The episode featured the Honorable Sue Gordon, former principal deputy director of National Intelligence, Dr. David Bray, distinguished chair of the accelerator at the Stimson Center, and Prof. Barry O'Sullivan, vice chair of the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence. Their combined experience, spanning intelligence, technology, and organizational transformation, offered a compelling vision for executives navigating the AI era.
But, despite the indisputable significance of a founder's strong presence to provide direction and shape the culture, is it wise for a company to be unable to survive without them, even for a short time? If a short-term absence of a few weeks halts operations and makes it impossible for everyone to perform their daily tasks, then the organization is not truly thriving.
Stoller: Speaking of core, the new book is about core. It's called Strong Ground. She based it on-she had a pickleball injury, needed to get a trainer to work on her physical core, [and] used that as a metaphor for CEOs and organizations building up their own core in this time of fear, uncertainty, and-hard time to tell the truth, as she's recently said.
In 2020, the nation witnessed an unprecedented moment of collective reckoning that philanthropy and corporate America could not ignore. Pressure to speak and act came from all sides. Protests filled the streets, employees and customers demanded change, and funders competed to demonstrate visible commitments to racial justice. The moment moved even institutions that had long been hesitant or outright resistant.