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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. Leaders, are you listening to your frontline employees? Two billion people worldwide—that’s 80% of the global workforce—manufacture products, provide services, or work directly with customers. They’re often the first to see or hear about problems, and listening to their insights c…

Discontent has surged across U.S. society, largely defined the last three presidential elections, and now appears set to challenge business owners in the workplace. The rising sense of grievance expressed across all demographic groups has reached new highs, according to a new survey, with both companies and their CEOs suffering some of the biggest drops in trust among respondents. The rising tide of acrimony and accusation recorded in the 25th Annual Edelman Trust Barometer shouldn’t be too surprising for anyone who followed the November election campaigns—or who just listens to conversations in the office and shop floor. Whether it was Democrats warning of a “fascist…

Andrew Hoffman is a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He has been writing and teaching about business and environmental issues for almost 30 years, having published 18 books and over 100 articles. His work has been covered by the New York Times, Scientific American, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and NPR. What’s the big idea? We need to rethink business education. If we keep producing business graduates who care only about making their wallets fatter and exploiting a broken system, then we’re doomed. It’s urgent that we reshape how we teach business in higher education so that we create a different kind of business lea…

Those AI tools are being trained on our trade secrets. We’ll lose all of our customers if they find out our teams use AI. Our employees will no longer be able to think critically because of the brain rot caused by overreliance on AI. These are not irrational fears. As AI continues to dominate the headlines, questions about data privacy and security, intellectual property, and work quality are legitimate and important. So, what do we do now? The temptation to just say “No” is strong. It feels straightforward and safe. However, this “safe” route is actually the riskiest of all. An outright ban on AI is a losing strategy that creates more problems than it solves. It fost…

“I’ve had more caviar since starting work on the Celestiq than I have during the entirety of my career at General Motors,” Erin Crossley, Cadillac’s design director for color and trim, says before tucking into a ramekin at Gucci Osteria on Rodeo Drive. The uptick in caviar consumption is a leading indicator that Cadillac is going upscale. As design director for the Cadillac Celestiq, the American luxury brand’s new, bespoke electric vehicle, Crossley sits with customers from all over the world and mines more than 350,000 permutations to deliver their perfect personalization. The low-slung EV with a 303 mile range starts at $340,000, pushing the American automa…

Beverly Hills’ hottest club is California Pizza Kitchen. At least, that’s what someone unfamiliar with the brand might have taken away from its new “rebrand,” which debuted on Monday. On its website, California Pizza Kitchen replaced its friendly yellow logo and wordmark with a silver chrome logo and the shortened name “CPK.” [Photo: courtesy California Pizza Kitchen] Meanwhile, on socials, the brand posted several videos of its “new identity” that looked more fit for promoting a rave than a family friendly pizza restaurant. Shots of flashing lights, serious models, and slogans like “DEVOUR THE DOUBTERS” and “Fresh. To. Death” were cut with clips of harshly-li…

What does it take to lead a meditation company without finding a moment’s peace? David Ko spent years as CEO of Calm, one of the world’s most recognized mental health and wellness apps, helping millions manage stress. Now he’s stepping down. Ko unpacks why he made the call, what the relentless pressure of the C-suite really does to a person, and how to draw the line between the kind of stress that sharpens you and the kind that quietly breaks you down. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conv…

I recently spoke to a donor who reviewed a batch of proposals from different groups—different names, different logos, but nearly the same projects. Teams had reinvented the same wheel in parallel. Individually, some of those projects might get funded. Collectively, the sector missed the chance to pool efforts and solve a larger piece of the problem. That felt wrong, not because anyone was bad, but because our systems make it easier to duplicate than to unite. Here’s what should terrify donors: Even as funding tightens, duplicated projects still get financed while collaborative funds report backing organizations that figured out how to work together, with $2–3 billion …

Last year, when Canva used a rap song to promote its new suite of products for businesses, the reaction online was about what you’d expect. “Call 911 I’m having a cringe overdose.” “This is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s fault.” The performance at Canva’s annual summit, Canva Create (Disclosure: Fast Company is a Create media partner), reminded many of corporate musical escapades of the past, like Bank of America’s adaptation of U2’s “One” back in 2006, or Randi Zuckerberg’s Twisted Sister-inspired ode to crypto in 2022. But for Canva, it drove attention and traffic to the brand. More than 50 million people saw the rap battle within 48 hours, which boosted social media…

Self-growth requires two things parents often lack: time and energy. Between cleaning messes, cooking meals, and managing extracurriculars, the average parent gets just two hours a week to focus on personal development. Growth doesn’t stop when you become a parent. Raising children offers lifelong learning. Yet, for parents used to measuring their success in qualifications and promotions, it often doesn’t feel like growth—especially when you’re sleep-deprived and energy-drained. To them, professional development and personal development are one and the same. It’s no wonder 50% are left feeling as if parenthood has hijacked or delayed their growth. As Headway’s pro…

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of leaders, experts, executives, and entrepreneurs who share their insights with our audience. Members pay annual dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership opportunities, events and more. The landscape of home automation has sparked numerous discussions about security and control. According to SonicWall’s comprehensive 2025 Annual Cyber Threat Report, smart home products experienced a staggering 124% increase in cyberattacks during 2024, with smart plugs emerging as particularly vulnerable targets. These vulnerabilities have ignited growing consumer concern about the safety of cl…

Picture a packed stadium of fans in extreme weather, all clad in their favorite jerseys, cheering and cursing at their favorite American football team or European soccer club. Or a crush of screaming fans, singing and dancing in unison at a Taylor Swift or K-pop concert. Or a sea of costumed Star Wars fans, lightsabers aloft, filling up movie theaters on opening night of a new movie. Plenty of people like to watch sports, attend concerts, and go to the movies. But what about those fans—the diehard ones, if you will—whose dedication goes even further? The fans whose daily lives are deeply intertwined with their interests? Diehard fans tend to have a detailed, intri…

Rain-parched Southern California finally received some much-needed precipitation recently, offering some relief from the Los Angeles wildfires which displaced more than 150,000 people from their homes—and either razed or damaged some 15,000 structures. Of course, not everyone jumped to help. But amid the widespread devastation came what seems like, in our socially and politically fraught times, an unlikely ray of hope: A convergence of communities, of neighbors helping each other in whatever way possible and even heading out to assist complete strangers. The goodwill and altruism born from this calamity has been a boon to exhausted and overwhelmed firefighters and p…

Many of us have heard of “boomerang employees”—someone who leaves a company and later returns—but there’s a newer version showing up in the workplace: the layoff boomerang. Maybe you’ve seen it yourself. A coworker disappears after a round of cuts, only to show up again a few months later. Same desk. Same job. Sometimes even a bigger paycheck. According to research done by Dr. Andrea Derler at workforce analytics firm Visier, 5.3% of laid-off employees now get rehired by the same organization after a layoff. But the most surprising part isn’t the number—it’s that it’s been happening for years. We just didn’t know. “What surprised me the most was that …

You know the feeling—your calendar is packed, your inbox is overflowing, and every decision, big or small, lands on your desk. Leadership today isn’t just about managing teams and making strategic calls; it’s about navigating an endless stream of meetings, emails, and expectations. While burnout is widely recognized, most solutions focus on time management rather than cognitive bandwidth management. The real issue isn’t just being overworked—it’s being oversaturated. Leaders are drowning in information, decisions, and interruptions, leaving little room for the deep thinking required for creativity, strategic foresight, and high-quality decision-making. A study fr…

Sustainability once sounded like the pinnacle of progress—a badge brands wore proudly to signal responsibility on climate, health, and the environment. But for today’s consumers, especially Gen Z, “sustainable” feels like standing still while the planet unravels. In the face of climate chaos, depleted soils, and vanishing biodiversity, maintaining the status quo is no longer enough. The call of our time is not just to sustain, but to restore—to repair what’s been broken and restore what’s been lost. I spoke with Gary Hirshberg, cofounder of Stonyfield Farm, about this new generation of consumers, the fundamental shift in product expectations, and the important role of…

As inflation causes prices to rise, there is a cost that disproportionately impacts women—the “egg freezing tax.” In 2023, over 40,000 women froze their eggs—a safe, proven way to invest in more control over the timing of one’s family—which has grown in popularity for many reasons: general declines in fertility rates, delayed family building, and increasing numbers of women choosing to become a single mom by choice. Despite having founded three companies, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done was freeze my eggs. In my early thirties, while building my first startup in San Francisco, my nights were a blur of teaching myself to self-inject and tracking complex medica…

Corey duBrowa spent much of his career advising some of the world’s most scrutinized leaders—from Marc Benioff at Salesforce to Sundar Pichai at Google. Now, as CEO of global communications firm Burson, he’s helping executives navigate a charged marketplace shaped by AI disruption, ICE activity, and nonstop reputational risk. He explains why reputation remains one of the most powerful (and most misunderstood) assets in business, and how leaders should decide whether, when, and how to speak up. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by former Fast Company editor-in-chief Robert Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scalepodcast…

Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. Costco chair Hamilton “Tony” James caused a bit of a stir this week when, in an interview, he mentioned a retail category that’s done surprisingly well for the big-box chain: luxury goods. “Rolex watches, Dom Pérignon, 10-carat diamonds,” James offered as examples of high-end products and brands that have fit into a discount-club model more typically associated with buying staples in bulk. “Affluent people,” he explained, “love a good deal.” Courting that group may be particularly timely right now—and not just for Costco. According to a recent report from research f…