Masters of Scale

When Paul Polman joined Unilever as CEO in 2009, the consumer goods company – home to 400-plus brands including Dove soap, Ben & Jerry’s, and Vaseline – had been stagnated with years of lackluster performance. His famous turnaround of the company centered around his ability to redraw the boundaries of Unilever’s mission to emphasize sustainability and long-term growth. He’s a perfect example o...

This past summer, Fidji Simo departed from Facebook – where she stood among the highest-ranking female executives, serving as the head of their app – for the opportunity to become a first-time CEO at Instacart. She replaced founder Apoorva Mehta, who appeared on this show last spring to talk about Instacart’s incredible COVID-fueled growth. Since then, Fidji has emphasized an evolved company missi...

This week, we’re returning to an episode of Masters of Scale featuring Ben Chestnut, the co-founder and CEO of Mailchimp. The email marketing platform was acquired this year by Intuit in a multi-billion-dollar deal that closed this month. Hear how Chestnut used a DIY ethos to grow the company without ever raising a dollar of outside funding. The Mailchimp story is the exception to Reid's rule (alw...

Many of us attempt to shift gears during the holidays, spend quality time with people we love, and refresh. But too often, we end up glued to our devices – catching up on work, avoiding complex people, or simply addicted to that screen.  In an episode from our sister podcast, Meditative Story, host Rohan Gunatillake shares three calming techniques to help you navigate tricky family dynamics,...

Reid Hoffman and Rapid Response host Bob Safian break down what you need to know right now about the most important issues and opportunities impacting entrepreneurs. The co-hosts dive into inflation reactions, Facebook quandaries, metaverse mania, AI & crypto trends, and lessons from the Great Resignation. Plus: why LinkedIn pulled back in China, and what pundits are missing in the b...

In May 2020, as companies began making promises about how they’d help Black-owned businesses in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, Aurora James launched the 15 Percent Pledge initiative with an Instagram post. Tagging major retailers, she declared that 15% of retail shelf space should belong to Black-owned businesses. And she's helped these companies turn promise into action, unlocking $10 billio...

Your board of directors can make or break you. In fact, Reid believes, the wrong board member can break your company faster than the right board member can make it. Learn the five vital mindset shifts that can help you create a better board, with insights from Mellody Hobson, the co-CEO of Ariel Investments and the chair of the Starbucks board, along with Lisa Shalett, co-founder of Extr...

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, breaks down his deep insights around artificial intelligence on Rapid Response. Schmidt, co-author of the new book "The Age of AI: And Our Human Future," alongside Dr. Henry Kissinger and MIT’s Daniel Huttenlocher, says that we’re entering an unknown era with technology – one that requires extra vigilance to ensure that we amplify the positives and de-amplify th...

Too often, companies only focus on the type of scale that’s visible: massive campuses, thousands of workers, offices around the globe. But as Land O’Lakes proves, there are less conspicuous ways to scale – ways that supply your business with structural integrity. This is something CEO Beth Ford knows well. She’s strategically scaled Land O’Lakes – often beneath the surface of what the average cons...

Skepticism and doubt are no strangers to John Foley, the CEO of Peloton. As he says, it’s been part of the company’s DNA “since the first time I pitched the business to an investor back in 2012.” Last year, the company was supercharged by pandemic demand. However, in 2021, the company has faced a slew of new headwinds, from product-safety issues to investor skepticism. In the face of these challen...

How do you respond when your own users resist your data? That question is top-of-mind for Nielsen CEO David Kenny. For decades, Nielsen has measured ratings and demographics across TV and media – the ultimate designator of success and failure. But as industry norms shift to streaming, Kenny has had to revamp processes and expectations, absorbing heat from traditional customers. As he notes, nostal...

Want to improve any idea? Find someone who disagrees with it. This is something legendary investor Ray Dalio knows. But there’s a difference between constructive and destructive conflict – and Dalio is a master at spotting the difference. In constructive conflict, a team has a shared goal, whether or not they have differing opinions. And this is the key to success. Cameo appearances: Steve Horgan...

Since stepping down as Walmart’s president of e-commerce at the beginning of the year, billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore has had a busy year of big ideas. In the spring, it was announced that he reached a deal to purchase the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, alongside Alex Rodriguez. And then last month, he outlined his plans to build a new American city called Telosa,...

Crowdsourcing is more than a group of people interested in the same cause, it’s a way to tap skills – and scale – that you don’t have. And when it works, it can be the rocket fuel that launches you to scale further than you could have ever imagined. No one knows this better than Luis von Ahn, founder and CEO of Duolingo. Duolingo is a language app with over 300 million users worldwide, who co...

In the last year, Sarah Hirshland has had to face one daunting issue after another as the CEO of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee – each of which have required urgent, in-the-moment decisions. Most recently Sarah mandated that U.S. athletes be vaccinated against COVID-19 to participate in the upcoming Beijing winter games. But that’s just the latest of a slew of cultural issues she’s be...

Jessica Alba’s approach in founding and building The Honest Company revolves around three letters: IRL, a useful acronym for “In Real Life.” This phrase acts as a reminder for the company to shine the spotlight onto their customer’s real needs – not only to understand them, but to address them as well. Alba built the company around her passion to make childcare and household products that are safe...

Last year, SolarWinds became the subject of a massive and sophisticated cyberattack, potentially affecting thousands of organizations. CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna, who joined the company soon after the breach was discovered, speaks with host Bob Safian about how he and the company responded, and how other companies should approach the ever-looming threat of cyber-risk. "There is no such thing as 'I w...

No matter what phase of growth you’re in, data is essential to scale. Take it from Sheila Lirio Marcelo, the founder and former CEO of Care.com, the two-sided marketplace connecting working families with care providers. Marcelo scaled her business past the competition by getting the right data at the right time. Marketplaces are tricky flywheels to get started, and Marcelo used data to help her de...

To compete against bigger players, you need a special edge. Sridhar Ramaswamy, who led Google’s huge ad business, is now going head-to head against his former employer with an ad-free subscription-based search engine called Neeva. Ramaswamy became disillusioned by Google’s priorities and practices and argues that big platforms – including Facebook and Amazon – have failed to scale responsibly...

To get the most out of your talent, you need to create an environment that allows them to thrive. Nobody knows this better than Indra Nooyi who spent 12 years as the CEO of PepsiCo. It was her drive to support talent that underpinned all of the initiatives that transformed the company. Her approach, which she calls “Performance with Purpose,” centers around delivering great financial performance w...

Your ability to make quick decisions in the face of a crisis can define your career. That’s been the case for Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, president of Spelman College, the all-women's HBCU in Atlanta. In her second appearance on Rapid Response, Dr. Campbell, who recently announced her plan to retire at the end of the academic year, discusses how listening to her community has led to resolving compl...

Managing your team right now requires fresh thinking. Learn what motivates the best performance, and how to build creative teams in remote, hybrid, and fluid conditions, from some of the sharpest minds in management. In this special episode, we share five moves that are essential to building a team right now. Tapping into lessons from top leaders at Apple, Canva, Delta, Uber and more – p...

18 months ago, the lights went out on Broadway. What can you learn as this $16bn industry begins to re-light the lights? Tony-winning producer Bonnie Comley, the CEO of BroadwayHD and board president of the Drama League, shows us how Broadway's 41 theaters are coming back to life — and how the 18-month pandemic closure created some breathing room for her industry to reimagine itself. At the core:...

As dangerous as obstacles and setbacks may appear, they can also present opportunities. Robert Reffkin, founder and CEO of the real estate platform, Compass, knows this well. He’s a perfect example of how to use challenges to generate a fresh burst of energy. Reffkin explains how he’s been able to reassess situations in the wake of setbacks, plan his next move, and successfully execute pivots. The...

Chris Urmson has had to take a different approach in building his company Aurora, which develops self-driving technology. As opposed to creating and iterating a product with a handful of people, and then building a company around that product, Urmson says he’s had to do the opposite. “Given the scale of the problem we're trying to solve and the complexity and breadth of it, we really had to build...