Against the global backdrop of violent conflicts, withering financial conditions and increasingly extreme weather events, leaders of major institutions have needed to adapt and pursue meaning beyond creating profit, as top officers of four companies discussed Wednesday on the TIME100 Summit stage.
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00:00 Well, I love this conversation because it's all about leading with purpose, not just leading
00:06 for profit.
00:08 And with this incredible panel of leaders today, I think we've got every category covered.
00:14 Technology, innovation, retail, luxury, financial services, I could, media, I could go on.
00:23 And I'm really excited to, these individuals need no introduction, storied decades of incredible
00:30 career.
00:32 I want to first say hi, Tori.
00:36 Hi.
00:37 Tori Burch.
00:38 Hi, everyone.
00:39 And I want to congratulate you on the Time 100.
00:40 Thank you.
00:41 Naomi Watts wrote a tribute for you.
00:44 Thank you.
00:47 And I love what she said because you sincerely want women to succeed, and we need more women
00:52 like you.
00:54 So congratulations.
00:56 And you're also recognized for the work that you do with your foundation.
01:00 Hans, you've been a great mentor to me personally as a CEO, and I want to congratulate you on
01:09 your remarkable career as a public CEO for over nearly 14 years.
01:15 That's incredible.
01:17 Not only are you the chairman and CEO of Verizon, such a busy day job, but everything that you
01:22 do with the World Economic Forum and the Edison Alliance to work on a critical issue that
01:29 affects everything, which is digital inclusivity and equity, and it's just remarkable how much
01:35 you give in that area.
01:37 So congratulations, and personally, professionally, thank you.
01:42 Sasandra, you've been amazing.
01:48 You've been amazing, known as T. How great is that?
01:52 Can I be J?
01:56 You are an incredible CEO, three years in your position, but a huge career prior at
02:04 JPMorgan Chase.
02:06 Jamie Dimon wrote for you in Time.
02:08 Congratulations on being one of the most important influential people in the world right now.
02:12 Thank you.
02:13 And what I love about your leadership is everything that you've done, obviously in financial services,
02:20 but also in the communities that the companies that you've had an incredible legacy and honor
02:26 to work with and work at, everything that you've done to make an impact.
02:31 So wow, what a panel.
02:33 I won the lottery at the Time 100 Summit today.
02:36 That's for sure.
02:37 Okay, let's get right into it.
02:38 I'm going to ask Hans this first question.
02:41 Can you talk a little bit about the economy and what's happening in the global world right
02:47 now?
02:48 Oh, that's a long and difficult question.
02:52 Now, first of all, we see, I think we all see that we have probably more wars in the
02:59 world than we have since the Second World War.
03:02 That's just bad.
03:03 I mean, the polarization in our society is enormous.
03:07 And of course, that impacts economies over the world, supply chain.
03:11 And we all know that that hits usually the most vulnerable in our society.
03:17 And that's, of course, extremely tough.
03:19 Children, females, and all of that, but also the ones that are the most low income people.
03:25 That's happening.
03:26 Then on top of that, of course, we have had high interest rates for a long time.
03:29 It takes some time here in the US where it really hits the consumers, but it will over
03:34 time and then inflation on that.
03:37 So the environment of economies is actually fairly complex.
03:42 Then we spend time on thinking on that all the time.
03:45 We have 147 million consumers basically that consume our services every day.
03:52 We don't see much of it.
03:54 They consume equal much as before almost.
03:57 Our bad debts is the same.
03:59 I think it's two things for me working in technology.
04:03 Mobility and broadband has become such a critical part in your life.
04:06 I mean, you cannot work.
04:08 You cannot connect with your friends.
04:10 You cannot do your shopping.
04:11 There's a lot of things you cannot do if you have it.
04:13 So our product has moved up from probably being the fourth or fifth priority in life
04:19 to be very close to number two.
04:21 Number one is, of course, food.
04:23 So there's a resilience in my business is just growing.
04:29 And that's probably what I saw already 20 years ago when I realized that it shouldn't
04:33 matter who you are or where you're born or where you come from.
04:36 Being part of a society means you need to be digitally included.
04:39 So that's what I see.
04:41 So the economy is one thing.
04:44 How people are spending their money is a little bit different than what I'm doing is third.
04:48 But the more worrisome is, of course, that we have more armed conflicts in the world
04:54 than we had since the Second World War.
04:56 I mean, we're living in a society where we should understand each other better.
05:01 We should talk to each other.
05:02 We should learn from better.
05:03 We should be educated and understand there are differences, but we don't need to fight
05:08 and have wars for that.
05:09 So you're sad on one side.
05:12 On the other side, there are progress in the world.
05:16 And we just need as leaders that we understand we have a huge responsibility, not only seeing
05:22 that our shareholders get all they need.
05:24 We also have an enormous impact.
05:26 I mean, I have hundreds of thousands of employees basically coming in every day and working
05:30 for me.
05:31 It's my responsibility to see that I have the positive influence of them.
05:34 They have a job.
05:35 They have growth.
05:36 They can support their families.
05:37 That becomes very important, at least that you can do what you really can impact on.
05:42 >>Tori, talk a little bit about being an entrepreneur, particularly being a female entrepreneur,
05:50 and maybe share a little advice of what you would offer today versus what you've seen
05:55 throughout your career.
05:56 >>We were just talking backstage, and when I think about the last 20 years, I said to
06:02 my husband last night, I'm like, "I can't believe I'm still standing.
06:05 There's so many things that have happened that I could have never imagined."
06:09 It is the most extraordinary profession, the most difficult, and the highs and lows are
06:16 just -- they teach you resilience.
06:19 They teach you how to take things as they come.
06:22 I think what you just said is really important.
06:25 I take responsibility.
06:28 We have 5,000 employees to show up in a positive way and to practice what I preach.
06:35 I think that being an entrepreneur today is, as I mentioned, whiplash because with all
06:42 of these things going on in the world, with all of the macro happening, you have to be
06:47 super agile.
06:48 You have to have conviction and a vision and not deviate from that, but also be able
06:56 to move with the current.
06:58 That's something that I think is so important is to obviously have a unique point of view
07:02 and make your mark and do something that is answering a need, but also be able to move
07:11 when you have to move in different directions.
07:14 We are a diversified company, and everything from supply chain to where we are globally,
07:22 it's so important because it makes you more resilient.
07:25 When certain things happen in different places around the world, you have to be able to power
07:30 through that and rise to the occasion and focus on the rest of the world and wait until
07:38 that part gets better.
07:40 That's great.
07:42 Tashonda, talk a little bit about your career, the incredible responsibility that you have,
07:49 all of the stakeholders, and everything that you've done to solve for inequities in financial
07:55 literacy and saving and retirement and building communities.
07:59 All of that, Jay?
08:02 No.
08:03 What's really great is that I get to live my purpose every day.
08:07 My purpose is to inspire and make positive impact.
08:10 When we think about the importance of financial inclusion for everyone, that is the fight.
08:18 Having an opportunity to lead a company like TIA that exists to ensure that millions of
08:23 Americans can have a secure retirement, it's personal.
08:26 If I asked all of you how many of you know someone that is not confident about their
08:32 retirement or have actually had to be the person to provide money to mom or dad or grandma
08:38 to make sure that they're okay, the reality is 40% of all Americans will run out of money
08:44 in retirement.
08:46 The facts are women retire with 30% less.
08:49 The reality is 54% of African Americans do not have enough to retire.
08:55 64% of Hispanics do not have access to a workplace plan.
09:00 What's even more staggering is that 41% of our young people between the ages of 25 and
09:05 35 are not saving and taking advantage of their workplace plan.
09:10 We have to do better and we know that we're living longer.
09:14 When I think about this purpose and impact and what we can do, first it's to make sure
09:17 that we're sharing the facts, but also recognizing that it's going to take all of us as individuals,
09:23 but also public and policy, public and private sector working together.
09:29 What can we do?
09:31 First we have to recognize we have a savings gap, $4 trillion savings gap.
09:36 We are not saving enough.
09:38 What can we do?
09:39 We can ensure that everyone is auto enrolled in their workplace plan and not being someone
09:44 like my father who worked over 40 years at a company and did not contribute $1 to his
09:48 401k plan.
09:51 That's because maybe he worked in the warehouse and scanned boxes and the fancy material did
09:55 not reach the man in the warehouse.
09:57 How do we as leaders make it easy for every employee to have access by auto enrolling
10:02 them?
10:03 That will get us on the path of savings.
10:05 We also need auto escalation because sometimes when we enroll, we can't afford the match.
10:09 We can't afford the max.
10:11 Auto escalation can ensure that every year you add 1%, you add another percent until
10:16 that employee can reach their max and get the full benefit.
10:20 If they need to take that reduction, that's fine, but the next year you enroll them again.
10:25 That is how we get on a path of saving.
10:27 We also have an access gap.
10:29 58 million Americans do not have access to a workplace plan.
10:32 Many of them are small business owners.
10:35 How do we make sure we can make it easier for small business owners to provide access
10:41 to their employees to get a retirement plan like an IRA?
10:45 We can do more and we can do better.
10:47 Lastly, we believe there is a guarantee gap.
10:49 We know the last time we had high inflation it was in the '70s, but the reality is that
10:53 over 70% of Americans had access to a defined benefit plan.
10:57 Now that number is 12% and we know Social Security is not enough and it was never designed
11:01 to be all-encompassing.
11:02 When we think about a guarantee gap, especially at a company like TIA, which is our purpose,
11:07 we believe that in that workplace plan we need to have lifetime income options.
11:13 The question people don't have to ask anymore is how long do you think you'll live?
11:17 No one knows.
11:18 I'll be 110.
11:19 I am clear.
11:20 [laughter]
11:21 But the real question is, will I have enough?
11:25 Equity risk is real as people are living longer.
11:27 We have to make sure that our workplace plans and access can ensure that people can have
11:33 confidence in retirement and we're not transferring debt.
11:37 We're transferring wealth and we're transferring confidence that the next generation can be
11:41 okay.
11:42 We have work to do, but as you can tell, this is personal.
11:46 It's purpose and it's something that we as all Americans have to get proximate to.
11:50 It's not for when you're older because it's impacting the people that are in that working
11:54 age feeling the pressure of taking care of mom and dad, but also taking care of their
11:59 children and trying to be okay in their own life.
12:02 This is something that we're passionate about.
12:03 It's something that I'm passionate about and it's personal because I get to go to work
12:07 every day thinking about an Otis Brown who did not take advantage of his 401(k) plan.
12:12 I get to think about my mother who's a retired educator, given that we serve the higher ed
12:16 market as well, and saying it is a fight and it's one that I'm committed to.
12:21 I'm inviting all of you to join me on what we can do better to make sure all Americans
12:25 can have a secure retirement.
12:33 Thank you for sharing that story.
12:36 I listened to the word personal, which you said a few times.
12:40 That leads me to my question around leading with purpose.
12:45 CEOs and leaders today, shocker, they're supposed to be people, human beings, not just
12:50 CEOs.
12:53 You've been leaders for decades.
12:56 Can you just share how that's changed and how you've had to change in terms of leadership
13:01 today versus years ago?
13:02 Hans, start with you.
13:06 Quite a dramatic change.
13:07 I think that when I became the CEO for a public company first time, 2009, information didn't
13:13 travel that fast.
13:15 The reaction could take weeks before you reacted on things happening around you.
13:21 In today's society, if you wait 24 hours to have a response on things, that can be bad.
13:28 Bad meaning people, customers that are expecting that you reach out.
13:32 The other thing that I learned over the years, and that's of course, you also need to stay
13:38 true to the purpose of the company.
13:41 You can have opinions of a lot of things in today's society.
13:43 I personally can have, but you need to stay true to what is important for your company
13:48 because I'm actually the biggest brand ambassador for Verizon.
13:52 I'm a spokesperson for Verizon.
13:53 I'm not a spokesperson for Hans Westberg.
13:55 I think that has changed quite dramatically because at least for 2009, I can say a lot
14:00 of things that I thought was important in our society, but probably didn't really connect
14:05 with the company.
14:06 Today, I take the fight when it comes to digital inclusion, equality, pay equity, diversity,
14:13 things that are important for my company to succeed.
14:17 That now will speak up, but I wouldn't speak up in a topic that wouldn't be relatable to
14:22 our company.
14:23 That has changed.
14:24 Then also, the different channels of communication.
14:26 I think that sending a mail was okay to all employees 2009.
14:31 Now you probably need to stand up, speak yourself in front of them, take any question.
14:37 A lot of things have changed how you communicate to all your stakeholders.
14:42 That is the biggest change.
14:43 You need to be more alert.
14:44 You need to be more connected with your purpose, with the company nowadays than you were 10,
14:49 15 years ago.
14:51 Yeah.
14:52 I mean, I started my company, the business plan was to start a foundation.
14:58 From day one, purpose was ingrained from the very beginning.
15:02 I think when you start with purpose and we create this paradigm for authentic brand purpose,
15:11 certain things are expected of you.
15:14 In a way, we consider ourselves an activist brand.
15:17 When things happen all over and in real time, you have to have a point of view and comment.
15:25 I think that you have to be really careful in doing that because we have so many different
15:31 kinds of employees.
15:32 Our customer is very diverse.
15:34 We have to really take our time.
15:37 That said, we do have to stand for something.
15:40 I think that that is something we don't take lightly.
15:43 It's a big responsibility.
15:46 We think a lot about everything we do and the purpose that comes.
15:51 We tie it in with our foundation.
15:53 When you have purpose and the foundation that we have, which supports women entrepreneurs,
16:01 that is so integral to every decision we make.
16:06 Whether it's creating a safe environment where we work and people feel like they can come
16:11 to work, whether our customer is buying something and knows that it's a little bit more than
16:15 just a handbag, all of these things are constantly in our thought process as we're facing the
16:22 world in such chaos.
16:24 I think that that's something that I'm proud of to take a stand, but it's very complex,
16:31 but you have to do it in real time.
16:34 >> Yeah, I mean, just to build on that, I do think that it's important for leaders to
16:41 be clear on your values, be clear on the diverse constituents that you serve, and be clear
16:51 on the outcome that we're here to provide.
16:53 But in order to do that, when we know that we're in a polarizing world, we know that
16:58 we forgot the word "and."
17:00 It's either "or."
17:01 We know that there's so many different perspectives.
17:04 I think as leaders, what we have to lean more into is the empathy, getting proximate, and
17:13 making sure that when you are making that decision, that people can feel connected to
17:18 it even when they don't agree.
17:21 Because the reality is now, on any decision, all of your employees are not going to agree.
17:27 On any decision, you may not have full alignment with the clients that you serve, and on any
17:32 decision, you may be at odds with the broader market.
17:36 But the most important thing that I think we have to make sure that we do not compromise
17:41 as leaders is, "Did I hold space to understand your perspective?
17:45 And do people believe that I listened?"
17:49 And if you believe that I listened, and if you believe that I'm committed to surrounding
17:53 myself with diverse perspectives, then when we make that decision, we will be clear, we
17:59 will be decisive, but you can say we may not always agree, but we can respect it and we
18:04 understand it, and we know that if new information is at the table, we will be willing to listen
18:11 again.
18:12 And I think agility is absolutely key.
18:16 Understanding technology is changing quickly, so you have to have agility in technology,
18:21 but I also think we have to have agility in understanding the dynamic needs of the people
18:25 that we serve and the people that we get the privilege to lead every single day.
18:29 So that's what I think about leadership today that maybe was not as pronounced in the past.
18:35 - That's great, thank you.
18:39 We're almost out of time, but I am the CEO of time, so I'm gonna go one minute over to
18:46 ask my last question, which is gonna have to be quick answers.
18:50 Let's say AI, we were supposed to cover that a little bit more thoroughly on this panel,
18:54 but we'll get to it throughout the day.
18:56 So other than AI, what are you most excited about this year?
19:01 Tori, you go first.
19:03 - Oh, well, I'm looking at the work we're doing at the foundation and how doing good
19:10 is good for business, and how do we really take that further?
19:17 Our foundation is different and our company is different because we are actually doing
19:21 the work.
19:22 So we're setting up the programming, we're working with partners like Bank of America,
19:27 we're doing fellowship programs with our entrepreneurs.
19:30 I want to think about impact and scale.
19:33 And for me, I think it's great to be purpose-driven, but if you don't have impact and scale, it
19:40 doesn't really matter.
19:41 And that authenticity that is tied to that is critical.
19:45 So I can't wait to expand that.
19:49 - I have two things.
19:53 First of all, I think the target of making 1 billion people digitally included over five
20:00 years, which I took on 2021, I hope I will pass that this year already, together with
20:07 many partners and countries all around the world.
20:10 And that digital inclusion is actually digital education, healthcare, and financially, not
20:15 only to have broadband and do some streaming service.
20:19 That is a big goal for me this year, and that's what I'm looking forward to.
20:22 But I'm also looking forward to New York Rangers, I have to say.
20:27 I'm really excited about Madison Square Garden and NYX this year, so hopefully it's going
20:32 to be a great year for Madison Square Garden.
20:34 Okay, that was two.
20:35 - I wasn't expecting that.
20:36 Okay, well, I'm going to...
20:37 Yeah, that's awesome.
20:38 - You go now.
20:39 - I did both of those things.
20:42 I'm excited about what they're excited about.
20:44 I'm excited about this fight to make sure that more people can have a secure retirement.
20:49 We're not just serving the 403(b) market, we're serving the 401(k) market to make sure
20:53 that people have lifetime income options.
20:55 So I'm excited about the fact that we're not done yet on this fight.
20:59 I'm excited about this year ahead to see what my kids are going to do.
21:02 They're super dope, and I'm so proud of them.
21:04 And then lastly, I'm excited about women's sports, and I'm excited about the impact that
21:12 women are making and demonstrating.
21:15 Talent is created equally, opportunity is not, and the opportunity that women have earned
21:21 to be able to show what we can do in sports is just one area, but I'm excited about the
21:26 good trouble that we're going to continue to make in business and in every sector.
21:29 - And women are a good investment.
21:31 - Women are good investments.
21:32 - I'm super excited about that.
21:35 - Well, great timing and a little plug for time.
21:40 Today we launched our cover with Coco Gauff.
21:42 So, like, you know, we're running this big event, and I opened my email this morning,
21:49 and I just see fire.
21:50 I said, "Oh, no, what's now?
21:52 What's happening now?"
21:53 - Fire's good.
21:54 - And it was from Chris Davis, the chief marketing officer at New Balance, who then sent me the
21:58 cover of Time and just said, "Fire."
22:00 She's a New Balance audience.
22:01 So, go women.
22:02 I love it.
22:03 Thank you.
22:04 - Thank you.
22:05 - Thank you.
22:06 - Thank you.
22:06 (audience applauding)