tier of moral leadership in this year’s study, which is based on extensive feedback from 2,500 U.S.-based respondents. And 95% of those respondents reported that the need for moral leadership in business is more urgent than ever. “Everyone wants a deeper source of connection,” said Seidman. People want to be inspired and treated fairly. But Seidman says he’s “seeing people in high places doing harmful things with impunity” in business and “autocracy in national politics.”

So where does he see moral leadership in practice? Seidman points to football powerhouse Notre Dame, which faces off today against the daunting (and likely equally morally-led) Ohio State in college football’s national championship. “You see it in how the coach treats players, in how the teammates hold each other accountable.”

“In this human age, we can hire for rage and callousness and whatever,” said Seidman. “I think we’re entering an era where we will have to elevate at scale what makes us human at our best.”

He quotes Dr. King: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

More news below. 

Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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TOP NEWS

The markets

• U.S. markets closed strongly up on Friday with the S&P 500 sitting at 5,996.66 … U.S. futures were trading flat this morning … Europe and Asia largely saw gains this morning … Bitcoin is over $108,000.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States today. He has promised to sign 100 executive orders on Day One of his administration. The WSJ has a preview of the speech he will give here. Among the expected moves will be a “national energy emergency” favoring gas and oil, closing the Southern border to immigrants, trade tariffs, and rolling back DEI efforts and various other protections for federal workers.

In Davos, no-shows. “Of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations — which includes the U.S., Europe’s biggest economies, Canada and Japan — the only head of state attending the summit in person is outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,” according to CNBC.

The Gaza peace deal only happened because Biden and Trump officials cooperated and made it plain that both administrations wanted it to happen, according to Axios.

Trump rescued TikTok. The app is back online in the U.S. while the Trump administration tries to figure out a deal that keeps it online but with an ownership stake for the federal government. Remember: TikTok is still ultimately controlled by China.

Melania Trump launched a meme coin. The cryptocurrency “Melania” was trading at just over $11 per coin when Fortune looked this morning, with a market cap of $2 billion.

Goldman Sachs CEO: AI can complete 95% of an IPO prospectus
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told audiences at the Cisco AI Summit in Palo Alto last week that AI can complete 95% of an IPO prospectus in just minutes. Solomon noted that the same process used to take two weeks for a six-person team, per Financial Times.

GM can no longer sell customer data
GM reached an agreement with the FTC last week that bans the automaker from selling data about its customer’s driving habits. The New York Times initially sounded the alarm last March that GM was monitoring the acceleration rates, speeds, and other information for customers enrolled in the company’s Smart Driver program. Fortune

Study uses AI to tell if CEOs are depressed
Researchers from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and the University of Kentucky used AI to determine how depressed CEOs are based on how they sound during their earnings calls. More than 9,500 of the 14,500+ CEOs studied in the report released this month were identified as having depression. Fortune

From the analysts

• JP Morgan on AI costs: “AI-driven capex will also be an important theme for the quarter, and in December we raised 2025 capex for all 3 mega-caps: AMZN $97B, GOOGL $62B, & META $64B — all above consensus,” according to a note seen by Fortune. 

• Goldman Sachs on the dollar: “We think recent Dollar strength largely reflects a resilient US economy and shifting policy expectations rather than higher tariff premium, implying room for further Dollar strength on actual tariff announcements. We expect EUR/USD to fall to parity within 3 months and weaken further to 0.97 within 6 months,” Karen Reichgott Fishman and Lexi Kanter said in a note seen by Fortune.

• Wedbush on Apple: The company will begin making commercial chips in the US “as early as this quarter”. “We view this as a landmark moment for Apple as this will be the first time Apple chips will be manufactured in the United States. We believe this is a smart strategic move from Apple to continue to diversify its supply chain away from China,” Daniel Ives’ team wrote.

AROUND THE WATERCOOLER

Trump is planning an executive order on crypto: Here’s what that could look like by Catherine McGrath

Inside JPMorgan, employee backlash over 5 day RTO mandate gains steam by Luisa Beltran

Netflix earnings preview: Can streaming giant keep momentum rolling in 2025? By Greg McKenna

Bumble’s new CEO is already leaving the company as shares fell 54% since killing the signature feature and letting men message first by Alicia Adamczyk

Novo Nordisk CEO attends crisis talks with Danish PM amid Donald Trump Greenland threats by Ryan Hogg

Top economies face ‘population collapse’ as fertility rates drop, and something’s got to give, study says by Jason Ma

This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.