Lyft IPO, YouTube Ads, Qualcomm Troubles: CEO Daily for February 21, 2019
Good morning.
I’m at the Lake Nona Impact Forum this morning in balmy Florida, which has been spared the storm that is shutting down much of the rest of the U.S.
The focus of the forum: wellness. You may wonder why that’s a topic for CEO Daily. But Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert provided an unambiguous answer. In today’s economy, your employees are your most important asset. And “investing in the well-being of those employees,” she said, “is ultimately good for both our people and our business.” Deloitte employs 100,000 people—75% of them millennials—and Engelbert said she has worked to elevate wellbeing to a top priority by encouraging family leave, flexible schedules, telecommuting, healthy snacks and monitoring things like hours worked, commute times, nights spent in hotels, and unused vacations.
One key learning, she said, is that you “can’t outsource well-being to HR.” She cited a survey of workers who, when asked who had the greatest impact on their happiness at work, cited coworkers (59%), direct managers (31%), C-suite leaders (8%), and only then HR (2%).
No surprise, given her commitment, that Deloitte is one of the star members of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. It’s one of a handful of companies to land on the list at least 20 times. You can find the full 2019 list, out last week, here. Other 20-year companies: Goldman Sachs, Four Seasons, Marriott, Genentech, EY, and REI.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be interviewing another CEO who prioritizes wellness—Target’s Brian Cornell. Cornell is coming off a stunningly successful holiday season, with a 5.7% increase in same-store sales, driven in part by the success of its in-store and curbside pickup program for online purchases. If a focus on wellness helps produce those kind of results, it’s worth paying attention to.
More news below.
Top News
Lyft IPO
Lyft may make its IPO filing public next week, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the ride-hailing firm will join the Nasdaq in late March. The paper previously reported that founders John Zimmer and Logan Green intend to take “near-majority voting control” of the Uber rival via a special class of shares, as is now common among tech titans. WSJ
YouTube Ads
Nestlé and other large companies have pulled ads from YouTube because they were apparently appearing alongside videos of young girls that commenters were sexualizing. “We will revise our decision upon completion of current measures being taken… to ensure Nestlé advertising standards are met,” said a Nestlé spokeswoman. YouTube says it has deleted the offending accounts. BBC
Qualcomm Troubles
Qualcomm reportedly still hasn’t won over enough of the FTC and its top officials in order to avoid a negative antitrust ruling. Said ruling could restrict Qualcomm’s ability to earn cash from every smartphone sale. Bloomberg
VW Outlook
Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess thinks potential auto tariffs coming from the U.S. present the biggest threat to the German carmaker’s profits. “It’s becoming tense once again,” Diess said to the Financial Times. “You know it’s a pity because we can’t solve it from the car industry… It’s more of a tariffs negotiation between Europe and the United States.” FT
Around the Water Cooler
Extinction Event
Farewell to the Bramble Cay melomys, which is now extinct. Why does the end of this obscure Australian rodent matter? Because Melomys rubicola is the first mammal known to have gone extinct because of man-made climate change—a fact just confirmed by the Australian government. Washington Post
Zuckerberg Audience
Following the report by a British parliamentary committee that dubbed Facebook “digital gangsters” and called for heavy regulation, U.K. Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright is being granted a brief audience with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck infuriated the committee by repeatedly refusing to talk to them directly, but now it seems he’s listening. For half an hour. Guardian
Barclays Brexit
Barclays, which is back in the black, has taken a special impairment charge of nearly $200 million to deal with Brexit—but it’s not going anywhere. “There is a lot of uncertainty out there,” said CEO Jes Staley. “What is important for Barclays is we are a British bank and we are staying committed to the U.K.” CNBC
Irish Opportunity
Ireland is these days the EU’s fastest-growing economy, and has become an attractive destination for jobs that are leaving Britain thanks to Brexit. And, as Richard Mogran writes for Fortune: “The ascent of Ireland as a global player and the subtle shift in power between it and the U.K. isn’t going over well with some in Britain—namely, the Brexit supporters who remain in Parliament.” Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer. Find previous editions here, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here.
