“One of your jobs as their boss and their top civilian is to protect them [the military] from politics, not to channel politics to them.”, Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell is deeply concerned about the decision making taking place by the President and within the administration. In the wake of the presidential election, Yale SOM leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld hosted three urgent discussions with top CEOs, where they discussed their concern about attempts to overturn the results and made a much-reported pledge to freeze donations to legislators who voted to reject election results. GM’s Mary Barra agrees, seeing many possible opportunities for people without a college degree and pushing for greater focus on K-12 education and other types of education and experience. Dr. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld during YALE - Chief Executive Leadership Institute - CEO Summit at Bloomberg World Headquarters in New York, New York,... Actress Kate Walsh visits "Late Show with David Letterman" at the Ed Sullivan Theatre on October 1, 2008 in New York City. “I think there are a limited number of things you can focus on,” he said. Sonnenfeld is the founder of Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), a non-profit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance. Frazier’s goal in speaking up was to explain to viewers what the source of the anger is for many African Americans. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld CEO, Coaching, Communication Skills, International Business, Leadership. He termed this “a defining moment for our country when it comes to the issues of race,” and said he worries that our democracy is “at a very fragile state.”. He sees the business community playing a key role in getting through this time and in providing opportunities to the African American community. Schools where Schwarzman has provided funding, where 90% of students are minorities and 70% are at or below the poverty line, have achieved a 98% graduation rate and 96% of students have gone on to college. Wait, there's tax cuts? “They thought they were completely different industries,” Sonnenfeld says. Likewise, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson stressed listening, empathizing, and trying to understand the complexity of people’s feelings. On February 2, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO, becoming the company’s executive chairman. Another event brought together CEOs from the consulting, legal, accounting, and architectural industries. Photo: Screenshot courtesy of Yale School of Management A surprising 71 percent of the business chiefs at the summit, and even more from government and academia, said yes, Sonnenfeld announced to participants seconds after the question at the online event, his 104th CEO summit since … Sonnenfeld hosted a call on Tuesday with more than 30 chief executives. “It’s like managing a wolf pack. 1 - 15 of 42 results. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld - CEO Yale CELI, Roland Betts - Chelsea Piers, Steve Schwarzman - Blackstone Group, Roland Betts - Chelsea Piers, John A. Thain - CEO NYSE Euronext, Garrett L. Keith - Seabridge... Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images According to Sonnenfeld, the commissioners invited comment. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is senior associate dean, leadership studies, Lester Crown professor of leadership practice, Yale School of Management, as well as president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and author of The Hero’s Farewell and Firing Back. If anybody has prepared remarks, we tear them up. Many prominent CEOs and other leaders have returned to the CEO Summit again and again; regular participants include Indra Nooyi ’80, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo; Rick Goings, executive chairman of the Tupperware Brands Corporation; Farooq Kathwari, chairman, president, and CEO of Ethan Allen; Ashton B. Carter; former secretary of defense; Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group; Hank Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co.; Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase; Kenneth Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck; Lloyd Blankfein, senior chairman of Goldman Sachs; Ginni Rometty, chairman, president, and CEO of IBM; David Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International; Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin; Stuart Miller, CEO of Lennar Corporation; Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Theaters; Robert Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation; Lynn Tilton, CEO of Patriarch Partners; and Larry Page, co-founder of Google. They’re all out to devour the alpha wolf. Other ways that companies can provide opportunities is through greater access to capital. “If you are studying antitrust issues and you have the CEOs of AT&T and Verizon and T-Mobile, it’s something you couldn’t see anywhere else. Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said, “I think it’s commendable that CEOs are taking positions.” But based on her own personal experiences, she encouraged CEOs to be aware that when they take controversial positions, they will be subject to criticism, both internally and externally. Will we provide health insurance and more workers’ rights? At the event, Marvin Bower, the longtime leader of McKinsey & Company, met Bruce Henderson, the founder of Boston Consulting Group, for the first time. This is not a time for incremental change; it is a critical moment for fundamental change, with businesses and CEOs playing a major role. But the other memory hinted at what a peer-driven conversation could become—a source of insights not available to CEOs in other forums. Goldman Sachs has been extremely focused on getting capital into underserved communities through a series of long-term programs, including the company’s 10,000 Small Businesses program and 10,000 Women program. Americans want CEOs and brands to speak up. During his time at the helm of Unilever he was vocal in making the case that businesses need to be more environmentally and socially conscious, and more responsible citizens. “The three of them said, ‘Well, this is like an open hearing. “Everybody in the room was warning him, ‘Jerry Levin is a snake in the grass,’” Sonnenfeld says. It’s almost unfathomable to me that it could even be considered.”, “You’ve got to push back against attempts to politicize the Department of Defense,” said Ashton Carter, former Secretary of Defense. Even companies that are already taking action must do more. “It’s great getting congressional figures to run over.”. The Maverick in Leadership Award recognizes innovation; the Legend in Leadership goes to “established CEOs who offer inspiring legacies”; and the Lifetime of Leadership award “celebrates those transformational leaders whose character and sustained contribution span sectors, decades, and generations.”, The awards, Sonnenfeld says, are an opportunity to recognize “somebody who isn’t being draped in accolades elsewhere. One memory is that one of the business leaders took over the conversation. I’m not against making money, but not money at all costs on the backs of workers…I want to reserve my judgment.”, —Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman & CEO (2006-2018), PepsiCo, Posted by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld (Yale School of Management), on, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. The specifics may differ for each company based on its industry but may include focusing on K-12 education, increasing hiring for individuals with less than a four-year degree, and providing greater access to capital. Even after stepping aside as CEO, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will likely keep identifying new frontiers for the world's dominant e-commerce company. However, public education in the United States is not what it once was. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is senior associate dean, leadership studies, Lester Crown professor of leadership practice, Yale School of Management, as well as president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and author of The Hero’s Farewell and Firing Back.You can follow him at Twitter @JeffSonnenfeld. Multiple CEOs reiterated the idea of “start with your employees.”. Select from premium Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the highest quality. By ... Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. The most important finding from yesterday’s conclave was that 71 percent of the CEOs would be in favor of mandatory vaccination of their employees so that the world can recover more quickly from Covid-19. Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld has two particularly strong memories of the first time, in the spring of 1988, that he gathered a small group of CEOs for an off-the-record conversation—the prototype for what became the CEO Summit, now presented by Yale SOM’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, which held its 100th event in December. Similarly, Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, has communicated with employees and in doing so has focused on listening, understanding, and giving employees a voice. He said, “It’s not clear that the President fully understands how the military works…I’m not sure what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the Secretary of Defense knew about what they were being told to do, which makes for a very unstable situation.”. 1. He said that when the African American community views the video of George Floyd, they see an African American being treated as less than human. You are gambling that reputation … when you send active military troops into a civilian situation. Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, stressed the importance of CEOs as advocates. But, because of their role, CEOs are always in the public spotlight and have an obligation to initiate important conversations on race, even if it is uncomfortable. “We like to have a third of people who have never come to a CEO Summit before, another third who have come to some CEO Summits, and a final third who were at the most recent one, so we have some continuity of discussion topics.”, That split means that two-thirds of the people in the room “are used to the liberties we take,” Sonnenfeld adds. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is senior associate dean, leadership studies, Lester Crown professor of leadership practice, Yale School of Management, as well as president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute and author of The Hero’s Farewell and Firing Back. One of his favorite exercises is to survey the CEO attendees on issues of the day. CEOs of major companies have said they may stop funding Republicans who have backed President Donald Trump’s challenge of the election results, according to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of Yale’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Kyle Dropp of Morning Consult shared survey findings that show how Americans are thinking and feeling. This is going to businesses that have an average of four employees and take loans averaging $62,000; about 60% of these loans are in communities of color. Initially, the gatherings were divided by industry—or, rather, by groupings of industries that Sonnenfeld and his team saw as having issues in common. Or he can ask questions from Pew or Gallup polls and “take a look at how the CEO community might be different from the general population.”. And, once the protests about police brutality and racism subside, what changes will truly be made? In December 2018, for example, 75% of participants said that they often had to apologize for President Donald Trump in their interactions with international business partners—a sign that the president was losing the confidence of an important constituency. More than two dozen CEOs … “We do have an obligation. You can follow him at Twitter @JeffSonnenfeld. If anybody has prepared remarks, we tear them up.”, Because the conversations are off the record, there is the potential for exchanges with real impact. Sonnenfeld recalls that the two aging leaders debated their approaches, with Bower extolling McKinsey’s collegial, cooperative partnership structure. Sonnenfeld recalled that some executives who are active CEOs today threatened to walk out when he brought Trump to a business summit around 2006. —Doug Parker, Chairman & CEO, American Airlines, “I think it’s important to speak out,” agreed Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone. At the Yale CEO Summit last week, held online with 150 heads and former heads of global corporations and agencies, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the Yale School of … In a recent letter to Johnson & Johnson’s employees, CEO Alex Gorsky stated, “The responsibility of the company to its employees is to create a safe and inclusive workplace.” Gorsky said the company has had conversations with employees and communities about diversity and inclusion for more than a decade but the tone and tenor of those conversations has changed as of late. Her conclusion was, “As a consumer brand…as many people that laud you, an equal number will criticize you.”, When asked what CEOs can and should do at this moment, a consensus emerged about the importance of speaking with and listening to employees. Tuesday's announcement that Bezos will hand off the CEO job this summer came as a surprise. “We get a richer view of what’s happening with these enterprises,” Sonnenfeld says. “He had the answers to everybody’s problems and wouldn’t stop talking,” Sonnenfeld remembers. 2. The comments of other CEOs resonate with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. Fellowship for Public Education Leadership, Certificate of Excellence in Global Business, those poll responses often make headlines, Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Andrew Hamilton of New York University with the Legend in Leadership Award, Yale CELI and Korn Ferry Webinar: "Strides forward on rebuilding trust and social and racial equality", Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute Presents Doug McMillon of Walmart with the Legend in Leadership Award, Chief Executive: CEOs Voice Concerns In Election Aftermath, CNBC: Top executives discuss concerns about the 2020 elections, CEO Summit, Where Leaders Gather for Frank Discussions, Marks 100th Event.