Music Tech News
Beatport announced that long‑time CEO Robb McDaniels will become executive chairman on July 1, with President and CFO Matt Gralen promoted to CEO and CRO Helen Sartory moving to president and COO. Audiotool is launching a two‑month hackathon (May 11‑July 6) inviting musicians and developers to create AI‑enhanced music‑creation tools. Ticketmaster introduced a ChatGPT app, allowing users of the 900 million‑user AI platform to discover events and purchase tickets directly. Meanwhile, the Single platform now integrates with Shopify, giving artists a unified storefront for music sales, streaming, live‑stream tickets and fan memberships.
The End of the Non-Technical Engineering Manager
The article warns that the traditional, non‑technical engineering manager is disappearing as organizations flatten and AI automates coordination tasks. Middle‑manager layers shrank dramatically in 2023, and AI tools now handle status updates, meeting summaries, and basic design scaffolding. To remain...
Howling Monkeys Make Lousy Leaders
The article argues that vocal, controlling leadership – likened to a howling monkey – hampers productivity and engagement. It contends that effective leaders provide clear guardrails, trust competent team members, and step back to let talent operate. By reducing noise...
How to Take Appropriate Risks When You Don’t Have All the Answers
The article argues that waiting for perfect information stalls progress, so leaders should make decisions with the data they have. It defines an "appropriate risk" as a responsible choice where downside is manageable and delay costs are real. Practical tools...
Integrate the Slingshot Pause
The post urges professionals to embed a daily "thinking pause" into their schedules, arguing that deliberate mental time drives the most consequential decisions. It contrasts the common habit of allocating hours to physical exercise with the rarity of setting aside...
What I’m Talking About When I Talk About Co-Learning
Mark Reich, LEI Chief Engineer Strategy, explains that lean learning thrives on co‑learning—mutual teaching between mentors, peers, and organizations. He illustrates the concept with a Murakami coaching anecdote, Toyota’s assembly‑line training, chief‑engineer market immersion, and the TSSC cross‑industry TPS program....
Can Gervaise Work His Psycho-Magic at WPP?
WPP CEO Cindy Rose has hired high‑performance psychologist Michael Gervaise to boost leadership resilience after a period of underperformance. Over 200 senior executives are already participating in the program, which focuses on mental strength and cohesive decision‑making. The initiative coincides...
Gallup’s 2026 Workplace Report: How Do We Fix the Manager Engagement Collapse?
Gallup’s 2026 State of the Global Workplace report shows employee engagement at a historic low of 20 percent and manager engagement falling nine points since 2022. The decline stems from a poorly designed manager role that has accumulated administrative, reporting, and...
Achmea Appoints Rogier Peters as Executive Board Member and CRO
Achmea, a leading Dutch insurer, announced that Rogier Peters will become a member of its Executive Board and Chief Risk Officer on 1 October 2026, succeeding Michiel Delfos. Peters brings a strong actuarial background and CRO experience from MSIG Europe, Ageas UK,...
The Multifamily Operations Daily Huddle: The Long View in Leadership
The article argues that multifamily operators who prioritize invisible, long‑term infrastructure and culture outperform those chasing short‑term amenity trends. It warns that deferred maintenance, concession‑driven leasing and a weak employee culture erode value over a decade. Leaders who invest in...
Are You Building a Strategic Culture?
The final article in the “Building Strategic Capacity in Your Leadership Team” series argues that culture, not just strategy, determines whether strategic thinking spreads beyond the CEO. It outlines three levers—intention, repetition, and recognition—that embed strategic thinking into agendas, performance...
CEO Interview with Johan Wadenholt Vrethem of Voxo
Voxo, founded in Stockholm in 2016, uses AI to capture and transform live event speech into branded, shareable content within minutes. After a successful pilot at Techarena 2024, the company pivoted to event‑focused analytics, now serving global enterprises such as...
Port of Portland Appoints New Chief Shared Prosperity and Legal Officer
The Port of Portland announced Krishna Walker as its new Chief Shared Prosperity and Legal Officer, a role that consolidates Human Resources, Legal and Records Management, Culture and Strategy, and Contracts and Procurement. Walker, who joins on May 4, 2026,...
How Caring for Others Makes You a Better Businesswoman
Businesswomen who bring genuine care into their leadership gain strategic advantages. By focusing on long‑term impacts, they avoid the pitfalls of a purely transactional mindset, fostering innovation and a stable culture. Empathy enhances trust, improves people‑reading skills, and accelerates sales...
Three Keys To Engagement.
Gallup’s 2026 Global Employee Engagement Survey shows only 20% of workers worldwide—and just 31% in the United States—feel engaged, while top‑performing firms achieve roughly 70% engagement. The report points to managers as the biggest driver of disengagement, with heavy workloads,...
From HR to Running a Multi-Million-Dollar Business
Juhi Dubey, formerly an HR leader at Infosys—a 320,000‑employee, $19 billion revenue firm—felt her role had become overly transactional. Recognizing that HR was often sidelined from core business decisions, she deliberately spent more time on the business floor than in traditional...
Why Unlearning Is Vital to Succeed in the AI Era
The post argues that thriving in the AI era requires unlearning entrenched beliefs about work, competence, and decision‑making. It explains how the effort heuristic and presenteeism cause teams to overvalue visible labor, while AI can make people feel smarter yet...
Weekly Reads: Prasad Successor, Sammy Hagar Stem Cells, More on OSK Trial, Finnish Speaker Needed
Vinay Prasad is set to leave his role as head of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER within two weeks, prompting speculation about the agency’s future direction. A new flexible oversight framework for rare‑disease gene and cell therapies...
One Day
The author of "SuperSkills: The Seven Human Skills for the Age of AI" announces a July 3 2026 release, after a decade of weekly newsletters and a rapid, AI‑augmented production process. By building a website for under $10 and using AI for...
Why People Follow Bad Leaders Knowingly
The post links Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments to the 1978 Jonestown tragedy to illustrate why ordinary people often follow harmful leaders. In Milgram’s study, 65 % of participants administered lethal shocks when instructed by an authority figure, despite personal distress. Jonestown showed...
OpenAI’s Sora Lead Bill Peebles and VP of AI for Science Kevin Weil Are Both Leaving as the Company Refocuses...
OpenAI has wound down its Sora video generation effort and announced the departure of Bill Peebles, the team’s head. At the same time, Kevin Weil, the former chief product officer and most recent VP of AI for Science, also left...
The 3-Page Report Candidates Never See
Executive recruiters write a confidential 3‑5 page report within 24 hours after each deep‑dive interview, and candidates never see it. The report, built from the interview transcript, decides whether a candidate makes the shortlist and includes scope, achievements, leadership style, cultural...
Consultant vs Coach
The article draws a clear line between consultants and coaches, emphasizing that consultants own the answer and deliver tangible solutions, while coaches help leaders uncover answers within themselves. It explains how technical challenges demand consulting expertise, whereas adaptive, people‑centric issues...
Etsy Discloses Executive Compensation, Date of Annual Shareholder Meeting
Etsy announced that its annual shareholder meeting will be held virtually on June 9, 2026, where directors including former CEO Josh Silverman will be up for re‑election. The SEC proxy revealed a CEO‑to‑median‑employee pay ratio of roughly 83:1, with Silver’s 2025 total compensation...
The Artnet of the Deal
Artsy and Artnet announced a merger on April 17, 2026, placing Artsy CEO Jeff Yin at the helm of a unified art‑market platform. Within 24 hours Yin integrated Artnet’s sales operation into Artsy, shuttered the Berlin office, and cut several...
You're Not Talking to Somebody Who Woke Up a Loser
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, engaged in a roughly 40‑minute debate with investor Dwarkesh Patel about whether the United States should continue exporting AI‑focused chips to China. Patel raised concerns that Chinese firms could use Nvidia hardware to train powerful...
Erica Schwartz CDC Nomination: What You Need to Know
President Donald Trump nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, as the next CDC Director, pending Senate confirmation. Schwartz, a former Deputy Surgeon General and rear admiral in the Coast Guard, brings two decades of public‑health service and a blend...
A Picnic of Shit Sandwiches
Tom, co‑founder of privacy‑infrastructure startup Ketch, reflects on being early in a market that only now values data privacy as a strategic asset. A recent Harvard Business Review piece cites a Journal of Marketing study showing privacy‑focused brands outperform peers,...
WSJ’s Newsroom Staff Ranks Themselves As Intermediary or Above in AI. How Did Leadership Win Them Over?
The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom has moved from early AI curiosity to an intermediate‑or‑higher proficiency, with staff self‑rating their AI skills above many peers. Director of newsroom data and AI Tess Jeffers reports that experimentation doubled in a year and...
Leading in the Age of AI: When Management Becomes the Differentiator
The April 28 virtual workshop, "Leading in the Age of AI," examines how artificial intelligence reshapes managerial responsibilities. Featuring leaders from DoorDash, McKinsey, Mento, and Charter, the session highlights that AI fluency alone won’t drive results; managers must translate technology into...
AI Won’t Fix Your Leadership Communication, but It Might Expose It
Meta unveiled an AI‑driven avatar of Mark Zuckerberg to spearhead enterprise communication, positioning the tech as a consistency, reach, and signalling tool. The op‑ed argues that while AI can streamline message distribution, it cannot replace the core need for clear,...
AMC’s Adam Aron Ignites a CinemaCon Civil War
At CinemaCon, AMC CEO Adam Aron publicly challenged the evolving studio‑theater relationship, prompting a heated response from independent exhibitors. Meanwhile, WarnerMount founder David Ellison pledged 30 films a year with 45‑day theatrical exclusives and a 90‑day streaming hold‑back, offering his...
Graham Blackwell to Succeed Taylor Rhodes as Applied Systems CEO
Applied Systems announced that Graham Blackwell will succeed Taylor Rhodes as chief executive, with the transition slated to complete before the Applied Net 2026 conference in September. Blackwell, who joined the firm in 2020 as CFO and now serves as...
Double Drop: Culture-First Leadership + Executive Functioning
This week’s double‑drop episode pairs Dr. Jim Masters’ culture‑first leadership framework with Sue Thompson’s executive‑functioning playbook for educators. Masters argues that asking staff if they feel cared for, have trusted peers, and feel valued is the foundation for any instructional...
10 Questions Every CEO Must Answer to Increase Revenue Today
The article outlines ten hard‑hitting questions CEOs must answer to unlock revenue without adding headcount or new tech. It stresses fixing the sales organization’s foundation—optimal manager‑to‑rep ratios, clear leadership roles, and absolute performance standards—before chasing tactics. It also warns against...
Former Verisk CEO Stephenson Joins ZestyAI’s Board of Directors
ZestyAI, an AI‑driven insurance risk analytics firm, announced that former Verisk Analytics chairman, president and CEO Scott Stephenson has joined its board. Stephenson spent over two decades at Verisk, guiding the company through a market‑cap surge that more than quadrupled...
Worth Reading – Why Your People Managers Are the Weakest Link in Learning and Development
Many firms tout a learning‑first culture, yet employees are still judged on billable hours and revenue targets, leaving little room for skill development. The article argues that people managers become the primary barrier to effective learning because they enforce these...
Why You, as the Founder, Cannot Be the Bottleneck in Your Brokerage
Founders of real‑estate brokerages often start by handling every task, which fuels early growth but eventually caps scalability. When all decisions funnel through one person, the firm’s speed matches the founder’s personal capacity, leading to stalled deals and missed opportunities....
Company Policies and Rules That Are Too Specific Can Replace Sound Judgment
General Motors CEO Mary Barra replaced a 10‑page dress code with the two‑word directive “Dress Appropriately,” demonstrating that broad guidelines can drive higher standards. She argues that overly specific policies cause employees to do the minimum required, while general principles...
7 Destructive Things Leaders Say that Stifle Innovation, Trust, and Teamwork (and What to Say for More Innovation)
Episode 349 of Let’s Grow Leaders spotlights seven everyday phrases that silently crush innovation, trust and teamwork. The host explains why language like “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves” or “That’s how the industry works” can shrink ambition and shut...
Gotham Greens Names Craig Stevenson as New CEO, Founder Viraj Puri Becomes Executive Chairman
Gotham Greens announced a leadership overhaul as founder Viraj Puri shifts from CEO to Executive Chairman and veteran Craig Stevenson assumes the chief executive role. Stevenson arrives from Lundberg Family Farms and brings senior CPG experience from Procter & Gamble,...
HR Leaders Must Prioritize Experimentation over Engagement, Says Amy Edmondson
At UNLEASH America 2026, Harvard professor Amy Edmondson urged HR leaders to replace traditional engagement‑centric metrics with a focus on structured experimentation. She argues that AI‑driven speed of change makes “intelligent failure” essential for continuous learning. Edmondson stresses that psychological...
Consultant vs Interim Manager
Corporate leaders must decide between hiring a consultant, who provides strategic diagnosis and an external perspective, or an interim manager, who steps into the organization with legal authority to execute decisions. The article highlights that consultants excel at identifying knowledge...
Senior Employee Is a Terrible Communicator, Retaliation via Nut, and More
The Ask a Manager column tackles four distinct workplace dilemmas: a senior employee who repeatedly fails to communicate effectively despite years of coaching, a small‑business coworker battling personal crises while neglecting duties, the risk of candid feedback in non‑anonymous stay...
Succession: Hire the Enemy or Promote Within?
Retail is experiencing its most turbulent CEO cycle in a generation, with 41 chief‑executive exits through August 2025—a 116% jump year‑over‑year, making the sector the leader in turnover. In a Retail Unwrapped podcast, experts Phil Lempert and Mark Cohen dissect three...
Samsung Foundry VP Joins Intel Foundry
Samsung Foundry executive vice president Shawn (Seung Hoon) Han will join Intel Foundry Services as senior vice president and general manager in May, succeeding Kevin O’Buckley. Han will report to Intel’s EVP Naga Chandrasekaran and brings three decades of Samsung...
People of Purpose
The article argues that in a digital, AI‑augmented workplace, purpose‑driven employees are the ultimate competitive edge. It redefines talent potential from a fixed "high‑potential" label to a latent energy activated by clear personal purpose. By shifting focus from skill acquisition...
Your COO Isn’t Failing. Your Expectations Are
The article argues that COO underperformance usually stems from poorly defined expectations rather than a talent deficit. CEOs often hire without clarifying ownership, decision rights, and measurable outcomes, leaving the COO reactive and fragmented. Clear authority, stable priorities, and explicit...
Is Nike… Just Doing It?
After a multi‑year sales slump, Nike is attempting a creative resurgence with the “Our Legacy” collaboration and the launch of a new Alphafly running shoe. CEO Elliott Hill, who returned from retirement in October 2024, acknowledged that the turnaround is...
Friday Forward - Sleep Deprived (#532)
The post revisits Marissa Mayer’s notorious 130‑hour workweeks and contrasts that era with today’s growing emphasis on sleep health. It cites an Oxford study showing that six‑hour sleepers perform as poorly as total sleep deprivation after two weeks, and highlights...