Risk, rationality, trade and tariffs
Good morning.
I had an enjoyable discussion yesterday with Yale’s inimitable Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice and founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Along with being a great convener, Jeff is a thinker who looks at current affairs through the lens of leadership. Here is his writing in Fortune and a recent piece in Time where he talks about how America’s extreme left and right are coming together on some key issues.
We spoke with three CEOs from different industries: Pedro Pizarro of Edison International, who oversees one of the country’s largest electric utilities; John Schlifske, who has expanded Northwestern Mutual from its foundation in insurance to being a broad financial services company during his 14-year tenure; and John DiLullo, a cybersecurity veteran who’s now at the helm of Deepwatch. You know it’s a rich discussion when they’re asking questions of each other.
Pizarro was just back from COP29, the annual U.N. climate conference wrapping up today in Azerbaijan. Compared with the “exuberance around the Inflation Reduction Act” last year, he said, there was a “more tentative view given that President-elect Trump may pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement.” While he predicts a continued commitment to clean energy—perhaps even an acceleration in areas like EVs—he argues an American pullback on carbon commitments could have implications for trade
Schlifske talked about the transformative power of AI in raising customer service to a profound new level. In general, he’s feeling positive because of an anticipated “pro-growth agenda coming out of this administration” with extended tax cuts, less regulation and positive signals in the U.S. markets.
While DiLullo is also “a lot more optimistic this year than last year,” that’s partly because the risk environment is creating demand for his products. In particular, the threats posed by hackers leveraging AI are “asymmetrical”—companies must achieve 100% security while attackers need only succeed once to wreak profound havoc.
All hope the rhetoric on all sides translates to rational actions on the ground. Along with raising costs, trade wars make it harder to cooperate and coordinate when dealing with everything from climate change to cybercrimes—not to mention war, disease, and innovation. “The business community is not by nature isolationist. It’s not xenophobic, and it is not protectionist,” said Sonnenfeld.
We discussed much more, of course, with some lively debate. Hope you can join some of our future conversations.
More news below.
Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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TOP NEWS
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Boeing CEO wants employees to stop whining
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told employees to “focus on the task at hand” and not “sit at the water cooler and bitch about people” in an all-hands meeting this week, according to a recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The task Ortberg is referring to is “beating” competitor Airbus.
Gary Gensler to step down
SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler announced on Wednesday that he will step down from the position on January 20th, the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Gensler’s more than three-year tenure is defined by intense crypto skepticism.
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Nvidia CEO waves off Blackwell production concerns, says demand is ‘staggering’ by Greg McKenna
Elon Musk’s first order of business in Trump administration: Kill remote work by Christiaan Hetzner
Why Robinhood is spending $300 million to buy a wealth management platform by Alicia Adamczyk
$749 million ‘treasure hunt’: Crypto miner fights to retrieve Bitcoin fortune he claims was accidentally thrown in landfill by Eleanor Pringle
Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun buys $6 million banana—and plans to eat it unless Elon Musk wants to send it to space by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Joey Abrams.
