Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Future generations will look back on 2023 as the year generative artificial intelligence went mainstream, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at universities, and the Federal Reserve continued to balance interest rates and inflation. We saw an old-fashioned run on Silicon Valley Bank, a boardroom drama at OpenAI, and a showdown between advertisers and X owner Elon Musk. Business journalists around the world, including my colleagues at Inc. and Fast Company, covered these news stories admirably, and brought clarity and context to another madcap year.
But the business journalism that has stuck with me this year goes well beyond the headlines. My favorite stories of the year let me peer into corners of the business world I don’t normally visit. They underscored the complexity of running a company in 2023 and, in some cases, offered lessons on how not to lead. Herewith, a wholly unscientific—and not-at-all comprehensive—look at seven of the best business stories of the year.
A CONVERSATION WITH BING’S CHATBOT LEFT ME DEEPLY UNSETTLED BY KEVIN ROOSE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Roose’s piece, published amid the first wave of hype about OpenAI’s ChatGPT bot, offered a sobering reminder of the potential power of unchecked generative AI. Roose describes an unsettling two-hour conversation with an early version of “Sydney,” in which Microsoft Bing’s chatbot tried to convince him he should leave his wife. He concludes: “I worry that the technology will learn how to influence human users, sometimes persuading them to act in destructive and harmful ways and perhaps eventually grow capable of carrying out its own dangerous acts.”
BARNEY FRANK SAYS HE TRIED TO SAVE SIGNATURE BANK BY ANDY SERWER, BARRON’S
Shortly after Signature Bank collapsed, Serwer scored an interview with company director Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman. As Serwer notes in the introduction to his story, it is rare for anyone from the boardroom to speak publicly about a company’s failures and rarer still for a subject to be as candid as Frank was. Serwer chalks it up to conducting the interview in person at Frank’s home in Maine. When I congratulated him on securing time with Frank, he shared some advice for young journalists, but as we still find our footing after the pandemic, it applies to anyone in the relationship business: “You’ve just got to go see the people in person.”
BOBBI BROWN IS BACK BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN, INC.
Lagorio-Chafkin’s profile of beauty entrepreneur Bobbi Brown is a master class in how to start, run, and grow a business. Lagorio shows in detail the steps Brown took to market her new company, Jones Road, as well as her relentless focus on growth and, crucially, profitability. In an era when venture-backed, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are struggling to make money, Brown’s Jones Road is a refreshing reminder of the importance of the basics of building a business.
IS DAVID SOLOMON TOO BIG A JERK TO RUN GOLDMAN SACHS? BY JEN WIECZNER, NEW YORK
Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon is an easy target. From his side hustle as a DJ to his ALL-CAPS text messages, he serves up plenty of material for those looking to portray him as distracted from his job, a bully, or both. Wieczner is unsparing in chronicling Solomon’s challenges, but her story also shines a light on the bigger cultural and generational challenges roiling Goldman, Wall Street, and much of Corporate America.
THE KIDS ON THE NIGHT SHIFT BY HANNAH DREIER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
Dreier’s heart-wrenching reporting about migrant children working dangerous jobs shows capitalism and government at its worst. Big U.S. companies look the other way as their suppliers and contractors hire teens—mostly unaccompanied minors from Central America—to clean machinery and engage in other treacherous work. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors don’t want to report underage laborers because they say their job is food safety; police officers, teachers, and other adults know the children are working night shifts but don’t want to deprive them of the opportunity to make money for their families at home. And when the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services issued reports on the growing number of companies hiring children, the Biden White House claimed the reports were not flagged as urgent. As consumers, citizens, and businesspeople, we should demand greater protections for this most vulnerable population.
HOW TO BUILD A BETTER MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER BY TAD FRIEND, THE NEW YORKER
Self-help has always been big business, and Friend’s unputdownable profile of Jesse Itzler brings to life the world of conferences, retreats, and extreme sports where people—mostly Americans—pay to get inspired. Friend adroitly captures Itzler’s mix of entrepreneurial zeal and positive thinking, a potent mix that has propelled the careers of motivators from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins, and is sure to endure in the future.
CHIK-FIL-A NEARS $19 BILLION IN SALES: INSIDE THE EVOLUTION OF A CONTROVERSIAL BRAND BY CLINT RAINEY, FAST COMPANY
Rainey’s piece about one of America’s most successful restaurant chains is actually three tales braided together masterfully. It is a corporate history of a company grounded in Christian values, one of many it turns out, navigating an increasingly secular world. It is the story of a fast-food business, built on great customer service, dealing with the move to food delivery services that have become de facto extensions of the Chik-fil-A brand. And it is a chronicle of a company that finds itself in unexpected territory—fending off criticisms from conservatives that it has become too “woke,” even as liberals continue to avoid the brand because the founding family has donated money to anti-gay marriage groups. Taken together, Rainey’s story is a masterful portrait of the complexity of running a consumer business today.
Share your favorite stories
What stories resonated with you this year? Send your favorite reads from 2023 to stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. I’d love to share your top picks in the holiday edition of Modern CEO.
Read more: where to go to find great stories
Longreads helps people find the best long-form nonfiction storytelling
The Sunday Long Read newsletter delivers the best journalism of the week to subscribers’ inboxes
The Inc. Non-Obvious Book Awards
