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 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. We still keep the tone of a classroom or a business meeting, so that there’s a lively exchange. Business leaders want to spread the message that “it’s time to move on and respect the Constitution,” Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld told CNBC. The gathering of … 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. This post is based on Key … 1 - 15 of 42 results. 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. Likewise, Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson stressed listening, empathizing, and trying to understand the complexity of people’s feelings. “He had the answers to everybody’s problems and wouldn’t stop talking,” Sonnenfeld remembers. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management and the nation’s leading authority on corporate leadership, has run exactly 100 of the summits in three decades — a nice milestone — and has asked questions about Trump since the 2016 election. “There was a surprising amount of openness to the idea of mandates for vaccines,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Ginni Rometty agrees with the focus on opportunity, but sees many opportunities related to jobs that can be for individuals with less than a four-year college degree. “The business community can take leadership when it comes to concrete actions around things like police reform and around things like access to capital…of all the issues the business community can unilaterally make an impact on, it’s the issue of joblessness; it’s the issues of opportunity in the African American community.”. But what happens when the pandemic has concluded? If anybody has prepared remarks, we tear them up. Indra Nooyi said the real test is how people and companies will behave when the collective crises we now face are over. Initially, Me Too was viewed as a female issue. 3. And that’s who you are as the managing partner.”. At the forefront of speaking up is Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck. “When you feel strongly,” Schwarzman continued, “You should speak out, articulate why you say what you do…and you have to be consistent.”. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld's speaking fee falls within range: $50,000 to $75,000 (Speakers' virtual presentation fees are generally … Then, companies need to go beyond listening by focusing on jobs and opportunities. In particular, the actions that are required must focus on opportunities. Top CEOs may withdraw financial support from Republicans who have backed President Donald Trump’s challenge to the election result, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the founder of … IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said that companies must create a safe environment where people are comfortable having straightforward dialogue and talking about their fears. There’s no net beneath us.”, Each participant has an electronic response device in front of them, allowing Sonnenfeld to take and display snap polls. “What happens when we come out of this pandemic; are we going to be a different humanity? Americans want CEOs and brands to speak up. At one CEO Summit, the chairman and two members of the Securities and Exchange Commission were present, at a time when many of the CEOs in attendance were concerned about the cost of a pending regulation. 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. 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. Prior to the pandemic, Nooyi reflected, we referred to many individuals as “hourly workers.” Then, during the pandemic, many of these people became the backbone of our country and were termed “essential workers.” We admire them and clap for them. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld CEO, Coaching, Communication Skills, International Business, Leadership. —Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman, President & CEO, Merck & Co. Other CEOs commended Frazier for speaking up and agreed with his message. For example, they assembled a group that they called “SuperCom,” with leaders from the computer, telecom, software, and exertainment industries. And the officials in Minneapolis didn’t take any action for four days until the community took to the streets. Multiple CEOs reiterated the idea of “start with your employees.”. 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. You can follow him at Twitter @JeffSonnenfeld. His successor, meanwhile, gets to deal with escalating efforts to curtail Amazon's power. While responses from individual participants are off the record, they agree to have summaries of the conversation and their aggregated poll responses made public, and those poll responses often make headlines. But it is possible to dramatically improve the education system. 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.”. Will we treat them differently? 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. Several participants, including IBM’s Arvind Krishna and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman, focused on education. Around this time every year, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld becomes one of the most important people in corporate America as host of the Yale School of Management's annual "CEO Summit… Jeffrey Sonnenfeld directed and moderated his 104th Yale CEO Summit on Dec. 15, 2020, in an online event. According to Sonnenfeld, the commissioners invited comment. But regardless of whether it is technically legal or not, three former high-ranking defense and military leaders expressed concern that the Trump administration is politicizing the military and is potentially eroding trust in the military, and they are extremely concerned with how the President and the administration are making decisions. “I think for all of us, whatever we have done, it is not enough on the listening, the healing, the reconciliation.… It is not enough…we have much more to do on the listening piece and on learning.”, —Virginia M. Rometty, Executive Chairman, IBM. 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. An Earth Day CEO summit shows how dramatically corporate values have changed. 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. “We can contrast with data from a prior summit for a longitudinal comparison,” Sonnenfeld says. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld (born April 1954) is an academic, Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at Yale School of Management, and Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies. To actually get it unscripted, without the public relations sanitizing how CEOs talk about what they’re doing.”. Initially, the gatherings were divided by industry—or, rather, by groupings of industries that Sonnenfeld and his team saw as having issues in common. CEOs from a variety of industries, as well as leaders from government and nonprofits, gather in one room for an unscripted, off-the-record conversation, with Sonnenfeld guiding the discussion. Then, beyond listening, it is important to take concrete steps on things that the company can control. 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. 1. Will we give these individuals higher wages? 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. He agreed, “We have to speak to our people.” Just prior to the CEO Summit he participated in a town hall where three black partners spoke to 10,000 firm members about their personal experiences. Sonnenfeld is the founder of Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), a non-profit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance. Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines, concurred. Among those in attendance were execs from Disney, Accenture, Goldman … One memory is that one of the business leaders took over the conversation. Continue Reading Below The gathering of 300 top business executives, policymakers and a few journalists is regarded as among the most important confabs in business and politics, given the A-listers in attendance. “It’s great getting congressional figures to run over.”. Question: How important is it for companies or executives to emphasize the following in their response to protests and demonstrations in dozens of US cities? Next Page. FORTUNE 500 CEOs will reportedly intervene and force Donald Trump out of the White House if Joe Biden's inauguration is pushed back. Yale CEO Summit We Don’t Look 100 and Neither Do You: 2020 Perspectives from the Pioneers of CEO Leadership Forums The Roosevelt Hotel New York| December 17-18, 2019 Yale CEO Summit Trumpeting the Issues without Becoming the Issue: Selective Use of CEO Voice The New York Public Library| June 4-5, 2019 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. “We’re closer to the Capitol than the Senate Office Building is to the House Office Building,” Sonnenfeld says. He sees the business community playing a key role in getting through this time and in providing opportunities to the African American community. Former IBM CEO and current executive chairman Ginni Rometty reiterated Ken Frazier’s words that focused on healing, reconciliation, and action. In December, the CEO Summit celebrated its 100th event. Schwarzman emphasized that education is the key to making sustained changes and providing people with a good quality of life. 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. “Education gives rise to opportunities. One of his favorite exercises is to survey the CEO attendees on issues of the day. “They did not see the convergence” that has since created giants like Apple, Amazon, Disney, and Comcast. Around this time every year, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld becomes one of the most important people in corporate America as host of the Yale School of Management's annual "CEO Summit." These results could be replicated across the country. But, Sonnenfeld says, it’s important to hear from new voices. Sonnenfeld recalled that some executives who are active CEOs today threatened to walk out when he brought Trump to a business summit around 2006. 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. 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. 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. However, public education in the United States is not what it once was. Select from premium Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the highest quality. They’re all out to devour the alpha wolf. “The three of them said, ‘Well, this is like an open hearing. Richard Spencer, the former Secretary of the US Navy, argued, “The most important thing that our military has right now is its reputation. In addition to being in agreement on the need to listen, understand, and empathize, business leaders were in strong agreement that words are not enough; action is required. China congratulates Biden on winning election... 03:21 The executives who participated in the video conference are from Fortune 500 finance, retail, media and manufacturing companies, Sonnenfeld … Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Dan Esty, April 22, 2020. 2. Will we provide health insurance and more workers’ rights? “They thought they were completely different industries,” Sonnenfeld says. Another event brought together CEOs from the consulting, legal, accounting, and architectural industries. 2. Frazier’s goal in speaking up was to explain to viewers what the source of the anger is for many African Americans. This involves communicating with employees, giving them a voice, and listening carefully and with empathy. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management. We’re going to start a policy around that. 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. 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.”. Sometimes we can convince ourselves that it’s not really my responsibility as a CEO to opine on this or make a statement on this, because when it comes to diversity and inclusion, we might think, ‘Well, it’s not going to matter, because who am I to be making these statements?’ It does matter.” 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. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets demanding reduced air pollution, improved water quality, and better waste management. “One thing I love is getting colleagues from around the campus there,” Sonnenfeld says. 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. “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. “This African American man could be me or any other African American man,” said Frazier. —Doug Parker, Chairman & CEO, American Airlines, “I think it’s important to speak out,” agreed Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone. 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. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld (born April 1954) is an academic, Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at Yale School of Management, and Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies.Sonnenfeld is the founder of Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), a non-profit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld (born April 1954) is an academic, Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at Yale School of Management, and Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies.Sonnenfeld is the founder of Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), a non-profit educational and research institute focused on CEO leadership and corporate governance. According to Sonnenfeld, Henderson responded that at BCG, he cultivated loyal underlings and forced out those who might eventually challenge him—including Bill Bain, the founder of Bain & Company. “At the beginning,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld says, “they’re wondering, what in the hell have I gotten into here? You are gambling that reputation … when you send active military troops into a civilian situation. The CEO Summit gives them the opportunity to see them in context, to understand how they interact with competitors, regulators, and others. This post is based on Key Takeaways by the Yale School of Management CEO Summit. “And one third, in the beginning, are wondering, what in the hell have I gotten into here? On February 2, Amazon announced that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO, becoming the company’s executive chairman. © Copyright 2000-2021 Yale School of Management. 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. CEO Summit participants were in strong agreement: CEOs must speak up about racism and companies must take concrete actions to become more inclusive. Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, stressed the importance of CEOs as advocates. The comments of other CEOs resonate with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. By Ben Mattison Tuesday's announcement that Bezos will hand off the CEO job this summer came as a surprise. Joanne Lipman, former editor-in-chief of USA TODAY and author of That’s What She Said, drew parallels to the Me Too movement. Parker said that white people are not good at having difficult conversations about racism and therefore often avoid having such conversations. But Yale School of Management professor and senior associate dean of leadership programs Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who hosted the meeting, … Scholars often look at aspects of business in isolation, Sonnenfeld says. (Mr. Pildes argued it is only allowable in the most extreme of cases and the current situation doesn’t rise to that level.). More than two dozen CEOs … 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. This is finally occurring as the concept of white allies takes hold where white people now join in by seeing racism as their issue to confront. “It’s like managing a wolf pack. “‘He’s going to sabotage you.’” Nicholas dismissed their concerns—but later was indeed forced out by Time Warner co-CEO Steven J. Ross and replaced with Levin. 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. You can follow him at Twitter @JeffSonnenfeld. All rights reserved. Find the perfect Jeffrey Sonnenfeld stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. “I think there are a limited number of things you can focus on,” he said. On Saturday, the Financial Times reported that Stephen A. Schwarzman ’69 “defended Donald Trump’s response to this year’s US poll results” at a meeting of prominent CEOs, reigniting questions over whether the University should have given the donor naming rights to the Schwarzman Center. 1. 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 … Even after stepping aside as CEO, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will likely keep identifying new frontiers for the world's dominant e-commerce company. Travels from Connecticut, USA. Will we change? Among the findings: Figure 1: Americans want companies to acknowledge the reason for these protests. “Everybody in the room was warning him, ‘Jerry Levin is a snake in the grass,’” Sonnenfeld says. The participants were baffled to find themselves in the same room. “Business cannot be a bystander…We have some very courageous CEOs that speak up, but dare I say, I wish there would be more who would speak up.”. And, once the protests about police brutality and racism subside, what changes will truly be made? By ... Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. Even companies that are already taking action must do more. 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. Only a few of America’s CEOs have made public statements about President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his election loss, but in private, many are alarmed and talking about what collective action would be necessary if they see an imminent threat to … Then, beyond listening, it is important to take concrete steps on things that the company can control. Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management. 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. Recalling a conversation from 2007, Professor of leadership at the Yale School of Management, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, said Mr Bezos “was very admiring of … However, he cautioned CEOs not to speak out on everything. Since 1990, Yale SOM’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld has led the CEO Summit, a peer-driven, unscripted, and off-the-record gathering of leaders from business, government, and nonprofits. That’s what the history has shown. There’s no net beneath us.”, The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for. “We get a richer view of what’s happening with these enterprises,” Sonnenfeld says. But the other memory hinted at what a peer-driven conversation could become—a source of insights not available to CEOs in other forums. At each CEO Summit, one third of participants are new to the event. Fortune: An Earth Day CEO summit shows how dramatically corporate values have changed. N.J. Nicholas, co-CEO of the newly merged Time Warner, was warned by his peers about his colleague Gerald Levin. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Illusory Promise of Stakeholder Governance by Lucian A. Bebchuk and Roberto Tallarita (discussed on the Forum here) and Socially Responsible Firms by Alan Ferrell, Hao Liang, and Luc Renneboog (discussed on the Forum here). While one focus of the CEO Summit is the opportunity for corporate leaders to learn from each other, it also gives Sonnenfeld and his Yale colleagues a chance to inform their studies of business and management. Sonnenfeld recalls that the two aging leaders debated their approaches, with Bower extolling McKinsey’s collegial, cooperative partnership structure. After Nooyi made comments about the bathroom bill in North Carolina, one third of her employees supported her and one third strongly criticized her; the remaining one third were quiet.