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.
Longtime Modern CEO readers know I love lists, from subjective packages such as Fast Company’s Best Dressed in Business to the just-released Inc. 5000, which annually ranks America’s fastest-growing private companies.
In December, Inc. will unveil the winners of its Best in Business Awards, which aim to recognize the year’s standout projects and initiatives across more than a dozen categories. “If the Inc. 5000 is a snapshot of fast growth, Inc.’s Best in Business is a view into business excellence,” says Mike Hofman, Inc.’s editor-in-chief.
Any CEO or executive trying to navigate the ever-changing business landscape will find inspiration—and more than a few good insights—in the winning entries: startups outmaneuvering corporate competitors with bold marketing or cheeky social media campaigns; unexpected partners collaborating on groundbreaking new products; and leaders transforming their companies by applying generative artificial intelligence (AI) in wholly inventive and creative ways.
“Inc.’s editors are looking for companies that are doing something new and different,” Hofman says. Financial results and other success metrics are table stakes, he says, but his journalists also are looking for projects that are “cutting edge, forward-looking, and impactful.”
For awardees, being named to the Best in Business list is more than a stamp of approval. “The recognition boosted our national brand awareness, which is crucial for a company like ours operating in an emerging category,” says Jing Gao, founder of condiment maker Fly by Jing, a 2024 awardee in the consumer products category. “This honor from Inc. not only helps our business, but it uplifts the entire category and shines a light on Asian American Pacific Islander-owned businesses across the country.”
If your company has achieved greatness this year, apply for Best in Business via this link. And if you’re a fan of a business that has done outstanding work we should know about, send your recommendations to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com.
Reader mailbag
A few weeks ago I wrote about the need to reframe conscious capitalism in response to the backlash to “business for good.”
Now comes the backlash to the backlash. Some readers of Modern CEO feel reports of the death of stakeholder capitalism are greatly exaggerated.
“It’s always tempting to announce the ‘death of X’ when the pendulum swings in a new direction,” says Susan Lyne, cofounder and managing partner of BBG Ventures. “But stakeholder capitalism isn’t a woke concept. It simply recognizes that the long-term success of a company is based on multiple factors: customers who love your product [or] service enough to be advocates; a work environment that draws more people than it churns through; and shareholders who trust your guidance. Yes, there were companies that jumped on the bandwagon without conviction, but the underlying management philosophy is neither radical nor new. As investors in early-stage companies, we look for founders who recognize that it’s still the best way to build a lasting company.“
Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of social impact and communications consultancy McPherson Strategies, notes that younger consumers continue to believe in business as a force for good. She cites a Deloitte study which found that 60% of younger millennials and Gen Z consumers believe companies have the opportunity to influence social equality, environmental protection, and responsible technology. “Corporate leaders who remain independent and committed to their stakeholders and long-term value creation, rather than preemptively genuflecting to power, will see the most meaningful gains [over time],” she writes.
Alan Fleischmann, founder and CEO of Laurel Strategies, a global CEO advisory firm, concurs: “The ideal that business and markets are forces for good will endure—because key stakeholders will insist on it,” he writes. “The challenge, and the opportunity, is to embed purpose and action so deeply into operations that they deliver positive outcomes alongside greater efficiency, meaningful innovation, and genuine trust. There is simply too much at stake to do otherwise.”
Kate Williams, CEO of environmental nonprofit 1% for the Planet, also believes businesses can effect positive change, especially when they work together. She cites the work of a coalition of companies and other groups that successfully lobbied earlier this year to strike a measure calling for the sale of public lands from a U.S. Senate reconciliation bill. “The challenges we face today are too big for any one business to solve alone—but when companies unite around a shared commitment, such as protecting our planet, our collective impact can be game-changing,” she writes.
Read more: The best of the best
AI avatars powered this startup to become America’s fastest-growing company
How Ryan Reynolds became a Best in Business winner for helping small companies deliver ads
Best in Business honoree Fly by Jing just repackaged for a post-DTC world
