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On Tuesday, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced he will step down from his leadership role after nearly two decades. Ek will serve as the company’s executive chairman, and two former co-presidentsGustav Söderström and Alex Norströmwill share the role as co-CEOs. Over the last few years, Ive turned over a large part of the day-to-day management and strategic direction of Spotify to Alex and Gustavwho have shaped the company from our earliest days and are now more than ready to guide our next phase,” Ek said in a news release. Ek continued: “This change simply matches titles to how we already operate. In my role as Executive Chairman, I will focus on the long arc of the company and keep the Board and our co-CEOs deeply connected through my engagement. Sharing the top position at a major company is still a relatively uncommon practice. But more corporations are testing the arrangement. This week, Comcast announced that a second CEO, Mike Cavanagh, will be stepping in come January to share the role with Brian Roberts. Oracle recently made a similar announcement. (Despite that back in 2020, Oracle had actually pivoted away from a co-CEO model. Salesforce and SAP similarly ditched co-CEO setups.) Meanwhile, Netflix has been led by two CEOs for more than five years, the current partnership being Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. Deciding who becomes the CEO is an incredibly involved, high-stakes process. And nowadays, more seems to be riding on CEOs than ever: Shareholders and customers alike expect more from them, their brand is the organizations brand and their decisions can make or break a company. So do things get muddled when theres two people splitting authority and responsibilities at the highest, most visible level? Why firms do it The co-CEO trend hasn’t been studied extensively. But a 2022 Harvard Business Review report found that from 1996 to 2020, out of 2,200 companies listed in the S&P 1200 and the Russell 1000, fewer than 100 had dual leaders. Some say the arrangement is a surefire way to stay focused on the company’s mission, rather than personal accolades. Chip Kaye, a former co-CEO of Warburg Pincus, told HBR it forces leaders to keep their egos in check. Likewise, the research pointed to some promising findings, like a greater annual shareholder return. Companies led by joint CEOs generated 9.5% compared to 6.9% for solo led companies. In fact, around 60% of the joint CEO-led companies outperformed the ones with solo leaders. But some co-leaders argue its a positive arrangement. Netflixs Sarandos told Fast Companys Amy Wallace last September: Having someone to talk to who is not an employee or a board member who is your peer is so helpful. He also said having a partner to share authority with is a relief: It is that lonely-at-the-top thing. The saying came from somewhere. Still, the offbeat arrangement requires careful consideration. A delicate balance Partnerships like these need to be executed carefully, as sole CEOs tend to remain in power longer than co-CEO partnerships do, an analysis from the Wall Street Journal found. Don Yaeger, executive coach, author, and host of the Corporate Competitor podcast, tells Fast Company that co-CEOs have to put their egos aside for the setup to work and ideally, have “opposing skillsets” in order to best serve the company. “You need two people who do not feel less than when someone else is the focal point of interviews or stage time,” Yaeger explains. “The second one starts resenting the other, the wall comes crumbling down.” Likewise, Yaeger says that companies need to have a “clear delineation” of the responsibilities of each CEO. He cites the Netflix example as one company that is paving the way for how to put that into practice. “Sarandos is outward-facing with marketing, while Greg Peters is more inwardly focussed on product and operations.” Still, Yaeger presses that the relationship is a “delicate balance” that requires trust between co-CEOs. “If companies arent careful, the dual CEO arrangement can become somewhat like parenting,” Yaeger says. “When your child doesnt like your answer, they immediately go looking for the other parent. Thats messy at home and really messy at a Fortune 500.” In some cases, that messiness shows itself in public ways. Chipotle, which had co-CEOs from 2009 through 2016, returned to the more mainstream arrangement after a number of food safety incidents plagued the chain, and foot traffic failed to recover. Steve Ells, who stepped into the role solely told AP News at the time that it was vital for the brand to have “one CEO, one voice, and a very focused approach.” Of course, quite simply, there’s no denying that two heads are often better than one. Yaeger says that’s especially true as companies grow and become “more complex.” The job becomes too big for just one leader, who may not have all of the knowledge and skills to make the company thrive. But, if co-CEOs are able to put their egos aside, communicate effectively, and “respect the space of each other,” Yaeger says, the company and the CEOs themselves might be able reap the rewards.
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E-Commerce
“Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high . . . take a look, its in a book“: Reading Rainbow, PBS iconic kids show, is back after 20 years off the air. This time around, its hosted by beloved TikTok librarian Mychal Threets. But you dont have to take my word for it. The news was announced on September 29 through an Instagram post shared by Threets, the official Reading Rainbow account, and Buffalo Toronto Public Media. Episodes of the new series will premiere at 10 a.m. ET every Saturday during October on the KidZuko, a kids’ YouTube channel from Sony Pictures Television, as well as on Reading Rainbows website. Reading Rainbow was first launched in 1983 as a response to summer loss phenomena, in which “a child loses some of his or her reading abilities because they tend not to read during the summer, Reading Rainbows website explains. Each episode featured a different childrens picture book, often narrated by a celebrity, as well as guest interviews and book reviews. Over the course of the shows 26-year run, it became the most-watched PBS program in the classroom, earning awards including the George Foster Peabody Award and 26 Emmys. A large part of Reading Rainbows success was thanks to host LeVar Burton, whose charismatic personality and comforting cadence set the shows tone. Burtons successor, Threets, has already cultivated a devoted audience of his own for his love of books and friendly communication style. Heres what to know as Threets steps in to take viewers along the Reading Rainbow. Who is Mychal Threets, a.k.a. Mychal the Librarian? Threets, known on social media as Mychal the Librarian, has spent the last few years amassing a sizable following (including 829,000 followers on TikTok and 895,000 on Instagram) by sharing his love for reading with the world. When Threets first started his social media pages several years ago, he was working as a librarian in Solano County, California, at the same library that cultivated his own passion for reading. In 2024, he stepped down from that role and took up a new position as PBS resident librarian, a position that allows him to continue producing videos that encourage kids to develop healthy reading habits. Some of Threet’s most popular videos include heartwarming storytimes about his experiences as a librarian, book reviews, and calls for viewers to invest in their local librariesall delivered with his signature smile. Dear Solano County Library, I just want to say Thank you, Threets begins in one TikTok post with over two million views. Thank you for raising me as a homeschool library kid. This is the place where Ive always felt safe, Ive always felt like I belong, Ive always felt like I have friends. Now, Threets is bringing that same sense of safety and belonging to fellow library kids through the Reading Rainbow reboot. I was raised on Reading Rainbow, LeVar Burton is my hero, Threets wrote in an Instagram post about the series. I am a reader, I am a librarian because LeVar Burton and Reading Rainbow so powerfully made us believe we belong in books, we belong everywhere. I am so happy for all of us that Reading Rainbow is returning! YOU all did this! Were flying twice as high, butterflies in the sky!
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E-Commerce
The U.S. government is taking a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a company that is developing one of the worlds largest lithium mines in northern Nevada. The Department of Energy will take a 5% equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors. Thacker Pass is considered crucial in reducing U.S. reliance on China for lithium, a critical material used to produce the high tech batteries used in cell phones, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Both Republicans and Democrats support the project and narrowing the production gap. China is the worlds largest lithium processor. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the deal with Lithium Americas helps reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals by strengthening domestic supply chains and ensures better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars. Thacker Pass is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year in its first phase, enough to help power 800,000 EVs. The equity stake in Lithium Americas is the latest example of the direct intervention by the Trump administration with private companies. The government is getting a 10% stake in Intel through the conversion of billions in previously granted government funds and pledges. The administration spent $400 million of taxpayer money in July on MP Materials stock to make the U.S government the biggest owner in the Las Vegas rare earths miner. Trump also made a deal with Nvidia and AMD to give the U.S. government a 15% cut of revenue from selling certain chips to China. Lithium Americas said Wednesday that it reached a non-binding agreement in principle with the DOE to advance the first draw of $435 million on the federal loan. The DOE has agreed to defer $182 million of debt service over the first five years of the loan. The White House and Canada’s Lithium Americas seemed to be moving forward with the deal late last month, as both parties agreed on changes to an approximately $2.3 billion federal loan that could allow the project to move forward to extract the silver-white metal used in electric vehicle batteries. GM has pledged more than $900 million to help develop Thacker Pass, which holds enough lithium to build 1 million electric vehicles annually. Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush, called Thacker Pass is a massive opportunity for the U.S. to reduce its reliance on China and other foreign adversaries for lithium. Despite having some of the largest deposits, the U.S. produced less than 1% of the global lithium supply but this deal helps reduce dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals strengthening domestic supply chains and ensuring better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars with lithium production set to grow exponentially over the coming years, he wrote. Shares of Lithium Americas spiked more than 30% Wednesday. Michelle Chapman, AP business writer
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E-Commerce
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