What's on Your Mind?

Organizations look structured and logical from the outside—boxes and lines, reporting relationships, KPIs, and performance frameworks. But walk into any real meeting, and you’ll sense it: side glances, shifting energy, people going silent when one voice enters the room, unexplained resistance to change, and power dynamics no slide deck could predict. That’s not just dysfunction. That’s the system speaking, and most leaders aren’t listening. That is why we need something called systemic intelligence. Systemic intelligence is the capacity to sense and respond to the invisible forces shaping an organization’s behavior, culture, and outcomes. It’s not about…

Chinese aerospace giant Comac has unveiled its plans for the C949, a supersonic aircraft designed to fly 50% farther than the Concorde and produce sonic booms quieter than a hairdryer. Scheduled to debut in 2049—coinciding with the centenary of the People’s Republic of China—the aircraft positions China to challenge US supersonic projects like NASA’s X-59 and Boom Supersonic’s Overture in a race to redefine global air travel. “The most important thing here is that this shows supersonic is a race—and China’s interested,” says Blake Scholl, CEO and founder of Boom Supersonic. “Advanced airplanes symbolize technological superiority, and it’s no accident that China wants …

The cost of a multistep skincare routine can quickly add up. But have you ever wondered what would happen if you simply stopped? This weekend, a TikTok creator went viral for discussing her controversial “Caveman Method,” which she claims is helping restore her skin barrier after years of picking at her skin. In a video that has since racked up nearly 10 million views, Tia Zakher announced she had cut out everything from her beauty routine—even water. “What you are seeing is dead skin that’s going to flake off eventually while healthy skin forms underneath,” she posted in response to questions about the texture on her face. In a separate video, she explain…

If you were to join a team meeting at Parity on any given day, you might sense something unusual. One colleague may have just returned from a strength session. Another might be joining from an airport between competitions. Someone else might be analyzing sponsor data mere hours before competing in a world-class event. This is what it looks like to lead a company where a significant portion of the workforce comprises elite women athletes. And I believe it represents a powerful window into the future of work. At most companies, people point to a visionary founder or a breakthrough product as the thing that makes an organization stand out. At Parity, the differenti…

The rumors are true: Anheuser-Busch confirmed on Tuesday that its viral sensation Busch Light Apple will be back in stores in May for the first time since 2022. That’s welcome news to the legions of diehard fans who have been appealing the St. Louis-based beer maker to bring the apple-flavored lager back to stores for the past three years. “Before Busch Light Apple was taken off shelves, our fans chased down trucks to get their hands on it,” Krystyn Stowe, head of marketing at Busch Family & Natural Family at Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement to Fast Company. “They created Facebook groups with thousands of members to mourn the loss of their favorite beer, a…

Shares in America’s publicly traded movie theater chains surged yesterday, the first day of trading after the Memorial Day holiday. It’s a holiday weekend that saw moviegoers flock to theaters in droves, snapping up tickets and leading to the best Memorial Day weekend box office in history. Here’s what you need to know about the Memorial Day box office and its impact on shares in movie theater companies. Memorial Day box office was the best on record Movies generated a record $326 million at the Memorial Day box office this weekend, a period that ran from Friday, May 23, to Monday, May 26. That four-day haul record was largely fueled by two films. The first was…

Billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team is expanding use of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the U.S. federal government to analyze data, said three people familiar with the matter, potentially violating conflict-of-interest laws and putting at risk sensitive information on millions of Americans. Such use of Grok could reinforce concerns among privacy advocates and others that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team appears to be casting aside long-established protections over the handling of sensitive data as President Donald The President shakes up the U.S. bureaucracy. One of the three people familiar with the matter, who has knowledge of DOGE’s ac…

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. For years, famed restaurateur Danny Meyer has wanted to reinvent the way diners pay their bills. He’s dreamed of a world in which patrons can pay for their meals and simply walk out of an eatery without asking and waiting for the check. Meyer’s vision for frictionless payments found its…

At the beginning of the hit 2003 movie Love Actually, Hugh Grant’s character muses that whenever he gets gloomy about the state of the world, he redirects his attention to the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. Another remedy would be to consider the vast natural wonders of space, but perhaps that’s more of a William Shatner move. Regardless of your leading-man preference, if you are in need of some wonder this week, there will be a partial solar eclipse early Saturday morning visible in certain parts of the world. Here’s what that all means and where and how to best see it. What is a partial solar eclipse? The moon orbits the Earth while our home planet …

Genetic data was on the auction block, and a U.S. biotech company ponied up the cash. New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced on Monday that it has purchased DNA testing company 23andMe through a bankruptcy auction for a total of $256 million. The deal includes most of the company’s assets, including, notably, user and customer data. Regeneron’s announcement emphasizes that the company will comply with existing privacy laws and 23andMe’s policies, which were conditions of the sale. Privacy experts have said that any such sale presents special challenges given the sensitive nature of the genetic data that 23andMe collects. “The agreement includes R…

It’s been more than half a century since it became more common to ship freight in trucks than by train. But when one company decided to start selling its product in the New York City market, it built its own new rail terminal to avoid the cost and emissions of trucking. “A truck is not an efficient way to take these types of materials long distance,” says Grant Quasha, CEO of Eco Material Technologies. The company makes supplementary cementitious material or SCM, a component added to concrete to make it stronger and longer-lasting. The material is made from fly ash, a type of waste produced from coal plants that the company sources from landfills at locations througho…

Four years ago, GM set an audacious goal: By 2035, the automaker planned to go all-electric. The company says it’s still aiming for that target. But it simultaneously lobbied the Senate to end California’s ban on new gas car sales—which was also supposed to go fully into effect in 2035. In theory, California’s policy should have supported GM’s transition. GM even recruited employees in the lobbying effort. “We need your help!” the company wrote in an email to staff, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. “Emissions standards that are not aligned with market realities pose a serious threat to our business by undermining consumer choice and vehicle affordability.” …