Meet The Leader

In this special compilation episode, top CEOs, founders, activists reveal the advice that shaped them, helping them change their minds and their approaches to work and life, improving on everything from patience and authenticity to how they team and learn.

Featured in this episode: Leif Johansson, former non-executive chairman at AstraZeneca, AstraZeneca; Marie-France Tschudin, President of Innovative Medicines International and Chief Commercial Officer, Novartis; Caroline Casey, founder, the Valuable 500; Nicola Mendelsohn, Head of the Global Business Group, Meta; Cassandra Mao, Chief Strategy Officer, Halo Car; Ponsi Trivisvavet, CEO, Inari; Melonie Parker, Chief Diversity Officer, Google; Blake Scholl, founder, Boom Supersonic; Nazanin Boniadi, activist and actress.

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The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report finds that 44% of worker skills will be disrupted in the next five years. In this episode, experts from Google, LinkedIn and more talk about the mindsets and approaches that will help workers and employees navigate the skills disruption ahead - and what some companies are already putting into place to help workers stay relevant.

In this episode: Becky Frankiewicz, Chief Commercial Officer, Manpower Group; Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP; Valérie Beaulieu, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Adecco Group; Judith Wiese, Chief People and Sustainability Officer, Siemens; Melonie Parker, Chief Diversity Officer at Google; Lindiwe Matlali, founder, Africa Teen Geeks; Allen Blue, co-founder, LinkedIn, Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, European Commission, Soon-Joo Gog, Chief Skills Officer, SkillsFuture Singapore; Alex Liu, managing partner and chairman at Kearney.

Transcript: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/meet-the-leader/episodes/10-leaders-on-reskilling-for-the-future-of-work

Report link: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023

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Josef Aschbacher's role as Director General for the European Space Agency (ESA) requires mobilizing support for visionary innovations that often take decades to build. He shared the strategies he's learned while at ESA to talk about technical marvels in a clear way, without jargon, to earn buy-in for big ideas and connect with a range of stakeholders from policy makers to children. These methods for sparking inspiration, trust and excitement can be critical to any leader making long-term change a reality. He also discussed the $350-billion-dollar (and growing) space economy, sharing how a range of initiatives and shifts can foster new businesses and help ensure space will continue to strengthen economies and protect the environment for years to come.

Transcript: European space chief on speaking to inspire - and making big change possible

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With a background in software engineering and ad tech, Blake Scholl has an unusual CV for an aviation CEO. However, his singular passion for aviation drove him to learn this sector and eventually found a sustainable aviation company with flights twice as fast as what's offered today. Founding Boom was one of several crossroads moments in Scholl's life that drove home to him that knowledge and skills are adaptable and changeable, and there to support our passions.

In this episode, recorded at the Annual Meeting in Davos, he explains the opportunity supersonic flight offers now, decades after the famed Concorde, for tackling emissions and connecting the world. He also shared key pivot points - from leaving high school early, to hitting a wall as Boom founder - where he relied not on what he knew but what he could learn and possibly teach himself. Such an approach is critical for any listener as the job market will be increasingly transformed by a demand for new skills.

Story: Learn the skills-first approach this CEO uses at every crossroads moment

Transcript: Skills are changeable - passions are not: Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl

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The CEO of Mercer, one of the world's largest human resource consultancies, shares the blind spots holding companies back from building healthier and more resilient teams. She shares how targeted uses of data can boost uptake of health and wellness benefits, the role of reskilling in future workforces and the importance of rethinking retention strategies in the long term.

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With a career that spans nearly 5 decades in science and technology -- one that includes time at AstraZeneca during its history-making effort to deliver billions of vaccines to countries around the world -- Leif Johansson shares his unique lessons learned. Before he stepped down from his role as non-executive chairman 27 April, he shared with Meet The Leader how his interest in physics has made him a better leader, the key moments that shaped him and even changed his mind, and the advice he's been most grateful for.

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A blood cancer diagnosis turned this Meta exec's day-to-day upside down in 2016. But it also reinforced a key personal philosophy: control what you can control. It's an approach that she stresses to her teams at Meta, reminding her staff to stop worrying about what they can't change and to focus instead on areas where they can make the biggest, most unique impact. And it's an approach that has empowered her to make big change happen for others, inspiring her to build a special charity to seek a cure: the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation.

In this episode, recorded at the 2023 Annual Meeting in Davos, Mendelsohn shares what she's learned about focus and resilience and how she's put those qualities to work to drive a host of innovative solutions, from leveraging virtual reality for remote meetings during COVID to building resources to support a new generation of women entrepreneurs.

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Augmented reality (AR) is transforming retail, surgery and even how we read a book. Peggy Johnson, CEO of Magic Leap -- a company pioneering in this technology -- shares how AR might evolve – and what could hold that progress back. She also shares key milestones from her decades in tech -- including the surprising lesson mobile ringtones taught her about making way for big breakthroughs and how as an introvert early in her career she found ways to get her ideas heard.

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What is your purpose? What societal impact are you driving? Patrick Decker, CEO of Xylem, shares how this water technology company is helping to tackle these questions while tackling big issues impacting society and the planet (such as water scarcity, water infrastructure and emissions), leveraging everything from technology (AI and digital twins) to innovative demand deposit accounts.

On this episode, released ahead of the UN 2023 Water Conference, Decker shares the virtuous circle purpose creates - how it draws motivated people to join teams, attracts partners and commercial teams, drives fresh thinking and keeps a cross-section of groups aligned on big goals. Decker shared the practical ways leaders can keep teams in touch with a shared purpose -- from aligned communication (that sidesteps confusion) to a simple question asked at the top of meetings to keep conversations focused.

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Too many groups, including women and gender diverse people, do not see themselves as policymakers or politicians. Raise Our Voice Australia works to change that by providing special training on how the political system works, as well as tactical skills in areas like community building and having conversations with people you disagree with. Founder Ashleigh Streeter-Jones shares the important role a mentor played in crafting a step-by-step process to launch the social enterprise, one that helped break the massive project into 'bite-sized' pieces, a process that can be instrumental for founders of any startup or initiative. In fact, Streeter-Jones has a circle of mentors she turns to for advice and commiseration, and she shares the key role that mentoring plays in sharing knowledge and building anything big.

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