Normally, trust = consistency + time. But when you're scaling fast, you have to find shortcuts to trust, with your partners and your users. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek knows a thing or two about this. When he founded Spotify, he did what few disruptors ever do: He worked with the industry he was trying to reinvent. How did Ek build a relationship with a music industry wary of piracy? He found shortcuts to trust. And not just with the music industry, but users to. With cameo appearances from Gustav Söderström (Spotify's Chief Research & Development Officer) and Miles Daisher (Red Bull Air Force ..read more

How do you balance saving capital for the unknown versus taking advantage of newly available tech talent? How do you price a product when there’s nothing in the market to compare it to? Reid Hoffman and Bob Safian answer these questions and more, all posed live by entrepreneurs across many stages of scale. Plus in our Need to Know segment, Reid waxes on his love of games and why they could be the most undervalued school of business strategy. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/ Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dlirtX See Pr ..read more

Being authentic defines strong leadership. Bozoma Saint John has continually challenged expectations, moving purposefully across multiple roles, from Uber’s chief brand officer to Netflix’s CMO, from Pepsico to Apple, from working for celebrated director Spike Lee to working for iconic Hollywood talent agent Ari Emmanuel. The wall between the personal and professional is artificial, Boz argues, and a barrier to leading what she calls The Urgent Life in a new book. The best leaders tap into their emotions and listen to their instincts, she says, which helps to drive a team and a business forwar ..read more

To survive a crisis, you have to double down on who you already are as a company. This is something Ellen Kullman knows, having led DuPont through the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and taken the CEO role at 3D-printing unicorn Carbon only weeks before Covid hit. Through her years as a leader, Ellen has developed four crisis principles that allowed her to lead teams and thrive through pandemic, economic meltdown, and beyond. The key? Practicing the principles in calmer times, before crisis hits. Because as Reid says: there's no such thing as a crisis playbook. There's just your playbook. Cameos ..read more

How do you stay focused and committed to putting out a fire while new fires ignite elsewhere? Mercy Corps CEO, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna returns to Rapid Response to discuss the expansive relief effort in Turkey and Syria since the earthquake, leading a grieving team, and how the org’s support strategy in Ukraine must pivot as the country enters its second year of war. Tjada also shares insights about the greater role businesses can play in societal improvement, and why altruism doesn’t mean sacrificing scale. Support Mercy Corps’ relief effort in Syria: https://www.mercycorps.org/donate/catastroph ..read more

Rather than pursue conventional milestones, define your own. Babylist’s founder and CEO, Natalie Gordon took baby steps to grow her e-commerce site from a 45-minute-a-day side hustle to a platform used by over 50% of new parents in the U.S. Natalie learned that as Babylist grew, her goals must grow with it. Despite wins and losses along the journey to scale, Natalie continued to play her own game and no one else’s. Read a transcript of this episode: https://mastersofscale.com/ Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dlirtX See Privacy Policy at https://art19.co ..read more

Hard challenges demand that we embrace tension. Former CEO of IBM Ginni Rometty argues that, right now, business has a responsibility to deploy what her new book calls Good Power — from putting skills first in hiring, as a way to close systemic opportunity gaps, to thoughtfully erecting guardrails around new technology. As an early pioneer in the AI space with IBM’s Watson, Ginni acknowledges the risk that disruptive technology can have on society. She offers her insider perspective on balancing what she calls “the teeter-totter” of marketplace demands with positive long-term impact. Read a tr ..read more

Climbing the ladder is a goal for many professionals, but creatively-minded leaders look and move laterally to catapult themselves. Advertising industry icon David Droga built trailblazing creative agency Droga5 by making a series of unconventional leaps and spins, and is now applying those tactics as head of mega-agency, Accenture Song. By swinging through the jungle gym instead of sticking to the ladder — leaning into creative partnerships, programs, and perspectives — David has had outsize impact on the industry and accelerated his route to scale. Read a transcript of this episode: https ..read more

With deserted airports, vaccine and mask mandates, and pandemic-prompted staff departures behind it, Delta Air Lines is once again soaring, recently sharing $563 million in profits with its employees. CEO Ed Bastian, in his third appearance on Rapid Response, talks about capitalizing on the big decisions made amid Covid darkness — from airport renovations to investing in free Wifi — and the opportunities and challenges of adding 25,000 new employees over the past year. Sharing insights on managing tumultuous shifts, as well as his evolving perspective on topics from wellness to business travel ..read more

What can entrepreneurs learn from a genre-crossing, multi-platinum musician? How to take a big opportunity — and leverage it into something epic. From his earliest days as a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am learned from mentors how to not only identify big opportunities but compound them. From the Super Bowl to the first iTunes commercial; from the founding of Beats and his tech company i.am+ to a song beamed back from Mars, his ability to bring stakeholders together to leverage partnerships and compound possibilities will inspire founders at any stage of scale ..read more