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This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

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This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

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Earlier this year, Ulta Beauty promoted former COO Kecia Steelman to CEO. Nine months into the role, she'll share how she’s leading the $11 billion beauty retailer into its next chapter—via its most ambitious international expansion to date, strategic acquisitions, and experiential retail—at one of 2025’s buzziest pop culture moments: Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour.

How Ulta Beauty Stays Innovative

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Keisha, thank you so much for being here and joining me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much to Fortune for having me. I'm excited about our conversation. Of course. So you made the transition from COO to CEO about 10 months ago, one of those rare few. So tell me, in your 1st 10 months, what was the boldest or the riskiest thing you did that you think is paying off now? Oh wow, that's a fantastic question. I will tell you that I think one of the things that you need to be really focused on when you transition into a CEO role is to have a very clear plan, especially if you want to get a lot accomplished in a short period of time. I partnered with the board early on and I said, here's what my objectives are. It was really around 3 different things. First, to get the right team around me, not only for today but for the future, you know, that could be maybe viewed as bold because when you're making people decisions pretty early in your career, I have the benefit of being in the role for 11 years with the company, so I had a pretty pretty good perspective. I would say the second thing was to have a really good framework of strategy that the frontline associate could understand, so could the board and so could the investors. So building a strategy that everyone could understand the role that they played and it made sense. I had heard pre previous strategies and other companies in this one where I was like, I don't know exactly what that means. So if you don't understand what the strategy, it's hard to execute it. And then third, really clearly having decision making rights and streamlined decision making processes, I say often spinning is my least favorite move. So when you get stuck on a decision and you can't move things forward in an organization, it's, it's, it's difficult. So you ask the bold part. I would say that I focus on all of those at the same time and that's bold's that's bold. It was, I felt like we just couldn't wait too long. We needed to move. Quickly and that's exactly what we've done. Now Ulta, which has been such a US centric brand, you made the decision to do a big global expansion. You announced Mexico earlier this year. You're talking about the Middle East. Tell me about the consumers in each of those markets and how are they different and talking to you about what they want versus what US consumers want. Well, I'll start with that they all love beauty and the role that social media has played. has really expanded our brand outside of the US even though we are a US-based brand for 35 years. They were asking for us. You know what I'm hearing in those markets is that they really love the democratization of beauty that we offer everything from low to lux in services components with it. No one's really doing that in a large way that's focused. beauty and wellness outside of the US either, so that's one thing that they're they're excited about. The other thing that they're asking for that's unique that I actually am very excited about even bringing back into our ecosystem in the United States is brands that are true to the region, and they would like to have presence of regional brands in our stores, and I like that because as we continue to be even more global. As a company, bringing new brands into the United States, I think is part of that whole ecosystem too. We do it with fashion. You see what's on the runway in Paris and it comes to the United States. We should be doing the same thing with beauty too. Now you mentioned social media, which is a big part. It's changed the way I think a lot of us shop for beauty. Same with with Amazon. When thinking about that space, what do you think is Ulta's biggest competitive vulnerability right now and how are you standing out? You know, I will say no one does what we do at all to Beauty the way that we do it, and I'm a big believer in focusing on controlling what you can control and leaning into your strengths as a business and futureproofing them. So that's what really we are really focused on is um leveraging our digital assets. We've been investing in our foundational systems the last few years. This year we've really transitioned to. Go to market, uh, and then introduction you were talking about the cowboy Carter, etc. we have to be in the social areas where our guests are, and we need to be a part of the conversation and that's what we've really been leaning into. Beauty has been taking off on social media just for a lot of the young users as well. I know your demographic is skewing towards younger girls age 9 and 10. How do you think about the role. That Ulta and society should ultimately play and you know, young girls shopping for anti-aging products is how do you feel responsible for that type of thing and how do you, you know, kind of police what consumers shop for? Yeah, I will say that I do feel as a retailer we do have a responsibility to make sure that we're serving all of our guests and giving them the best experience with the great products that we can offer for all age ranges. So, um, you know, from. The very first starting, uh, with 8910 all the way to, you know, my 90 year old grandmother or my 90 year old mother-in-law. So you know, we, we have that responsibility I believe as a retailer to make sure that we're offering the right products for the right associate right right occasion, um, and the right experience that's needed. We have a lot of training that we do with our associates, um, we have a lot of the conversations with the parents. Because a lot of times when they're in they're shopping with their parents, so we want to make sure that we're just providing all the educational elements that we can so that they're buying the products that are the right products for them. I'm going to come to the audience for questions in just a second, but first of all, um, I don't know if you noticed Keisha say the magic buzzword, which is Beyonce, so I have to ask about that. Um, I know you've met Beyonce, also partnered with Beyonce and her Cowboy Carter tour. Tell me about one meeting her and to the partnership and That came about. Yeah, well, what I will say is she's just as beautiful in person as what you see on the stage, and she's a beautiful person from the inside out. She's been really engaged with the brand. That's what I see successful with the celebrity brands are those celebrities that are actually very, very engaged. This has been a long process that she's been working on building the brand and her mom's really engaged too, so it's really a family engagement. Um, the product is fantastic. It's for all hair types. Uh, the fixturing if you come into our store is on a really unique beautiful fixture, um, that's in a prominent location. Uh, it's hit the ground running. It's one of our largest hair. I do believe it is actually our largest hair makeup launch or launch that we had in the company and. You know, it's just exciting to be part of the conversation. It's so important that we are at the center of where our guests are, and that activation where we had pop-ups in local stores in the areas where the concerts were happening, it's just bringing music, her brand, our brand all together in a really authentic way, and when you can do that, it really resonates with the guests. Do you want to do more of that going forward? Yeah, I think where it makes sense, absolutely, very cool. All right, any questions from anyone out here? Up front we got one. And if you could say your name, title, and company please? Betsy Bay and Danny Herman, head of research at Phillips. We had dinner last night together, and there was a quote, and I know we don't talk about dinners, uh, they're off the record, but about not being bitter and being better, and I think the rest of the folks here might actually appreciate hearing that as well. that you're, we're breaking the rule on dinner, but it's a good one. No, it's a good one. Yeah, what, what we were talking about is like there have been times in all of our careers where we've been passed up or we didn't get that that next role when we even felt like we were ready for it. And I said that the one thing that's really true to me is I think that you can either choose to be better or you can be better, and I took this opportunity the last few years getting ready to be the CEO of Alta Beauty to really focus on being better. I really supported Dave Kimball, who was our CEO. I Learned as much as I could to prepare myself for the next role, and I think that actually allowed me to hit the ground running. If I would have been bitter, I could have left and taken a CEO job someplace else. I had plenty of opportunities, but this is the company that I wanted to be with, and I took that opportunity to be better instead of being bitter. That's a that's I love that that phrase. That's a really good one. Um, and you've had such a long career. You've been at Ulta for, for a decade, right? Target before that, and you actually had a partnership with Target, I think, probably thanks to all the relationships you built there recently you decided to part ways. Can you talk to us a bit about the lessons you learned from that and what you're taking into partnerships going forward? Yeah, well, what I will say is that I'm really proud of the work that we had done with Target and we did make a mutual decision to go in different directions. I think that's just a natural occurrence of business and you know, with me coming in as a new CEO, my responsibility is to make sure that I'm focused on the right processes and you know, investments for Ulta Beauty and our Ulta Beauty Unleashed plan, which we've talked about since day one when I hit the ground, is where I really feel that I want to focus my team, my assets, and that's where I feel like I can get the greater shareholder value in return. It's in the Alta Pia unleash plan is around 3 different pieces, uh, for those of you that maybe don't understand, it's the first one is our core business. So clearly our day in and day out business that's running 80% of our sales still come from our stores, but really working on brand building and store execution and our investments in our digital assets. Personalization is really important. That's that's driving the core business of and of itself. And then we've got margin of creative businesses that, you know, can help us continue to make more money and to continue to grow in an asset-like way. So international is one of the pillars of my margin of creative plan. Marketplace, which we just launched and officially shared today, it hit the wire that we have 100 brands that are now being sold on our online capabilities at the really seamless transaction, so marketplace is up and running, which is great. Wellness is a $400 billion category that's highly fragmented. I've got space in stores to really do this right. The guests are telling us that we have the right to to drive that business. Uh, and then UV Media, which is our retail media network, uh, we have 46 million loyalty members in our ecosystem. Now that's a clean database, so they've shopped within 12 months. That's a huge asset that we have that we can partner with our brands and really drive the business and also look at non-endemic advertising too, uh, and then you underscore that was just operation. Excellence and that's what my also beauty unleash plan is and that's what we're seeing working right now internally I talk a lot about we had to get our swagger back. I felt like we lost our swagger just a little bit and I feel like we've got our swagger back, uh, the company you can feel it internally in the company. You can see it, uh, in the interaction in our stores and. And it's great. I have one of my uh chief leaders here with me, my chief retail officer Amy Bear Thomas. It's the people that make all the difference with your team, and I feel like I have the best team in retail working with me right now. Operational excellence that's really the COO and you just shining through which I love Keisha um so I wanna end also by talking about the future um what does you know. Future consumers like Gen Alpha, what do they want that millennials, Gen Z, Gen X, all of them haven't wanted before that you're right now planning for? Well, what we're seeing with the Gen Alpha consumer is yes, they're getting their information online, but they really, really like that experience in store. They like trial, they like, uh, you know, hands on. K Beauty is really. Important to them, so Korean beauty, they're, they're very much into that. They like clean beauty. They really do want great products that uh the value, it's not necessarily just about the cost, but the value for what the benefits are. They are a very smart segment and they're going to, they have very high expectations, so we've got to make sure that we're always prepared to deliver for them. And my last one for you Keisha, I feel like beauty is such an industry that thrives on reinvention trends are constantly coming and going. How do you decide what trends are worth investing in and what you're just gonna pass on, and it's a passing thing? Well, we have a great group of merchants uh and a and a great leader leading our merchandizing teams, you know, I, I think that's where their expertise is. I I like that we have new avenues to be able to try some brands and maybe a little bit. Less risky way with bringing them into our marketplace to see if they sell well then we can always convert them onto our econ platform and then ultimately into our store but you know I think that's part of the art and science of retail and that's what makes it so fun is that you've got to look out there to find that that one that's the next one and that's what our merchants do just such a fabulous job of and I couldn't be more proud of what they do day in and day out and quickly favorite Ulta product. Oh, that's like asking me my favorite child. You can pick top three. You can take top 3. Alright, I will say, um, my, my favorite, uh, is gonna, I'm gonna start with an Ulta Beauty product. So an Ulta Beauty lip oil, we have a great, uh, Ultra Beauty lip oil. It's got a nice flavoring. So if you're one of these that talk and eat your lipstick at the same time, it's a good one. Um, I like SA ladder Advanced Night Repair. It's, uh, you can take it and it works for all skin types. It's a, it's a great one, yes, I know SA ladder up there, um, and then, you know, I'd say the other one is, um, I do like skin Iceland. I'm a big, I'm all about skin right now and know these. that you can put on your eyes and go to bed and you look a lot better in the morning, especially as much as much travel as I have. It's like a micro needling eye patch that you can put on. Don't pull it off because it will hurt, put it on and you wake up the next day and you look a little bit more ref. Alright, well, you heard it here first. Thank you so much. Thank you I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

Changing FEC commissioners requires Senate approval. But on February 6th, President Trump unceremoniously fired Commissioner Ellen Weintraub via email. Several members of Congress called for her reinstatement. This was an early indicator of unilateral – and, as Weintraub argues, potentially illegal – moves to come. Has the government adopted Silicon Valley’s flippant firing playbook? Is this the new normal, or, as former Patagonia CHRO Dean Carter argues, just bad for business? We’ll unpack recent employee separation trends and ask a bigger question: What are leadership’s responsibilities during these turbulent times?  

POLITICS, POWER & PINK SLIPS: LEADING THROUGH UNCERTAIN TIMES

we've talked a lot about where we work, how we work, collaboration, culture, hiring, and reskilling, and now it's time to talk about firing. Abrupt informal terminations are becoming increasingly common across private business and now in government too, and they're sometimes delivered with little notice or explanation. The trend raises important questions about leadership, organizational values, and the responsibility that employers have during times of uncertainty. Joining us now are two leaders with expertise and direct experience in this area. Dean Carter is the chief experience officer at Modern Exec Solutions and believes in a people first culture. Ellen Weintraub, the former chair of the US Federal Election Commission who was dismissed from her post earlier this year. Please welcome them to the stage with Fortune senior features editor and summit co-chair Indrani Sen. Hi. Welcome. Uh, we're very lucky to have with us here today two guests who have a lot to say about courage and leadership amid these tumultuous times. Ellen Weintraub, who as commissioner and chair of the Federal Election Commission, has stood up for fair elections and regulation of money in politics for many years. She was dismissed by email in February from her vital role. And Dean Carter has been a powerful voice for moral values in business over his 20 years in people and culture, including 4 CHR roles in a decade at Patagonia, where really he set the standard. We'll be opening this up to questions. I'm sure you have so many questions for Dean and Ellen, so think about that. Put your hand up at any point and, and Mike will come over to you. Um, I'd love to start with you, Ellen. Your dismissal from the FEC was abrupt in public, and it came amid a career of striking success. I sort of want to anchor us in that experience. I know you were not terribly surprised by what happened, given your history of standing up for what you believe is right. But can you talk a little bit about the personal impact of your firing and which is an experience that so many people have gone through in the federal government and beyond? Thank you, and it's really such a pleasure to be here talking to you all. I was kind of expecting it, but I didn't expect it when it happened or how it happened. The normal thing would have been to replace me with another nominee, and instead I was just summarily fired. I was cut off from my email. I was cut off from all my databases. My ID card was decommissioned, so I couldn't get into the building or into my offices anymore without an escort. Uh, my staff had to scramble to find other jobs. One of them is still looking. If you know anybody, she's really great. Um, uh, it was, um, even though I was expecting it, it was still sort of disconcerting, and I find that still a lot of people can't figure out how to find me because they cut off my email without even giving me a chance to put in one of those. If you want to reach this person, email her at this address. So I'm on LinkedIn if anybody's looking for me. Dean, how do you see this, the erosion of legal and ethical norms in government affecting the private sector and leadership in corporate culture? I know you have a real air in on that and, and how can HR leaders like the people in this room make sure that compassion and fairness is still at the heart of their company's operations. Um, what I hope is that corporate America doesn't reflect what's happening currently in the, in the more public environment. I am, and I hope we have a stand up, um, and have a lot more courageous leadership. I think this is a really challenging time. I, uh, listened to and talked to a lot of CEOs in this moment and it's really difficult to navigate the, the, the question around is this the time to stand? Is it time to bend, is it time to hide? And I, and I think this is on their minds like is this a time to duck. Um, or stand up and what I hope is that we get to a place and realize this isn't the way that we would run our companies and certainly not the the model in terms of how you let someone go. Um, people have long memories and uh I just I think in this moment, um, it is. It's easy to be courageous in time when times are easy. It's hard to be courageous when times are hard and and I the thing to remember in this moment, it's not just you going through this, your employees are going through an incredible amount of uncertainty. What does this mean? What does the company stand for? What does my leader stand for? Where are you in this moment? And they really are looking for a lot of things. I'll talk about that in just a minute, like what are some actions you can take in this moment? To make them feel safe. And I guarantee you, when I go into a room and ask people, how many of you feel like this is the most chaotic moment in your life. I may ask you this, how many of you feel like this is a really incredible chaotic moment in time? How many of you feel like your teams are spending a lot of time trying to work through the chaos? There you go. So and you and you multiply that times 10 because you, you have power and your employees don't and have agency and they're just really struggling in this moment. So we'll talk about some real actions you can take on this. What, what gets in the way? I'd love, I'd love for you both to weigh on this, but what, what, what are the things that prevent leaders from being courageous in the moment? What are the factors? I think that there is a systematic effort underway to silence opposition voices and to intimidate people. I was fired in a way that was designed to intimidate other people at my agency and other people at other agencies, and I think the only response to that is to stand together. We all need to stand together. Your organizations have power. And no administration can go up against the entire Fortune 500. If your leaders speak out together, if they combine together, maybe it is counterintuitive for people who normally feel like they're in competition with each other, but this is a moment for combined action, and that is where we will find our strength and our power because it is so important for people to stand up and speak out. Winston Churchill said. You can't appease a crocodile. It just means you're going to be eaten last. So you don't want to be eaten first, last, or ever, and the way to fight that is to band together and find our voices. I think this time it's really important just to go back to what do we what do we stand for, what are our values and what are our principles. So this isn't about politics or red or blue or purple or whatever, but it is really about, you know, what the principles that you stand for and your employees are looking for like in this moment. You know what do you stand for and I think there's definitely a level of fear. Um, I got a call right after the whole DEI thing went down and some of the executive orders started to come in from um Lazelbach, and he said, Dean, I know you and a few other folks have some level of insolence and level of safety because. Longer in the head of HR role. By the way, Patagonia didn't didn't care about safety at all. We sued the president 16 times during the time, the last time, and you probably saw a lot of stuff. We were very, very public. There was an image on the cover of Time magazine of Yvonnehonard, the founder, and Trump, staring at each other, so we were Um, talk about courageous leadership. I mean, that's a great example, but he said, you know, I'm gonna try to see if we can get a bunch of heads of HR to sign this. This is Laszlobo, and so Dean, would you sign this? I was like, of course. And he called me back two days later and he said I could only get 4 former heads of HR to sign this. Do you think that's gonna change in time? I hope that it changes. I know that this is the time to stand together. And not, not to duck and uh and stand for principles. These are all, these aren't just like let's let's move beyond like moral and the right thing. These are business issues. This is just good freaking business. DEI, we've always said diversity, equity, inclusion are good for business. Treating people right on the day that they join the day they exit is good business. These concepts are just good business and if you're running a good business. These are the things you do and things you know and this is what you do as a leader that doesn't change. Not to mention supporting rule of law. I mean, there's a reason why these great companies were formed in this country and have profited in this country. It's because we do have rule of law, because we do have freedom of speech. It's because we do have protections for people that allow you to recruit from all over the world and recruit the best talent and that they will want to come. Here and not worry that if they say the wrong thing their visa is going to get pulled or or they're going to be ousted for some reason because they just expressed their own point of view. If you want to recruit great talent, if you want this to be the United States of America and not hungry, then you have to stand up for those principles, which is how business grows. Yeah, I think. Absolutely, um, the thinking about the challenges ahead, not, you know, again, putting aside politics but just some of the business challenges ahead, the tendency of leaders is to want to express optimism and to be upbeat. How, how do you advise, uh, HR leaders who are often kind of like I think courage whisperers, right? They're often the people who can. Who can help their CEOs um find that courage in themselves. How do you how do HR leaders help the CEOs find their courage and avoid that kind of delusional optimism that can sometimes be a bit of a, a kind of instinct for leaders? The, the only job more lonely than the head of HR is the CEO and uh the only person they don't have a lot of people they can talk to. And so it's typically the head of HR is the person that you can do some whispering in terms of help them be courageous and what what employees want, I believe. is to acknowledge their fear, acknowledge their concern, acknowledge where the moment is, and then move on to like here's some things that we still stand for and this is what we're going to do. I think that's really an important thing is just to to do that is to anchor in principles, acknowledge the fear and concern, and talk about the pragmatic things that we're doing around this company and what we still stand for. That's really what they're looking for and uh and they want. More than ever, transparent, authentic, courageous leadership. That's great. Any questions? Just put it out there? Um What do you see, uh, as the, um, well, actually, sorry, I'm gonna go to a different question. Dean, you've defined courageous leadership as speaking up for your values even when it's hard. I wonder if you could give some examples of what that might look like in action, like this week, next week, this month. Um, and what I mean by that is there was a moment when I was at Patagonia, I did an op ed and I presented to the CEO Rose Mercurio, and she said, Is it provocative enough? And I'm like, what do you mean by that? She goes, did you hit hard? Were you true to what you believe? I was like, and it was about, you know, supporting women at work. I'm like, no, let me rewrite it. So it came back in 20% of the people like that was it, you know, Dean, I got slammed on it and 80% had some reasonably positive. I came back and said, yeah, 20% really didn't like what I said. She goes, you crushed it, perfect. And so we're a courageous leader in standing for something, know that, and when you whisper to the CEO, you're not going to please everyone. When you stand for something, you're you're gonna upset this group and you're gonna upset and be really honest about that. And so that's an action you can help your CEO be courageous in this moment, go here's what's on their hearts and minds. Here's what they need for you at the moment. Here's what you can do. I'll stand beside you. I've got your back on this, and that's, I think what they're looking for is just a little bit of nudge. They're humans too, you know, they're dealing with this and dealing with their families and likely if someone else is impacting their families things. So anyhow, this is your moment, you know, to give them a little nudge and like I got your back. Let's go through this together. Everyone could use that, I think we have a question over here. Yeah, um, Ellen indeed, thanks for both for sharing uh Kyle with Deloitte. I, I think, uh, my, my question a little bit is there's a lot of different stakeholders, uh, public private companies will say, uh, I don't want the bottom line impacted or I don't want our stock price going down or CEO stands up and then the stock price gets hit and the board says that CEO's out, new CEO in or you know whatever it may be. And I know that's gonna be oversimplifying it, but, but how do you think about there's this shift from um companies taking really big stances five years ago to now, hey, here's topics we're actually not going to very publicly take a stance on in the external world uh because we're concerned about retaliation, whether, uh, so, so there there there's a lot of nuance and certainly I I'd love a little bit of your perspective of where maybe you've seen that evolution. And some companies absolutely they they can do it and they can and they will and and you know etc. but others are maybe like do I do it a little bit quieter or do you know so just acknowledging some of the new ones. Well, as I said, I think that working together gives you more power, but I also think that there are a lot of people out there who are looking for leadership, looking for leadership in corporate America, looking for leadership in government, obviously, but looking for leadership in academia. A lot of people are feel like they are under attack and I think. People will look back on this moment. Your, your clients, your customers are looking for brave stances. Courage is contagious, and I think we're seeing that in the university setting that, you know, the first university that felt under attack started to cave, and then other universities started to band together, and they have strength in numbers and um. But there are so many people out there who are looking for demonstrations of courage, and I think that will be rewarded. I think we have to look past the initial moment to um where where we're going, where we're gonna be in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, and how all of this is gonna look then. Love that. Great note to end on. Courage is contagious. Don't be the last person eaten by the crocodile. Thank you so much for your insights, Ellen and Jean. I

On the latest episode of Executive Exchange, Leadership editor Ruth Umoh sits down with Tecovas founder Paul Hedrick and CEO David Lafitte to talk about how country music and people migrating south has benefitted the company to grow and make over $200 million in sales in 2023.

How Tecovas is capitalizing on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter and the latest wedding trend

Leadership

Tecovas founder Paul Hedrick and CEO David Lafitte talk about how country music and people migrating south has benefitted the company to grow and make over $200 million in sales in 2023.

So let's talk about this next generation of Western. Have you seen an influx of shoppers that is tied to big cultural movements, for instance, Beyonce dropping her Cowboy Carter album in April and any, any of those trends? Uh Yes, for sure. Um I think uh if you look at a few things, country music, you know, I think streaming was up 23% last year when we see country music concerts, whether it's Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, whoever going into these different cities that the the our stores just see the benefit immediately, you know, even in nontraditional again, markets, a lot of people are migrating south. And I think the Wall Street Journal just had 13 out of the 15 fast growing cities are in the South eight of which are in Texas. So we think it's important to go to nontraditional western markets. But the fact is a lot of people are coming to us as well. The top three cars I think out there are pickup trucks. So there's a lot of different data points showing, you know, this trend continuing. I do think it will continue. I'm thinking about fortune personally. A number of fortune 500 companies are now based in Texas. I think most of them actually is always a tie between Texas and California. So we're definitely seeing that shift. We're doing a lot of corporate events. We'll turn them on to boots to see what they do and then we'll see that Patagonia by Cowboy boots collaboration. One trend I want to highlight the New York Times reported on this, a surge in wedding cowboy boots, people wearing them to the altar. How are you responding to that trend? We're loving it. Uh You know, we in addition to our retail experience, we offer a lot of, you know, branding of boots, painting boots. So we have wedding parties coming in and you know, wanting to put the date of the wedding and all their initials on it, but it is a big trend and something that we definitely want to capitalize on. Yeah, we want our stores to be places where we're not saying no to the customer. We want to be able to say, hey, what are people asking for? What are people not asking for that? If we did offer it to them? They would say yes. In all caps, we realized people cared about personalization. So we do branding in all the stores. Now you can brand your hats, you can brand your boots, you can brand your wallets. We now have a boot and basically every year's plan. Uh If not one maybe even more than one that are oriented toward that wedding um season. So we, we released a boot early this year to, to hit wedding season. We've got colors that are oriented toward it and just by having that extra moment where someone could say yes, where you weren't providing them something before. It's totally organic new business.

Ziad Ahmed, Founder and CEO, JUV Consulting Peter Carter, Executive Vice President, External Affairs, Delta Airlines Ellen Weinreb, Managing Director, Weinreb Group Sustainability Recruiting Moderator: Molly Wood, Molly Wood Media

Impact Initiative 2023: Unlocking The Potential Of Gen Z

Ziad Ahmed, JUV, Consulting Peter Carter, Delta Airlines, Ellen Weinreb, Weinreb Group Sustainability Recruiting Moderator: Molly Wood

OK. So now we are changing direction again, this time to talk about unlocking the potential of Gen Z. So the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2030 Genz will account for 30% of the workforce and more than any other generation that came before it. Genz prioritizes working for companies that are transparent and purpose driven as today's young people enter the workforce. How can organizations attract and retain talent that's hungry to make a difference to discuss how eg efforts play a role in attracting Genz employees in particular. Please welcome Zad Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Jews consulting, which is a Genz consulting firm, Peter Carter, Executive Vice President of External Affairs at Delta Airlines and Ellen Weinreb, managing director of Wine Web Group, a sustainability recruiting agency. And they will be interviewed by Fortune Impact Initiative co chair, Molly Wood. Bye. Right. OK. Everybody Energy up. It's Gen Z. They are fired up. You need to be also uh welcome to our last panel of the day. Thank you for hanging with us. I'm super excited about this and happy to be here with all of you. Um I'm kind of gonna kick us off with a question. We'll go down the line each of you. Uh I know that I don't want to put you in the position of speaking for all of Gen Z and yet that's your whole job, I guess. So, I guess for a company that does that. So, um, why are you like this? No, no, you're right. But, but you know, even when you go to your website, it's, you're like this is why we are like this. This is what Gen Z wants. You are handing this on a silver platter to future employers. Can you give us a sort of a high level summary of what people are missing when they try to engage with Gen Z? Yeah, for sure. So I mean, it's not an easy question, right? And of course, of a cohort of 2 billion, it's impossible right? To reduce that right to some quick sound bites that can make you understand, right? 2 billion people, right? And I would be reckless and foolish to posture myself as an expert on all 2 billion of us, however, however. Yeah. Yeah, it is my job to in part try to look for pattern identification to say what is the story that Gen Z is telling, right? And I think for me the story that Gen Z is telling that I most want to get across is one that it is fundamentally impossible to understand Gen Z without talking to Gen Z, right? I think that what is so wrong often around business, around impact is that there are people who make decisions about communities for when no one from those communities are in the room to impact those decisions. And Gen Z is no exception to that rule. There are so many conversations that happen around services programs, marketing initiatives for youth where no young people are present as stakeholders or decision makers to shape those decisions. And so they fall flat because they were flat because they were forced, right? And I think that's a fundamental problem that we're often encountering. But I think further who when you say like who are you and what are you demanding? I think what Genz is asking for is a democratization of power is a seat at the table, right? It's being taken seriously. I think that it is the standard position of the status quo to dismiss genie's anger as naive as misplaced, right? And I think that it is instead my hope that to whatever extent Juve consultant can play a role to make folks contend with Gen Z's anger as righteous as necessary to hopefully ultimately make us achieve an equilibrium that works better for more of us, for all of us, right? Then I think there's an awesome opportunity in front of all of us. Formidable. So Peter, I turn to you now as a hirer and uh we did learn backstage by the way that uh I was going to ask Peter. Ok. How do you attract Gen Z talent and also keep them as customers considering climate concerns and um all of that. However, now we know, what is your, what is your Delta status? Oh, I am a platinum medallion member. So apparently not a problem but not diamond. Not a problem with the I know someone, but when you look at this coming cohort Peter, um how do you engage and are they in the room? So it, it's so fascinating by the way. And first of all, good Thursday afternoon, um it's great to be here. Uh What I would say is um it is a different cohort. We see that we feel that we know that um and what we find is that at Delta Airlines, which is really a value led company with a pretty noble purpose. I mean, our purpose as an airline, we like to say, no one better connects the world. And, and when you think about what that means, we are the ultimate globalist, right? We are the ultimate solution to a world that's become more xenophobic, more nationalistic. We bring people together and what could be more important and powerful than being the company that can connects people. It connects people to experiences, it, it opens people's minds. And as a result, it resonates with Gen Z. Gen X because these are folks that when we interview and we bring into our organization, they want to be a part of an organization that's trying to make a difference. And, and at Delta, it really is part of our DNA, whether it's our community commitment, we give a percentage of our profits away every year. We share our profits with our employees by the way, which Gen Z loves because it gives them skin in the game. We're one of the only, we're one of a handful of fortune 50 companies that does that. We're quite proud of that. So I think we've had and the other thing is travel, right? You heard it from Zia? He's a platinum traveler is a very young man. I think Genz love experience, they love travel. Um They love to be able to work wherever they are and we help enable that. So I feel pretty fortunate at Delta, but you are right. One of the experiences we have and I'll see it. We have an open door policy at Delta and periodically on my calendar, there'll be a name that is in the organization, brand new, not familiar with, have not yet met. And it will be somebody who we've just hired, who wants to sit down with a leader and say to me, what's your vision? What's my role? And how can I really grow in this company now? That's something that a baby boomer would never do. And, and, and Gen Xers may or may not, but it really is a leaning in that we haven't typically seen quite in the same way, Ellen, you do recruiting and placement around sustainability jobs specifically. And we keep hearing that Gen Z as a cohort is heavily focused on climate and, and engaged in having conversations with their employers about sustainability initiative. Are you finding that? And are you finding that the roles are being created with Gen Z in mind? Yeah, I mean to clarify, Gen Z is their ages 11 to 26 right now. And we as recruiters are mostly placing leaders who are older than 20 have more years of experience in the workforce. And at the same time, we're very committed to supporting what we can do to support the entire pipeline of an of a sustainability professionals career and also understand the workforce of tomorrow. So understanding Gen Z as the up and coming the entry level positions that these companies is really valuable and in terms of their commitment, even if they're not looking for sustainability jobs, they're interested in very concerned about climate change and justice, climate justice, all these issues and they're looking for companies, they're asking these questions in their interviews and they're also wanting to see examples. They, they're testing authenticity for that company and they're going on social media to see what others are saying about that. So they, they do their homework and they, and they stand up for what they are seeing as important to them, you know, as we have this workforce conversation, it one of the things we were briefly talking about backstage actually is that, I mean, Zia has his own company that the idea of company and work, you know, as much as we talk about how work has changed, work has specifically changed. For Gen Z, I would argue. Do you think that that's true that there's, there's maybe less willingness to even go inside at a company when you can build your, your own brand. No, I mean, I think absolutely is the question, right? Is the answer to the question? I started my company when I was a junior in high school, right? Started my nonprofit when I was in eighth grade. Right? And of course, I'm tremendous. I was in a tremendously privileged position to be able to do so, right? To have the imagination and the agency to achieve on that imagination, right? It's something that I do not take for granted and is why I do the work that I do to hopefully empower more young people with the access to opportunities such that they have the agency to achieve their dreams. But when we think about the world today and why I think so many employers are struggling with their Gen Z employees, what we have to contend with and realize, right is that especially because of the pandemic, but also because Gen Z is outside power in the sense that every young generation has looked at the world and said just because things have been this way, does not mean they have to stay this way. And I looked at the world with the sense of moral clarity and freshness and those of you who have kids in the room that probably reminded of that every single day when your kid gets angry at an injustice. And you're like, I remember feeling that angry, right? And I, you know, I'm getting old, I have some scruff now, right? I feel my age. I remember feeling that angry, right? Um But I think what is unique about Gen Z is because of the access to digital tools that we have, our disruption got to be mainstream instantaneously, right? It didn't necessarily take mass protests for us to be heard. That doesn't mean that we're not partaking in mass protest. It means that the barrier to entry was much lower such that more of us could participate in a discourse around disruption to ultimately change norms. And how that's translated to the workforce specifically is I think a lot of the world is built on myths and there were certain myths that we have been taught around the workforce that this is the way that it is. And what the pandemic showed us is that if the political will existed for things to be different, it could be different if circumstances demand a difference. And simultaneously we're scrolling on social media and seeing that there are so many different ways to live to earn to be. And so we're looking on the other side of that and saying, well, maybe my parents didn't have to suffer the ways that they did and maybe they didn't have to give themselves to a company that didn't see them as a full person as they are only for them to still be paying off their debt. Now, right after having bent their back and, and, and, and, and, and, and succumb to the will of bosses who didn't care about them their whole life. So I'm gonna choose different path for me because we have more access to a standard of comparison of the other ways that you could earn r and of course, as an employer, I see it from both sides, right? I get it. It's hard, right? That employer ge but that imagination is ultimately hopefully going to get us to a new equilibrium where historically we were told you for 20 years, you learn for 30 years, you lead and maybe for 20 years, if you're lucky, if you live this false American dream, then you get to live. And Jez is taking the microphone back and saying hell no, I want to learn, I want to lead and I want to live simultaneously and you'll be damned if you tell me otherwise, right? And I think that genie is not alone in that. I think Boomers are saying that I think Jex is saying that I think John Y is saying that I think that we're saying we get to be more than the archetype of what you've told us this life stage has destined for me. And I think that benefits all of us. Um I've decided to be adopted by Gen Z. Um What so Peter when you hear this and you know, and Ellen, when you hear this because you're working, I assume with legacy organizations and, and generational generational clashes have existed as long as humans have. How do you imagine reshaping workplaces around these expectations around what frankly a lot of people do see as a broken contract? Well, I would say a couple of things and this is fascinating for me to listen to the ad. I think the Gen Z clearly, it's our first truly digitally native, you know, work cohort, which is really something because I think that means at least in our world that they speak and, and they understand a channel um which the rest of us had to catch up to understand and they understand it better than we do. They know how to use it for good and for not good. And, and, and that's a power which you alluded to. It's a, it's a real power. And I think employers have to figure out how to use that superpower as a channel that helps employees feel empowered and also presents a certain amount of transparency so that it's not the traditional hierarchy, but it's much more of a relationship between um the folks who are leading and the folks who might be, um running the front lines and the best, the best analogy that I can use from Delta is that our prior Ceo Richard Anderson used to leave a voice mail on a telephone every Friday to all 90 plus 1000 of our employees. Hey, everyone, tough week. Hope you guys are doing well, kind of thing. Right? So now, of course, Ed Bastian, it's not a voice mail. He's, he's all about using social media. Might be linkedin might be Instagram, I think is what it's called, might be Facebook, but there's a channel constantly reaching out to our employees. And then when we have employee events, our employees are doing selfies with Ed, that's the way he's literally spending time with the. Now we have to do one after that, we, we will do one. I want one with you. And then, and then the other thing though is that Ed has created an expectation among every one of our uh employees that if they have an issue, a concern, a problem, they can email directly and he doesn't have a team, read those emails, he reads each and every one and he responds to each and every one that is an employee focused, a people focused leader. And that's part of I think responding to some of what was talking about this expectation that I've heard that I'm taking care of. Um and, and, and that's the way it's manifested itself at Delta. We still have a lot to learn. Ellen talked to me about how you're trying to make the future leaders more like Ed, I think we can learn from two famous um um one is Greta Thornberg and the other is Coco Goff. So um Greta and all the people that are uh young ze that are following her and, and old people like me who are following her as well. They have this that we're looking to them to clean up our mess and they're taking the responsibility that they're gonna do it and you know what they are like, I have faith in this generation. And so they're, they're the our future and they're going to right the ship and these are also our future chief Sustainability officers 10 years down the line and, and then yes, and, and they should be on the board too. I like representing that voice. But anyway, the other is Coco Goff who was, um that was calling the linesman um on um the time violations, the time violations. And she stood up for what was right. And she was able with conviction and clarity to say like this is wrong and this is why it's been wrong. And I think that the message to employers is to listen and to be active listeners because they are standing up and they, they have, they have good things to say. So it's valuable to listen. I would imagine our time is short. But I wanna ask you how you feel when you hear the, that the responsibility of writing the wrongs, not the responsibility, right. But I think there, there are certainly people, there are certainly Boomers, there are certainly Gen Xers who feel like, you know what I'm gonna check out and, you know, will write the wrong. How do you feel quickly when you hear that? Um, I personally, I don't know that my whole generation agrees with me. No, anything much less, much less the guy. Um But I don't view it as that previous generations let us down and that it's our view and it's our responsibility to take it forward from here. Because I think the reality is there have been people who have been fighting on the right side of history in every generation for as long as time that has existed. What is instead the reality is those voices were never given the platform the privilege and the possibility to become mainstream, right? And so what we had was structures that were built to serve a very small subset of the population that was consistently fed by that subset of the population where there were community organizers from each of these marginalized groups who had been doing the work. And we follow in the footsteps of all of those leaders. And so for me, it is about an inter generational collaboration that we can create the solutions so that we can achieve the solutions to the problems that we know exist from black communities, from indigenous communities working together who have been doing this work, right? And haven't been getting the recognition, haven't been getting the reward, haven't been getting the investment that they deserve right to really feed us and save us. And so for me, it is not about necessarily we're the ones to save us. It's we're the ones that may finally get the possibility to be mainstream and follow in those following the following, in the footsteps of those who've been doing this a lot longer and better than we can ever dream to. I cannot imagine a better ending to this specific conference. Let alone this panel. Thank you so much. Everyone, appreciate it. Hope it's alive. So we're done. Uh I want to on behalf of the co chairs and on behalf of fortune, I want to thank all the speakers, the discussion leaders and all of you really for engaging in such a rich conversation. Over the last a couple of days, I want your feedback, we want your feedback. We want to hear from you about how we can make this community more valuable to you. You'll be hearing from us about the global sustainability forum that we're doing virtually on September 28th if, if you're interested in that. And mostly I just want to urge you to all go out and to learn to lead to live all at the same time, no matter how old you are, go for it, uh, be well, safe travels.

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