A group of masked thieves stole about $7,000 worth of Labubu dolls from a Los Angeles-area store this week, authorities said.The incident took place early Wednesday morning at a store in La Puente, a city about 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, the LA County Sheriff’s Department said. The department said the suspects used a stolen Toyota Tacoma in the incident, which was recovered shortly afterward. The agency said it was investigating the case and did not have additional information.Labubu dolls, created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, have become a popular collectible item a decade after the toothy monsters were first introduced.Toy vendor One Stop Sales said in an Instagram post that the thieves took all of the store’s inventory and trashed the establishment. The store posted surveillance footage showing a group of people wearing hoodies and face coverings breaking in. The suspects are seen shuffling through items and carrying boxes out of the shop.“We are still in shock,” the store said in its post, urging people to help find the thieves.
This story has been updated to correct the store’s name. It is One Stop Sales, not One Stop Shop.
Associated Press
In Novo Nordisks legal fight against dozens of U.S. pharmacies and companies selling cheaper copies of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, one name remains conspicuously absent: Hims & Hers. The high-profile telehealth company continues to sell compounded versions of Wegovy at lower prices, testing the limits of federal restrictions on such copies and contributing to weaker sales growth for Novo.
In June, Novo accused Hims of violating its intellectual property and endangering patients, scrapping a brief arrangement enabling them to sell Wegovy directly to consumers and raising expectations of litigation.
A Novo spokesperson said the Danish drugmaker was not ruling out further legal action after announcing new lawsuits against 14 small pharmacies, telehealth providers and weight-loss clinics this week, but declined to comment on Hims. The drugmaker has filed more than 130 cases in 40 U.S. states.
A spokesperson for Hims defended personalization of medicines as the future of healthcare, saying patients and providers use their platform to make clinical decisions.
“Investors are happy to see Novo getting more aggressive on the litigation front, but remain puzzled as to why they havent confirmed that they are filing or have filed litigation against Hims yet,” said Barclays analyst Emily Field.
Legal experts say Novos expanding litigation against smaller telehealth players could add pressure on a company like Hims to negotiate a settlement or help the drugmaker test out strategies.
At the same time, the fact that Novo and Hims had a prior collaboration may complicate legal action. “Business happens in the shadow of the law,” said Robin Feldman, a professor at UC Law San Francisco who has written books on the pharmaceutical industry and its intellectual property battles. “Sometimes companies file against smaller players as a shot across the bow, a way to rattle the larger players.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration set a May 22 deadline for compounding pharmacies to cease mass-producing copies of Wegovy, a practice allowed only when a drug is in shortage.
Hims says it still offers personalized versions of Wegovy, in doses not manufactured by Novo, that better suit individual patient needs. The telehealth provider argues that individualized dosing remains legal under compounding rules.
Compounding laws are just vague enough to allow for different interpretations, and the interpretation that matters that of the courts has not been provided to our knowledge, said TD Cowen analyst Michael Nedelcovych.Novos cases against smaller compounders could shape how courts interpret those boundaries, said Gaston Kroub, a partner at patent litigation firm Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov. This is an untested set of affairs, said Kroub. If you want to train for a heavyweight championship fight, you start sparring with lighter opponents.In addition to trademark infringement, Novo has accused pharmacies of steering people toward compounded Wegovy by interfering with the relationship between clinicians and patients.Josh Gerben, an intellectual property attorney, said the fact that Hims and Novo had a prior business relationship will complicate any claim Novo could bring.
Maggie Fick and Diana Novak Jones, Reuters
New Jersey-based DermaRite Industries has announced a voluntary recall of individual lots of soap and skincare products due to microbial contamination, which has been identified as Burkholderia cepacia, the company said last week.
The bacterium can cause serious and life-threatening infections.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a recall announcement on August 9. Impacted products include over-the-counter (OTC) antiseptic lotion soaps, external analgesics, antimicrobial foam soaps, and antiseptic cleansers.
The following products are included in the recall:
OTC Healthcare antiseptic lotion soap DermaKleen
OTC External Analgesic DermaSarra
OTC Antimicrobial foam soap KleenFoam
OTC Antiseptic cleanser PeriGiene
The FDA recall notice includes a list of impacted products with their lot numbers, expiration dates, reorder numbers, product descriptions, and product labels. The recalled products were distributed nationwide in the United States and Puerto Rico.
You can also find full-color images of the impacted product labels on DermaRite’s website. The company says it has not received any reports of adverse events related to the recall.
Bacterial infection could cause life-threatening sepsis
According to a “risk statement” published by DermaRite, the contaminated products may be used by immunosuppressed individuals and people caring for immunosuppressed individuals.
Burkholderia cepacia can cause serious, life-threatening infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While healthy individuals with minor skin lesions are only likely to experience local infections, people with weakened immune systems are more at risk.
For immunosuppressed individuals, the infection is more likely to spread into the bloodstream and could lead to life-threatening sepsis. Sepsis can cause extensive inflammation throughout the body and cause tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
Consumers should destroy impacted products
DermaRite alerted distributors and customers to the voluntary recall by email and told them to examine their inventory and destroy all affected products immediately.
If you have questions about the recall, contact Mary Goldberg by calling 973-569-9000 x104 Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST or by emailing voluntary.action@dermarite.com.
If you have experienced problems related to using the impacted products, contact a healthcare provider. Report any adverse reactions experienced as a result of using these products to the FDAs MedWatch Adverse Event Reporting program.
You can file a report online, download a reporting form, or call 1-800-332-1088 to request a reporting form to submit by fax or mail.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met privately in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump to make a case he did not want to hear: The automotive industry he said he wants to save was being hurt by his tariffs.The Democrat came with a slide deck to make her points in a visual presentation. Just getting the meeting Tuesday with the Republican president was an achievement for someone viewed as a contender for her party’s White House nomination in 2028.Whitmer’s strategy for dealing with Trump highlights the conundrum for her and other Democratic leaders as they try to protect the interests of their states while voicing their opposition to his agenda. It’s a dynamic that Whitmer has navigated much differently from many other Democratic governors.The fact that Whitmer had “an opening to make direct appeals” in private to Trump was unique in this political moment, said Matt Grossman, a Michigan State University politics professor.It was her third meeting with Trump at the White House since he took office in January. This one, however, was far less public than the time in April when Whitmer was unwittingly part of an impromptu news conference that embarrassed her so much she covered her face with a folder.On Tuesday, she told the president that the economic damage from the tariffs could be severe in Michigan, a state that helped deliver him the White House in 2024. Whitmer also brought up federal support for recovery efforts after an ice storm and sought to delay changes to Medicaid.Trump offered no specific commitments, according to people familiar with the private conversation who were not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke only on condition of anonymity to describe it.Whitmer is hardly the only one sounding the warning of the potentially damaging consequences, including factory job losses, lower profits and coming price increases, of the import taxes that Trump has said will be the economic salvation for American manufacturing.White House spokesman Kush Desai said no other president “has taken a greater interest in restoring American auto industry dominance than President Trump.” Trade frameworks negotiated by the administration would open up the Japanese, Korean and European markets for vehicles made on assembly lines in Michigan, Desai said.But the outreach Trump has preferred tends to be splashy presentations by tech CEOs. In the Oval Office on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook gave the president a customized glass plaque with a gold base as Cook promised $600 billion in investments. Trump claims to have brought in $17 trillion in investment commitments, although none of those numbers has surfaced yet in economic data.Under his series of executive orders and trade frameworks, U.S. automakers face import taxes of 50% on steel and aluminum, 30% on parts from China and a top rate of 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico not covered under an existing 2020 trade agreement. That puts America’s automakers and parts suppliers at a disadvantage against German, Japanese and South Korean vehicles that only face a 15% import tax negotiated by Trump last month.On top of that, Trump this past week threatened a 100% tariff on computer chips, which are an integral part of cars and trucks, though he would exclude companies that produce chips domestically from the tax.Whitmer’s two earlier meetings with Trump resulted in gains for Michigan. But the tariffs represent a significantly broader request of a president who has imposed them even more aggressively in the face of criticism.Materials in the presentation brought by Whitmer to the meeting and obtained by The Associated Press noted how trade with Canada and Mexico has driven $23.2 billion in investment to Michigan since 2020.General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis operate 50 factories across the state, while more than 4,000 facilities support the auto parts supply chain. Altogether, the sector supports nearly 600,000 manufacturing jobs, forming the backbone of Michigan’s economy.Whitmer outlined the main points of the materials to Trump and left copies with his team.To Grossman, the Michigan State professor, a key question is whether voters who expected to be helped by tariffs would react if Trump’s import taxes failed to deliver the promised economic growth.“Everyone’s aware that Michigan is a critical swing state and the auto industry has outsized influence, not just directly, but symbolically,” Grossman said.AP VoteCast found that Trump won Michigan in 2024 largely because two-thirds of its voters described the economic conditions as being poor or “not so good.” Roughly 70% of the voters in the state who felt negatively about the economy backed the Republican. The state was essentially split over whether tariffs were a positive, with Trump getting 76% of those voters who viewed them favorably.The heads of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have repeatedly warned the administration that the tariffs would cut company profits and undermine their global competitiveness. Their efforts have resulted in little more than a temporary, monthlong pause intended to give companies time to adjust. The reprieve did little to blunt the financial fallout.In the second quarter alone, Ford reported $800 million in tariff-related costs, while GM said the import taxes cost it $1.1 billion. Those expenses could make it harder to reinvest in new domestic factories, a goal Trump has championed.“We expect tariffs to be a net headwind of about $2 billion this year, and we’ll continue to monitor the developments closely and engage with policymakers to ensure U.S. autoworkers and customers are not disadvantaged by policy change,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said on his company’s earning call.Since Trump returned to the White House, Michigan has lost 7,500 manufacturing jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Smaller suppliers have felt the strain, too.Detroit Axle, a family-run auto parts distributor, has been one of the more vocal companies in Michigan about the impact of the tariffs. The company initially announced it might have to shut down a warehouse and lay off more than 100 workers, but later said it would be able to keep the facility open, at least for now.“Right now it’s a market of who is able to survive, it’s not a matter of who can thrive,” said Mike Musheinesh, owner of Detroit Axle.
Joey Cappelletti and Josh Boak, Associated Press
A 90-day pause on imposing higher tariffs on China is due to expire on Tuesday and it is unclear if it will be extended.After the most recent round of China-U.S. trade talks, held late last month in Stockholm, Chinese and U.S. officials said they expected the deadline to be extended for another 90 days. The U.S. side said the decision was up to President Donald Trump. So far there has been no formal announcement about whether he will endorse an extension or push ahead with the higher tariffs.The uncertainty has left businesses in limbo and a decision to raise the import duties could jolt world markets.
SILENCE FROM WASHINGTON AND BEIJING
Trump has repeatedly shifted deadlines and tariff rates, and neither side has indicated what it plans for Tuesday. Extending the August 12 deadline for reaching a trade agreement with China would forestall earlier threats of tariffs of up to 245%.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump was deciding about another 90-day delay to allow time to work out details of an agreement setting tariffs on most products at 50%, including extra import duties related to illicit trade in the powerful opiate fentanyl.Higher tariffs are aimed at offsetting the huge, chronic U.S. trade deficit with China, which hit a 21-year low in July as the threat of tariffs bit into Chinese exports.It’s not unusual for the U.S. to give hints on where talks stand, but it’s rare for China to make announcements until major decisions are set. So far, Beijing’s refrained from commenting ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.In an interview with Fox News taped on Thursday but aired on Sunday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Trump was considering additional tariffs on Beijing because of China’s purchases of Russian oil. But he said Trump “hasn’t made any firm decisions.”
CHINA RESISTED CUTTING AN EARLY BARGAIN
Prohibitively high tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States would put huge pressure on Beijing at a time when the Chinese economy, the world’s second largest, is still recovering from a prolonged downturn in its property market. Lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have left millions of people reliant on “gig work,” crimping the job market. Higher import taxes on small parcels from China have also hurt smaller factories and layoffs have accelerated.But the U.S. relies heavily on imports from China for all sorts of products, from household goods and clothing to wind turbines, basic computer chips, electric vehicle batteries, and the rare earths needed to make them. That gives Beijing some powerful leverage in the negotiations with Washington.Even with higher tariffs, China remains competitive for many products. And its leaders are aware that the U.S. economy is only just beginning to feel the effects of higher prices from Trump’s broad tariff hikes.For now, imports from China are subject to a 10% baseline tariff and a 20% extra tariff related to the fentanyl issue. Some products are taxed at higher rates. U.S. exports to China are subject to tariffs of around 30%. Before the two sides called a truce, Trump had threatened to impose 245% import duties on Chinese goods. China retaliated by saying it would hike its tariff on U.S. products to 125%.
MUCH IS AT STAKE
A trade war between the world’s two largest economies has ramifications across the global economy, affecting industrial supply chains, demand for commodities like copper and oil, and geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine.After a phone call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in June, Trump said he hoped to meet with Xi later this year. That’s an incentive for striking a deal with Beijing.If the two sides fail to keep their truce, trade tensions could escalate and tariffs might rise to even higher levels, inflicting still more pain on both economies and rattling world markets. Businesses would refrain from making investment commitments and hiring, while inflation would surge higher.Companies are in an “extended wait-and-see mode,” Oxford Economics said in a recent report.
Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press
In a historically unusual move, two of the world’s largest chipmakers, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), have reportedly cut a deal with the Trump administration to hand over 15% of their revenues from certain chip sales to the U.S. government. Heres what to know about the deal and how Nvidias and AMDs stock prices are reacting.
What’s happened?
Yesterday, the Financial Times reported that chipmaking giants Nvidia and AMD have struck a highly unusual deal with the U.S. government. According to the Financial Times, the deal will see Nvidia and AMD give up 15% of revenues from chip sales of two specific chips to China, the H20 chipset by Nvidia and the MI308 chipset by AMD.
In return for the 15% revenue-sharing agreement, the U.S. government has approved export licenses for those chips to China. Without export licenses, which the U.S. had previously failed to grant the companies, Nvidia and AMD could not legally export their chips to the country.
The Financial Times cited people familiar with the situation, including a U.S. official as the sources of the information.
“We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,” a Nvidia spokesperson told Fast Company when reached for comment. “While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide. America cannot repeat 5G and lose telecommunication leadership.”
Fast Company has also reached out to AMD and the Commerce Department.
The revenue-sharing agreement is an unusual one, as no other companies before now have ever agreed to share a portion of their revenue with the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses. The Trump administration has reportedly also not decided what the U.S. government will do with the proceeds it reaps from Nvidia and AMDs chip sales to China.
A spokesperson for Nvidia did not deny the deal, with the company telling the Financial Times, We follow rules the US government sets for our participation in worldwide markets.
What are the H20 and MI308 chips?
Before the two chip giants made a revenue-sharing deal with the Trump administration, the H20 and MI308 chipsets had been waiting for months for export license approvals.
The H20 chip by Nvidia and the MI308 chip by AMD were designed by the companies for the Chinese marketplace specifically, and within the constraints that the Biden administration had placed on exporting U.S. chips to China. But when Trump came into office earlier this year, his administration placed export controls on those chips over national security fears.
Nvidia has previously disputed that its H20 chips could give Chinese industry a leg up in the AI race.
Now, however, any supposed national security concerns are taking a back seat to profits, as the export licenses have now been granted after the revenue-sharing deal was agreed.
That revenue-sharing agreement stands to see the U.S. government rake in billions as the chipmakers now have the go-ahead to sell to China. According to the Financial Times, one estimate noted that Nvidia could sell as much as $23 billion worth of its H20 chips to China in 2025 alone.
How are Nvidia and AMD stock reacting?
Obtaining export licenses for chips is usually considered a good thing by investors in any chipmaking company.
However, after the Financial Times broke the news of the revenue sharing deal, shares of both Nvidia Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (Nasdaq: AMD) are down in premarket trading as of the time of this writing.
NVDA shares are currently down about 0.71% and AMD shares are currently down about 1.6%. While these share price drops arent that large, any decline in a chipmakers stock price after winning an export license is pretty rare.
This could suggest that investors are concerned that companies are ceding too much revenue to the U.S. government in exchange for export licenses, potentially harming their bottom lines.
But just as likely is that investors arent entirely sure how to digest the news. The deal potentially sets a new precedent where companies that need export licenses now may need to start sharing their revenue directly with the U.S. government. Such a system is unheard of in free-market democracies.
Forget Cowboy Carter or the Eras tour, the hottest ticket this year is for your favorite podcast.
Content creator tours sold nearly 500% more tickets this year compared to 2024, according to StubHub, with Alex Cooper’s “Unwell” tour, Crime Junkie’s podcast tour and Mel Robbins’ “Let Them” tour the highest in demand.
With ticket prices at nearly 40% less than traditional live events on average, its easy to see why. Going to a live concert is only getting more expensive, with many concertgoers sucking up the eye-popping prices and price gouging on resale sites rather than deal with the potential FOMO.
The average price of tickets sold across all live entertainment in 2024 was $159. The Taylor Swifts Eras tour cost fans an average of $1,088 per ticket in 2023, The New York Times reported. For the top six creator tours, it was just $99.
Scheduling tour dates in locations often bypassed by mainstream artists, like Wyoming and Vermont, has also helped boost sales. During her own “Eras” tour, influencer Trisha Paytas paid visits to Tysons, Virginia and St. Louis, Missouri. Meanwhile, TikTok star Jake Shanes Therapuss cross-country tour stopped in places like Birmingham, Alabama and Athens, Georgia.
When we look at state-level consumption, Illinois has emerged as the creator economy’s biggest fanbase, purchasing 20% more tickets than any other market, Adam Budelli, Partnerships & Business Development at StubHub told Fast Company.
Texans are not only the largest single-state fanbase for female-hosted podcast content, but also show unique consumption patterns, with 7% more single-ticket buyers than California, despite having a smaller population.
Thanks to the boom in video podcasts, what started as an audio-only experience enjoyed alone, now has more in common with your traditional chat show. Nearly three-quarters of podcast consumers watch their podcasts, compared with about a quarter who listen only.
I think the biggest differentiator is that there are more opportunities for audiences who do attend to actually interact with the creators, creator economy expert Lindsey Gamble tells Fast Company. Because being able to tour and bring people out in real life shows that they actually have a community and relationship with their followers or subscribersenough where people are willing to dedicate their time and their dollars to see them in person.
For creators, it can also be lucrative. As well as bringing in money through membership models and merch, with many podcasts typically over an hour long, a live show or tour is a natural extension of the existing format.
We’re seeing fans who have built these deep, parasocial relationships with creators through podcasts and social media finally getting the chance to complete that connection in person, Gamble says. It’s different from a traditional concert where you’re watching a performance, where at creator events, fans feel like they’re hanging out with someone they already know intimately.
In a relentless pursuit of agility and efficiency, many organizations are aggressively flattening their hierarchies, effectively eliminating layers of middle management. This move to a flattened organizational structure is often inspired by the success of tech giants like Amazon and Google, with the goal of accelerating decision-making and streamlining operations.
However, while automation can replace tasks, it cannot replicate the nuanced skills of strategy, vision, and decision-making that define true leadership. Even AI cannot replace the human element of leadership that drives innovation, inspires teams, and navigates complex strategic challenges.
Our collective challenge, therefore, is to understand the unintended consequences of this organizational flattening and implement actionable strategies to ensure that we are not sacrificing our long-term leadership capacity for short-term gains. The good news is that with intentional effort and a rethinking of how experience is gained, you can still build a formidable bench of executive talent. Heres how:
1. STOP ERASING AND START REDEFINING YOUR MID-LEVEL EXPERIENCE
The most significant leadership development challenges in flattened organizations stem from the absence of director-level readiness. Without mid-level roles, you might miss crucial opportunities to manage people, budgets, and complexity at scale.
Think about the typical progression: from individual contributor to senior individual contributor, and then, traditionally, to manager. The manager role was where many learned the intricacies of people management, conducting performance reviews, navigating difficult conversations, and fostering team development. When organizations eliminate this stepping stone, employees can jump from senior individual contributor to director without ever developing these foundational skills. This creates a dangerous experience gap.
To counter this, identify the core managerial and strategic skills that were learned in those now-eliminated roles and create alternative pathways to gain them. For instance, you could take on internal mini-CEO roles for specific projects, giving yourself full accountability for budget, team oversight, and strategic outcomes, even if for a temporary period. Even at an individual contributor level, you can seek out opportunities to lead specific initiatives or mentor newer team members to build these skills.
2. PRIORITIZE PROJECT-BASED LEADERSHIP AND EXECUTIVE SHADOWING
In a flatter structure, traditional promotions are fewer, but opportunities for leadership experience arent. Empower yourself to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives. This is a powerful way for you to gain influence and exposure outside of your direct reporting lines, learning to navigate organizational politics, manage diverse stakeholders, and deliver results under pressure.
Simultaneously, seek out executive shadowing opportunities. Ask if you can sit in on high-stakes meetings or strategic offsites. This direct access to senior thinking provides an unparalleled understanding of how decisions are made at the highest levels, building your confidence and presence. This real-time learning is invaluable when formal management layers are gone.
3. FORMALIZE MENTORSHIP, SPONSORSHIP, AND TARGETED CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT
Leadership readiness will not emerge by default in a flat structure; it must be deliberately built. Establish formal mentorship programs where senior executives provide direct coaching and feedback. Even more critically, sponsorship programs should be implemented where senior leaders actively advocate for emerging talent, opening doors and creating opportunities for growth you might not find on your own.
Beyond these relationships, create targeted development tracks with clear milestones that focus on specific capabilities required for future executive roles. For example, if critical thinking under pressure is a key executive skill, you might find that participating in leadership simulations or strategic case studies allows you to practice decision-making in a safe environment. This ensures that even without traditional promotions, you are continually acquiring and demonstrating executive-level skills.
BUILDING A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS LEADERSHIP GROWTH
In the absence of established leadership ladders, organizations must take deliberate, proactive steps to build their future leadership pipeline. This presents a unique opportunity, whether you’re just starting your career or are a seasoned executive, to define your impact by the comprehensive leadership development strategies you intentionally create. It also clearly communicates the new growth expectations for leadership within a flatter structure.
If you lead an organization that has embraced flattening, you must recognize that designing meaningful development programs in this new landscape may be one of the most important contributions you make to your companys long-term success.
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.
“CEO succession is the board’s No. 1 job, says leadership expert and Harvard Business School executive education fellow Bill George. “In my experience, across hundreds of companies, businesses rise or fall with decisions on CEO succession. Yet according to a new report by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, only 26% of directors and CEOs say that chief executive transition is among their top priorities. Another 40% don’t consider it a priority at all.
Tom Monahan, CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, says succession can get crowded out if boards get pulled into crises or are distracted by other issues. As a leader, you have days where you say, the most important thing today is do this, and you look up and [realize] I spent two hours on [my] coffee selection, he says. It turns out boards seem to have some of that as well.”
And when they do turn to succession, too often directors are trying to figure out who could step into the role immediately in the event of an emergency, such as the unexpected death of a CEO.
Instead, Monahan says boards should remember that CEO succession is a strategy exercise. “We do see more boards and leadership teams treating succession as a process, not a project, he says. If you look at companies where it’s a projectCEO says I’m retiring, board says it’s time to move, we kick into place a projectthat compresses a lot of important strategic activity into probably too narrow a timetable.
The Berkshire Hathaway model
Heidrick & Struggless “Route to the Top” report praises the CEO succession process at Berkshire Hathaway. CEO Warren Buffett earlier this year announced his plans to retire at the end of 2025. But Buffett, 94, had been talking about his replacement for more than a decade, and in 2021, the company anointed Greg Abel, who currently serves as chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice chairman of the conglomerates non-insurance businesses. In a time when CEO transitions often spark volatility or uncertainty, Berkshires process delivered confidence, continuity, and clarity to the market, the report concludes.
CEO succession has become something of a parlor game in investor and media circles, especially at high-profile companies such as Apple and Disney. (Please check out my colleague David Lidskys surprising take on who should succeed Bob Iger at Disney.)
The founder-CEO challenge
Replacing founder-CEOs can be especially challenging because the entrepreneur is so personally tied to the company and can have a hard time letting go. A founder is also one of a companys largest shareholders and may feel compelled to step in when the company struggles. Michael Dell, for example, returned to the top job at his eponymous tech company in 2007 after the computer maker started to lose market share, among other issues. If you have a founder who has been able to conceptualize an idea and scale a company, thats a rare set of talents, and youre not going to be able to replicate that, Monahan says.
Monahan encourages boards to make clear which committee will be responsible for succession planning and then to make sure the topic is on the agenda. He says boards should have a process for meeting with executives in the C-suite, as those leaders are candidates to take over for the sitting CEO. And directors need to constantly assess the link between leadership and strategy to make sure theyre looking at candidates who can support the business in the future.
And what is the role of the sitting CEO? CEOs should play an active role in training their successors, but don’t groom people in your own image, cautions George, who has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Target, Novartis, Mayo Clinic, and Medtronic, where he was CEO for 10 years. Figure out what [the company] is going to need for the next 10 years, and find people with the mental agility and courage to look at it differently than you looked at it.
What is your succession plan?
CEOs, do you have a successor in placeand if not, whats holding you back from naming an heir apparent? Send your feedback to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Ill publish your responses in a future newsletter.
Read more: CEO succession
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This founder was miserable as CEO, so she brought in a replacement
How entrepreneurs should handle succession
When it comes to turning a beloved toy into a box office hit, it’d be hard to top 2023s Greta Gerwig-directed Barbie. But Mattel veteran Robbie Brenner, who produced the nearly $1.5 billion-grossing film, has no interest in resting on her laurels. In June, the toy company launched Mattel Studios, bringing together its film and TV efforts under Brenner.
At the studios president and chief content officer, Brenner now oversees more 15 projects in development, each with a unique twist. There’s a Hot Wheels movie helmed by Wicked director Jon M. Chu, a horror-skewing adaptation of Barney being written by The Bears Ayo Edebiri, and an adaptation of the He-man property Masters of the Universe. Most recently, Mattel announced that it’s working with Minions studio Illumination on an animated Barbie movie.
I spoke to Brenner about how she chooses which intellectual property to develop into bigger projects, the importance of delivering both fan service and organic storytelling, and how she plans to replicate Barbies success with another toy franchise.
You came to Mattel from Miramax seven years ago. When you first started at Mattel, how did you take stock of what properties you wanted to develop into bigger projects?
Where else do you come in your life, aside from Disney, where you have endless titles that you and your kids grew up playing with? When I came into the company, there were like 200 brands, either from Mattel or from buying other libraries or buying other companies. I looked at each title and used my intuition, to say like, okay, that title, that brand, that sounds like that could be like a big theatrical experience. And so I whittled it down to some 40 titles. Those were my starting block for building out this film division.
Barbie was the last movie that I ever thought we were gonna make. Everybody has a relationship with Barbie, and that makes it even harder to find a way into that story. For us it was really Gretas love and affinity for Barbie, and her voice, which is so unexpected and authentic.
Thats the way were trying to approach all these moviesdoing things that feel like they have a reason to exist by working with these unique voices. Especially when were consumed by our phones, the only way to cut through that is to do something that feels wholly unique in an authentic way. To be able to open up my rolodex and pair the filmmakers and writers Ive worked with up with these brands has been so much fun.
Did the success of Barbie change your approach to how you develop a project?
You need a strong script and somebody that has the vision to tell the story in a way that feels different and interesting. That has always been a huge component of how we approach our IP. Were just keeping our heads down and trying to tell great stories. Barbie was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenonone could only hope to replicate that.
But weve got Masters of the Universe coming out next year, and its the polar opposite to Barbie. Its this incredible spectacle that [director] Travis Knight has pulled off with the rich canon of characters and mythology. Itll be fun to show the world that we can do so many things. Similarly, [tk IP] Matchbox is a high-octane action movie, but it has so much heart.
Im sure a lot of people will compare everything we do to Barbie. Not everything can be Barbie. We look at these brands individually and we treat them individually. Sometimes were going to make smaller movies that are just great stories that need to be told, and other times there will be just huge tentpole movies. I think as long as we continue to stick with our approach and vision, good things will come.
Now that Mattels TV and film efforts are unified, has your approach changed? You mentioned Disney as having a similarly rich IP library. Do you take inspiration from their approach?
Movies and TV, theatrical and streaming, theyre all very blurred lines right now. So I just look at it all holistically as contentshort form, premium, scriptedand I want to work with the same writers and directors that I have relationships with. Mattel Studios is about aligning under one banner and looking holistically about where a brand is better sittingas a television show or a movie. The philosophy is the same: telling great, unexpected stories with brave filmmakers.
Over the next couple months, youll see a lot of movement on television. We have a lot of shows in negotiation right now with incredible creatives.
Were all working together to maximize the evergreen properties we have to make sure that were franchising them in the best way so were not stepping on each other. Its more synergy and made a lot of sense for all of us to sit together and work together to maximize Mattels potential.
