Achieving both a great company culture and maintaining a real competitive edge requires humility and a deep understanding of the complexities facing global business. In a conversation moderated by Fortune's Diane Brady, top CEOs from Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list will explore how they are navigating significant global shifts – from the re-ordering of economic and trade systems to changing consumer trends and the breakneck speed of AI – while creating an inclusive global strategy that doesn’t need to compromise culture or business success.
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TechTranscript
00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome. I'm Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director at Fortune. I'll
00:17be moderating today's very special conversation on what it takes to master change and achieve
00:23a great company culture in a complex world presented by Great Place to Work and UKG.
00:30First, let me thank you for joining us. I know your time is valuable, and I think this will be
00:35time very well spent. It's a chance for you to hear from top CEOs from Fortune's 100 Best Companies
00:42to Work For list. If you don't have it, you can pick up a copy on newsstands, or we've dropped a
00:47link in the chat that you can see there. Speaking of the chat, let me just do a little bit of brief
00:52housekeeping first. Today's gathering is on the record and will be covered by Fortune
00:57journalists, including me, and we will be taking questions from you in the audience about halfway
01:03through the call. If you want to pose a question, please use the chat function there to submit your
01:09questions, and I'll work them in to the conversation. With that, let me introduce our discussion leaders.
01:15When I mention your name, I think it's going to be very obvious, but just give us a little wave so the
01:20audience knows who you are. I'm thrilled to be joined by Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO, Accenture.
01:26Hi, Julie. Ed Bastian, Chief Executive Officer, Delta Airlines. Hi, Ed.
01:31Hi, Diane.
01:32And Michael Bush, CEO, Great Place to Work. Hi, Michael.
01:36Hi, Diane.
01:37And as many of you know, Fortune has partnered with Great Place to Work to publish this list for,
01:42I believe, 28 years. And if you're interested in learning more about the methodology, we'll also
01:48drop that into the chat later in the call. Michael, why don't you kick us off with some opening
01:54thoughts on the landscape right now? Yeah, thank you, Diane and Julie and Ed. Great to join this
02:01session with you. You know, the landscape right now is more fear and uncertainty in the workplace
02:08than any time since we've been in business at Great Place to Work. So I think any listener
02:14understands that these things are going on. And fear and uncertainty aren't good for trust.
02:20They kind of weaken trust. But we've got two leaders with us today who have provided the leadership
02:26with their great people and their great leaders who turn fear and uncertainty into something that
02:34inspires people because they understand the situation, they understand the real world,
02:38but they really double down on achieving the missions of their companies. So they have a way
02:44of taking adversity and turning into something positive. So really looking forward to the time
02:48and hearing from these two so that we can all learn from them. Yeah. And I have to say thanks for
02:54that, Michael. I think it sets us off nicely that to me, leadership's very personal. We connect as
03:00human beings first and foremost. And Julie, let me go to you first. And how are you doing on a
03:07personal level? What are your priorities right now? And I'd love to get a sense of how you're
03:12managing in this climate? Sure. Well, I was joking with a colleague that I've redefined what R&R is
03:19to be resilience and results, because that's what I feel like I'm focusing on. And that's both of the
03:26company, our resilience, financial, operational, and people, but also the personal resilience.
03:31And the same with results, because at the end of the day, we can only control what we can control
03:38and making sure that we're focused on that, both as a personal and as a company leader,
03:44and still holding ourselves. So what are the results within that is super important. And it's
03:48important to our people because they then don't feel helpless, right? Like, because one of the things
03:54that I think is really important is that we do control a lot. We don't control everything. This is a
03:58really tough environment, but we have a lot in our hands. And we'll talk, I know, a little bit later
04:05about just how we're reassuring people, how we're bringing that mindset. But I've certainly brought it
04:10to, you know, my own personal life. And one of the things I often ask our clients, I'll say, what are
04:15you doing differently? And in, you know, when you think about resilience today, I don't believe that
04:21the things that we were doing three months, six months ago to, you know, at a personal level are,
04:27you know, for many leaders sufficient in dealing with sort of the heightened uncertainty and
04:32pressure. So for my, for example, for myself, you know, I always try to walk every day. And because
04:38I have a busy life, I often do that alone, right? I'm getting my walk in, you know, etc. And I've
04:43switched that up to making sure that I'm trying to walk most days with either my husband or a friend,
04:51because what I find is using that moment to like connect with another human being is really helping
04:59me at a time when there's a lot of stress, as opposed to having that walk be like my exercise
05:04and my efficiency. So, you know, I really encourage people both as leaders, right? Like, what are you
05:10doing in your company differently than before to manage this time? But also for yourself, how are you
05:16taking care of yourself differently acknowledging, you know, the environment? I love that. I love that
05:23idea of creating personal connections when you're trying to create meditative time as well. So, Ed,
05:29how about yourself? What are you doing? And that's, you know, how is that shaping your strategy? And just
05:34how are you doing on a personal level? Well, thanks, Diane. It's great to be with everyone. You know,
05:39for me, it's interesting. And Michael, I hear your remarks about fear and uncertainty, maybe being
05:46at their highest. I can tell you in our industry, five years ago, it was at its highest, we lost our
05:51business, we had no revenues coming in. There was no clarity, there was a lot of uncertainty. So
05:58times sound familiar to a little bit what we're going through today. But we learned a lot of lessons,
06:04you know, going through COVID and the pandemic. And Julie's right, a lot of it is about resilience.
06:10Delta, I've rather than R&R, I called it D&D, differentiated and durable. I mean, that rhymes
06:17with Delta, who knows? But those are strategies. Those were strategies, by the way, we laid out to
06:21Wall Street a year ago, before any of this happened, that will get us through, you know, focusing on
06:27those things that you can control. And realizing that there's, there's much more within your control
06:33than not. Understanding that our businesses are, at Delta anyway, are doing well, maybe not as great
06:41as we'd like them to be doing. But we're still, we're still making it through and encouraging our
06:48teams and our people to do what they do best, which is taking care of each other and taking care of our
06:52customers. It's about service. And at times like this is when we need leadership to stand up like
06:58never before. So some leaders, sometimes when they're, they're, they're hit, suddenly, I think
07:04there's a natural pause and people pull back. I think true leaders step into it. Michael, let me turn
07:12the question to you before we get into some of the broader tactics. On a personal level, how are you
07:18doing this? This is, this is your life's work, of course. And I know that we've had many great
07:23conversations about creating culture. I'm curious, as a leader of this company, anything you're doing
07:29differently or feeling differently about the climate? Well, I'm getting out for my walks, but I really
07:35like to walk alone. So Julie's like got me looking in the mirror on that. So, you know, I'm kind of an
07:42inward person, but I like, like what, what Julie's suggesting. So, you know, this is a kind of a tougher
07:52time for me, you know, been doing work a long time, but, you know, the, there, there's certain things
08:00that are going on in the world today that are head scratchers for me, you know, and so I just don't get
08:05the logic and, and I'm kind of a logical person, though I understand the real world. So trying to make
08:10sense out of that is pretty hard to do because, you know, I just have concerns about, about the
08:18world. But I do know my responsibility is to lead and inspire our people and, and to turn whatever
08:27these feelings are to lead and inspire people. And that people are people, which these two great
08:33leaders do, they, they both have built massive organizations that are doing complicated, very
08:41hard things every day, along with people that they don't necessarily have the same beliefs,
08:47but they come together to achieve the mission and purpose, which is their personal purpose,
08:54which is aligned with the purpose of the organizations. And so, you know, with, with Ed,
08:59over a hundred thousand people doing complicated work every single day and, and Julie with over
09:05800,000 people, you know, the same I get inspired by that. You know, inspired by, by leaders who are
09:14able to, to do that. And I've seen both of these two. And, and I know on the list, we've got many,
09:21many phenomenal leaders, but when they speak, people listen and, and the people in their organizations
09:28know, they care about them, every, every single person in the organization. And so I've been able
09:33to be around them and the other great companies on the list to know that what they say and, and the
09:40image they project, it's actually legit. It's actually, it's actually real. So I get inspired by
09:45that and, and then just, you know, want to continue to do the work to get through some things in the
09:52world. Doing this kind of work is, is great medicine for me. You know, it's, it's interesting
09:57because I feel like at, at a macro level culture, engaging employees, you know, it is like the idea
10:04of eat less exercise more. It sounds like it, it's easy to do. It's very hard to execute on. And to your
10:11point, Michael, both you, Julie, and Ed have to create playbooks to be able to replicate these habits
10:18at scale. Julie, let me go to you first. I mean, we're at the cusp of this whole new era of
10:24innovation that's transforming. I know Accenture, many of the customers that you work with,
10:29what are you doing for employees and workers to sort of keep them engaged? It's both an incredibly
10:37exciting time, but also a scary one. Well, you know, one of the things, one of the stories I tell
10:43about myself is I joined Accenture when I was 42 and the skillset I have today, I did not have at
10:50the age of 42. I joined as a general counsel. I knew nothing about technology. And truth be told,
10:56I didn't know what a CIO was. I joined from a general counsel as a, from a, from a law firm.
11:01And why is that important? Because when we think about what we can do for our people,
11:06learning and investing in our people and making sure they have the skills to succeed,
11:11you know, regardless of the macro is a core part of what we offer to our people. And it's a core
11:17part of giving them confidence. So when you know, like a tangible example of how we then bring that
11:23to life is when the U S announced the way they were going to handle tariffs. And there was so much
11:30uncertainty. Not only did we have within a week, 900 of our clients on webinars, right. But we brought
11:36all of our managing directors. We brought one of the world's best economists. We invested in
11:41their learning, equipping them to quickly be able to have the right conversations because,
11:47you know, we have 10,000 MDs. We have very young people. We have, you know, people who've been
11:51around for a long time, none of whom were an expert in tariffs. And that is in and of itself saying,
11:57I'm at a company that's on top of it. That's immediately helping me be successful in this
12:04environment. And then we went through what we had already done within just a week to better serve
12:10the needs of our clients. Because at the end of the day, you can do a lot of different programs,
12:14but people need to have confidence that you're going to be successful, that the company's doing
12:21the right things. We also, and Ed is absolutely right. We learned a lot from COVID. And one of the
12:27biggest things was speed, right? And what do we need to be faster? We were 500,000 people. We're 800,000
12:33people now. We were faster in reacting, even though much bigger, this time to this next shock
12:40than we were in COVID. And some of that is, you know, exactly the investments we've made in
12:45resilience like AI. So our people are learning about tariffs in an AI-enabled database that's
12:51constantly being able to be updated, that allows them to ask the questions that reflect their
12:56knowledge. We had invested in community building using technology or Microsoft Viva. And so we've
13:02got communities where we're getting that knowledge faster. All of that is both resilience, it's
13:08investment in people, and it's incredibly confident because there's no gap, right? People are not left
13:15to feeling as uncertain when you don't see a path to how the company's responding. And so I think it's
13:23super important to remember that people need communication, they need action. And as a company,
13:29being able to invest in being fast really matters to your employees as they're going through these
13:35different times. You know, Ed, I'm staring at a cover image of you there, and it says the CEO who gave
13:41employees $1.4 billion. So there you go. Explain, sir. No, but tell me more about how you are engaging
13:50your own workers and the importance of how you empower them.
13:55Well, first of all, I agree with everything Julie said. She made tremendous points in terms of how
14:00we've leveraged technology to keep our people updated, equipped, and confident as we're moving
14:07forward in uncertain times. I'll give you an example. Just yesterday, I was in Salt Lake City.
14:12We had a very, very large frontline employee engagement. We call it, at Delta, we call it Velvet.
14:18And we do it. Velvet? Velvet, yes. And it's a long story. I won't get into why we call it Velvet,
14:27but people don't know. Michael's attended Velvet, so he wears a badge there. But we do it 15 times a
14:35year, and it's a day and a half. And we do it all around our system where we bring hundreds, if not
14:40thousands, of our employees, frontline employees from all across the world to attend many of these
14:45sessions. And I lead each one of them. We've been doing that for 19 years. 19 years ago, when Delta
14:52was in a very different situation, a company actually was in bankruptcy back then following
14:569-11 and a lot of difficult times that the airline industry was having. And it allowed us to get back
15:02to the front lines of our people, to listen to them. You know, there's a lot of people that want to
15:06tell us what we should be doing. The most important people to listen to are your own,
15:11and to understand what they need to be able to take care of the hundreds of millions of people
15:16that we serve, the public that we serve every single day. And as a result of that, and I led
15:22it back then, and I still lead them today, every one of them, I'm out there. And we do them all over
15:26the country and sometimes the world. And people here, and from not just me, but from our direct,
15:33our leaders, you know, many of our senior leaders out and having the discussions. And of course,
15:38yesterday with a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and trade and the impact it's having on the economy
15:44and consumer confidence were real questions. And I got a chance to speak to them directly and
15:49personally about that. But I also told them that what got us through COVID, what's got us through
15:55many, many issues over the last 19 years is what's going to keep us going. And the first most important
16:01thing is that we believe in our mission. We believe in our purpose. And as a company that is a
16:07globalist, because our world is to make the, our mission is to make the world a smaller place.
16:12It is to unite the world, is to get, bring people together, you know, with a little bit of the
16:17populism that you're seeing going on, not just in our country, but around the world, that would seem
16:21to be a direct affront. But we know the spirit wants to be together. People need to be together
16:26in order to elicit the understanding and how we move forward, not just as a, as a country, but as a global
16:32society. And that's where the excitement comes. And that's where the love, the inspiration sits.
16:36And in order to do that, they have to be equipped. And one of the things I announced yesterday was
16:41that we were giving everyone, all of our eligible employees, a 4% pay raise. You don't see a lot of
16:47companies leaning in in the face of uncertainty and say, no, we're giving everyone a pay raise. And it
16:53wasn't the amount of money that, that mattered. And by the way, that was in our plan and nothing
16:57changed about our plan with the uncertainty we're seeing yet today. It was the fact that, you know, we
17:02are putting fuel in their tank to get through these, these challenging times as we've done
17:06many, many times in the past. And people stood in, stood in, it was a raucous, you know, applause,
17:12you could imagine, you know, in this, this big ballroom in Salt Lake City. So you, you lean
17:17in as you always do. Great companies don't, you know, wait for, for challenges to, to engage
17:23folks. You're, you're always engaged. And when the challenges come, people can put it in the
17:28context and say, okay, let's go, let's go forward. And you take that, that noise out and
17:32do, to just focus on what you can do to make someone else's world better.
17:37You know, one through line with both what you said, Ed and Julie, is this idea of, of learning,
17:43listening. I want to quickly ask the three of you, just again, a personal question. What
17:49have you learned lately? Julie, I'm going to take it to you first.
17:52Well, I'm reading a great autobiography of Pope Francis called Hope. And so it's been really
17:59inspiring to read about his life. I started it, I had the opportunity to meet him in the
18:04fall and was so inspired that I've been reading that. So I've been, of course, learning a lot
18:09about AI, but you know, you all know that. So, but so something a little more interesting.
18:13It's a, it's a great autobiography and I recommend it.
18:16Ed, anything that comes to mind for you in terms of what your own strategy and what you're
18:22doing, what have you learned?
18:24Well, Julie's saying that you're my, I've got that, that book on my, on my desk at home
18:28and it's going to remind me to pick it up. I also, a couple of years ago, had a chance
18:32to spend, spend time with the Pope and boy, I don't think I've met a leader in the world
18:38that had the impact on me that he had in that time. And he's, so many people have talked
18:43about that in his, his, his death recently, but just an incredible human being. You know,
18:50thing I've been learning and keeping our people posted on is how our brand continues to evolve
18:56and a consumer brand. We've, we've the issue our industry forever has had is that we were trapped
19:04in a kind of a price taking mode. Consumers would, would be loyal to where, wherever they could get
19:10them there at the lowest price. And that that's the wonder 100 year history of, of our industry.
19:16And over the last 15 years, Delta has broken the mold and people are now buying Delta based
19:22on who we are and what we offer and the value we create rather than simply price. Price is always
19:28important, but it's not by, by no means the most important reason why people choose Delta.
19:33And to do that means you have to be seen as a great consumer brand, not just as a, as a great
19:37transportation or airline and understanding what it means to be a great brand and spending a lot of
19:43times with great consumer brands. I trust and admire. Interesting. Michael, anything from you?
19:49Um, well, you know, just listening to Julie and Ed, um, you know, great leaders are great people too.
19:56Um, and, and, and, and these, these, these two are, uh, and, and so I, you know, I want to be,
20:02uh, in, in, in that category. Um, both Julie and Ed have met the Pope and put out very powerful posts
20:10about, about, about that. And so I haven't met the Pope. I see the Pope on TV or whatever,
20:14you know, but, but the way they talk about it and, and, you know, just, uh, makes me know that
20:21the Pope was someone who was special from two people who meet a lot of people, you know? Uh,
20:28and so, so that, that part moves me, uh, on the personal side, um, you know, I'm reading things
20:34about conflict, you know, and different points of view. Uh, so, cause I'm, I'm trying to, to learn
20:40how to, um, work with people who have a very different point of view and then inspire my people
20:46to do the exact same thing. Um, because now in the workplace, um, uh, people are able to say things
20:54that they wouldn't have said a few months ago. Uh, so this is a reality. It's showing up in our
20:59survey data. And so, uh, yet we have a mission to fulfill, but it's, it's just acknowledging that
21:04that's going on in the workplace, acknowledging that, that some people are worried about their
21:09family members in the workplace. Uh, some people are, are, are worried about their family members
21:14staying in this country in the workplace. These are things that we haven't, I haven't experienced
21:19before in my working life. And so it's kind of the human part, uh, about what, what's going on
21:24and, and connecting with people on that as both of these leaders do while achieving the
21:29mission at the same time. So there's a premium on care right now, uh, is on basic care. It's
21:35like keeping food in people's refrigerator, um, uh, you know, at a very, very basic level
21:41and 4% helps, you know, and, and when Ed makes a decision like that, I'm sure the spreadsheet
21:46doesn't necessarily say it's a winning idea, but they do it anyway. They do it anyway. And so
21:52this is where it's leading, uh, Julie does the same thing. They, they, they both are
21:57able to CFO, uh, you know, they both understand the numbers, but the caring things they do.
22:02I was just with talking to Julie's team earlier today, all they're talking about is getting
22:07personal with every employee to make things better for that employee. The whole call and
22:14the analytics journey we were on is, is simply about that. So for anyone listening, if you want
22:19to know the secret weapon, it's caring for your people. Well, I think you're right.
22:23And, and look, I, we have some great questions already coming in on the chat again, as a reminder,
22:28this is, this is meant to be a very inclusive and conversation. So feel free to add your questions
22:35to the chat that you'd like me to post to any of our, our three speakers here. You know, one
22:40theme that, that is coming up is back to the title of this particular webinar, which is how
22:46do each of you, what are your priorities in terms of managing through the complexity right
22:51now? What advice do you have to other leaders? Julie, let me go to you first. Um, you know,
22:56you mentioned of course the real time when tariffs come in doing the webinars, what else are you
23:03doing to sort of stay on top, um, of what changes on a daily basis? So maybe, um, two things. So picking
23:11up from what Ed said earlier about, you know, listening to your people and learning and get
23:17big, getting better about engagement is something you have to do over time. And so one of the things
23:21that we were doing actually this year was we started working with Michael on kind of what's
23:26the next iteration of listening to our people of engaging our people. And, uh, and that's important
23:31because as I said, this is not something you do only in reaction. If you're not already doing it,
23:37then you do need to get started. So if you haven't been doing, if you don't have like,
23:41you know, Delta has an amazing history, Accenture has a long history, then you do need to get
23:47started. And we're talking to clients about that. And if you do have the history, it's the, um, the,
23:53the fact that you've got to now adapt, like use all those tools and that insights. And so we're
23:57spending a lot of time. That's why Michael was talking about just being with our team. We'd already
24:01been starting this work of saying, what's the next, you know, ways that we're going to,
24:05you know, better serve our people, better understand them. And I think that idea of
24:10people resilience is absolutely critical because whether you're, you know, uh, delivering, you know,
24:16flying people in an airline or making manufacturing or doing professional services, fundamentally,
24:21it does come down to your people, their skills, their engagement, you know, to make you successful.
24:26The other piece though, on a very practical level is scenario planning. You know, we're doing much
24:32more enhanced scenario planning, looking at things that people may not want to look at
24:37in terms of like, what are the potential outcomes and making sure that we're not going to be in a
24:44reactive mode. Now we have a long history of doing that and we have done that, but you know, again,
24:49there isn't a playbook, right? When COVID happened, no one had the, oh, I've been doing that scenario
24:54plan. Right. And so, you know, I think that's something, and what it does is give people confidence
25:00about the plan. And I think one of the things you want to do is make sure, and this is what Ed also
25:05said earlier, that you can, you have a lot more in your control than you might think. And that is by
25:11being super intentional. So I do think that's very important. And I keep going back to that same
25:17question. What are we doing differently right now to, you know, manage this? Because, you know,
25:23for most companies, it really does need to be something different, uh, but, but truly intentional.
25:29Before I move on to Ed, one of the questions to drill down a little bit on that really is
25:33whether it's, you know, top down approach, or if you're finding because of the environment,
25:38you need a more inclusive sort of strategy building, um, you know, in terms of who's in
25:43the room and how you formulate that strategy, any thoughts there? Again, I know you are decentralized
25:49by nature to some extent, Julie, but are you doing anything differently in terms of the how part?
25:55Um, it's really an and, right? Because there are certain things. And one of the things that
26:00is really important is to not allow distraction. You do not want every, even every leader doing all
26:07of the, like the what if black swan scenario planning, right? You need to be out there on the
26:14ground, listening to clients, you know, having that and feeding it back in, in the same way that
26:19communication matters differently. There are times when they need to hear, our people need to hear from me,
26:24and there are other times when the greatest trust is actually from your immediate supervisor. And I
26:30think that's really important. And one of the things that is a reality is that many companies
26:36are not going to be able to do what Ed just did, not because they don't love their people and they
26:41don't care about their people, but there are some very harsh realities about the current economic
26:46situation, the way that some things could evolve. And that has to be intentional too, because
26:52when you go through those tough times, relying on that communication, understanding what's happening
26:58on the ground and planning for it so that communication isn't the last piece, but the
27:05first piece. And when we do big programs, I often will talk to the CEO and say, we should start talking
27:10about the change in the communication now, not when we've signed a contract, when we're starting to get
27:16started. Because the most successful way that you're going to be is when you have really understood
27:22your people, you care about them, you're empathetic, regardless what the actions are. And you've been
27:28very thoughtful about how you're going to authentically and transparently communicate. And that is probably
27:34one of the most important things that many companies around the world need to focus on right now, because
27:39there are some scenarios that are very, very tough.
27:43Yeah. Well, and I suspected you wouldn't get away with not talking more about Velvet, because there are
27:49multiple people interested here in sharing more about just the agenda and focus of your recent Velvet
27:56sessions. And in essence, with that, doubling back on the question to Julie about the how, what's
28:02changing with your strategy? And how are you using these sessions to pivot it?
28:09Well, well, recognizing that we're in a period of uncertainty, you know, uncertainty cuts in lots
28:17of different ways. I think that we see in our industry, and I think many consumer companies are
28:25seeing that people are pulling back. It's not like they're, they're going backwards, but they're not
28:30moving forward. They're, they're, they're uncertain as to whether they're going to make that big
28:35investment, or they're going to take that discretionary trip. Our consumers are at a overall
28:42higher level. They're a premium consumer. And we haven't seen much pullback. In fact, if anything,
28:50a lot of a lot of the consumers that we're serving are saying, I'm going on my summer vacation, I'm going
28:55on my trip to Europe, I'm making certain that I'm not going to be victimized by, you know, with this,
29:01this level of, of uncertainty. And like people did during COVID, you know, miss my life. You know,
29:07so I think the experience economy, which is what we serve, is doing reasonably well. So you still see
29:14people in restaurants, you still see people on planes, you still see people, you know, planning
29:18their summer trips. But in terms of longer term planning, I do think that's, that's, we need some,
29:25some clarity coming in, in hopefully in the weeks and months ahead. So people know once they get
29:30through this, this period, you can deal with uncertainty for a while, but you can't do it
29:34with uncertainty and watch the news cycle change by the hour for a, for an elongated period of time.
29:41And I think that's the thing that our team is probably most concerned with, is that where does
29:47this eventually end up? We got to keep moving forward, but we can't stop and admire it. But we need
29:52to also have some clarity and clarity will come. And if, if uncertainty is going to be an extended
29:58period of time, that's clear too. Let me, before going back to Julie, the three of you, one of the
30:05questions that came in that pivots off that is uncertainty, but it's also the complexity. And
30:10what, what are the biggest complexities of the moment that you think about? And I'm going off one
30:17of our audience questions here. And I think it's a good one is, you know, there's obviously so much
30:22on so many different levels. Um, is it the tariffs that you think about, Ed, or is it something else?
30:29In our, in our business, it very much is the trade uncertainty. Um, and it's not a, it's not a
30:35political question that you agree or disagree with, with ensuring that, that our country has, has,
30:42uh, hopefully as a most favored nation's clause with many of our trading partners around the world,
30:47because we certainly invest in them and we expect them to invest back in us, but it's, it's the how,
30:52uh, trying to do it all at once, uh, is, is, is creates the, the, uh, some of the chaos that many
31:00of us feel. And, uh, and that, I think that the, the trade environment is certainly the number one
31:07piece. Yep. How about for you, Julie? Related to that is, is really the geopolitical, um,
31:13reordering that appears to, you know, be very potentially, we've always talked about sort of
31:18the U S and China, but the broader implications, not, you know, everything could go back tomorrow
31:24with the tariffs, but there are implications in, you know, geopolitics and, and, you know,
31:30how things are going to react. And that is something that impacts markets, it impacts supply
31:36chains, right? It impacts growth plans. Uh, and so we're spending a lot of time with our clients.
31:42When we think about scenarios, not just, you know, even a scenario where let's, you know,
31:47let's say things, um, you know, sort of work themselves out in terms of deals, et cetera,
31:53on tariffs, but there are new questions about what markets you want to go to. What is your
31:59dependency? Where do you want to invest? And sort of working through those scenarios is what we're
32:04spending a lot of time with our clients. Some of it's about operational and financial resilience,
32:09but a lot of it is about what does this mean for growth? And there are opportunities in that,
32:14and there's challenges as well. And I think that's, um, you shouldn't, it's important that
32:19companies not get too lost on, it's not about the tariffs. It's, it's about also some of the broader
32:25implications of this that will have, again, significant opportunities and challenges for
32:31businesses. Michael, any thoughts you want to add? Oh, just a question for Julie and Ed,
32:37you know, the, the, the age group of employees, kind of 18 to 26, um, the future of, of our
32:46organizations, uh, what advice do you, and many of them are in the chat stream, I see, um, what advice
32:53do you each have for them, uh, entering their careers, uh, in terms of mindset, ways for them to
33:00learn, ways for them to approach work, uh, skills that you might think are valuable for them to pick
33:06up? What, what could you share for them? Ed, how about you go first on that one?
33:11You know, uh, Michael, personally, I've got, uh, I've got my youngest graduating from University of
33:16Georgia next weekend. So, uh, it's, uh, on a real, on a real basis, those are conversations I'm having
33:22with her and understanding what she's going to do and where she's going to go. And for me, uh, I think
33:29one of the things that, that, that, that characterizes my leadership style is trying to
33:34take a positive face, even in the face of uncertainty and, you know, unrest or difference
33:40of opinion, uh, being positive, being pro something, you know, we're in a world that's everything is,
33:46you know, it seems like you don't get attention unless you're against something. Uh, we, we always
33:51have to, and I try to instill within our teams and big consumer facing brand. We are, we're, we're pro
33:57people. And it doesn't matter whether you're Democrat or Republican, conservative, liberal,
34:01we love you all. And we want all of you to be, to be flying on Delta and us taking is wherever,
34:07wherever your, your, uh, your travel dictates. And so for the, the younger, uh, cohort, the, the,
34:13our, our, our young, uh, individuals joining the workforce, what that means is, is, is staying
34:19positive. Don't get, don't get, don't get, don't allow the, the news of the moment to kind of start to,
34:25to get inside you. Don't, don't personalize it to the extent you can realize it's about change
34:30and realize that there's changes happening faster. And, you know, Julie and I have been doing our,
34:36our jobs and our professional lives for many, many years. And the only thing I can tell you
34:41that's constant is that change is, is continues to occur at a faster pace. And the next 10 years,
34:4620 years is going to be the, the, the biggest opportunities to influence, uh, our markets in our
34:53world than anything we've ever seen and embrace that and, and, and own that and make certain you,
34:58you have a piece of that. Don't be, don't be alarmed by it. Jump in and see what you can do to,
35:02to, uh, actually use change to your advantage. And, you know, that's what we do flying planes.
35:08And we, we fly into the wind for a reason that gives us lift.
35:11Julie, anything you want to add? And I'm going to, um, add an extra element to that because one of
35:15the questions that came in was really when you were around 30, did you feel fully certain of your
35:20path? And if not, what helped you find clarity and confidence? So as you're giving advice to
35:25that younger cohort to think about where you were in that career stage or a little later.
35:32First of all, I love Ed's advice about being positive, uh, you know, that, I mean, we, we,
35:37we've lived through enough changes in our life to see that, um, they, you know, on balance are,
35:43are positive, right. And, and, and when you embrace it. And so I think that's really important.
35:48Um, maybe I can root it in like what our own sort of, as we think about leadership,
35:52right? So one thing that stays the same, we ask every person, whether they're senior or junior
35:58joining Accenture one question, which is what have you learned in the last six months?
36:02And we've been doing that now for years because we see how much skills and capabilities and how
36:09flexible our people need to be. As you see the impact of technology and new, and new opportunities,
36:15new businesses that we're in. Uh, and so we believe that you need to have that like innate
36:20learning, you know, um, desire to learn. And then we at Accenture then embrace that. And we invest in
36:27that. We spent over a billion dollars on it, but it's super important that you also cultivate that
36:33college is the, you know, the beginning of the learning journey, not the end by any means,
36:38but we're also adding some new things. And so we're working now to add in communication skills,
36:45formal training at every level of our school from the, you know, someone fresh out of college to a
36:51senior leader. And why is that important? Because at the end of the day, one of our leadership
36:55essentials is the courage to change and the ability to bring people along the journey. In a world where
37:02change is a constant, your ability to communicate is absolutely critical. It's also, by the way,
37:07one of the best ways to get away, get ahead in your career because great communicators are listened
37:13to, et cetera, but it's also a core skillset that is needed in a world where change is going to be
37:19faster and faster. The other thing we're doing is we're introducing formal change management. Now,
37:24of course we do this as a living for our clients, but we want to invest in our leaders at an earlier age
37:31in how to think about doing change as a skillset. And so that's another area that we're enhancing
37:38our leadership development. The last thing I would say, and this goes a little bit to your question
37:44about 30, is, you know, I reinforced this idea that I didn't have the same skills when I was 42.
37:50This is happening more. And so being holistic in your education, I, you know, encourage my own
37:55teenagers to make sure you're, you're taking broad things that you're being, you know, open. And I
38:01don't think that's really changed from the time, you know, I got out of college. I remember people
38:05saying to me, like, you know, you don't know what you're going to do in 20 years. Don't worry if your
38:10first job isn't the, you know, the last job. I mean, think about my, in my career, I went from
38:16college to law school and I ended up running Accenture, right? Like that was not the path. I thought
38:23I didn't join Accenture and think I joined as the general counsel and think my aspiration is CEO.
38:28And so being a learner, being open to opportunities is really, really important. So don't feel like if
38:36you don't know when you're 30, what you're going to be doing when you're 50, you're doing the absolute
38:41right thing. And the last thing I'll just say is I live by this as a leader and a person.
38:46It's a little plaque in my mudroom. My husband said, if your dreams don't scare you,
38:51they're not big enough. If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough. So when you're
38:56thinking about it and you're feeling like, I don't know if I can do that, that doesn't mean you can't
39:00do it. It means that you're dreaming big. And that is a really important way to think about your
39:05future. My grandmother used to say, do what scares you most. So the history poli-sci major in me
39:11thanks you for giving all of us hope that we don't have to be specialists early on. I want to talk
39:18about some of the questions coming in are really interesting. And thank you for that question,
39:21Michael. It was a really good one is, is your other stakeholders. You know, we've talked about
39:25making employees feel safe, empowered in this environment and how you filter that out to the
39:33consumer, the client. I mean, the importance of how that culture is shaping your messaging and
39:38making sure it trickles down to that group. Ed, you mentioned it earlier with regard to brand,
39:44any thoughts on how you're trying to really create that same comfort and sense of empowerment among
39:53the many stakeholders that work with you who are not employees?
39:58Certainly, Diane, we have a tremendous brand. I mentioned at Velvet yesterday, and I always do
40:06with great pride that Fortune named us the 11th most admired company. And we've been number 11 for the
40:12last two years. So that's that there's a little bit of staying power. And to me, that's a statement
40:18that what our customers are saying about it's not just what we say about ourselves. And as a result of
40:24that, you know, continuing to understand what they need to be able to, to build, you know, greater,
40:31continued greater strength and loyalty. And in our world, it's about expanding our ecosystems.
40:37I had the, the great, the great pleasure of participating and did one of the opening keynotes at
40:44Summer Electronics Show this year. And, you know, brought on stage with me, Dara Kashkari from, from Uber, and we
40:52announced an exclusive arrangement, which we're working together, brought, you know, folks from YouTube, we
40:59announced an exclusive arrangement we're doing with YouTube, people that continue to influence and expand our,
41:04our ecosystem and the travel journey, whether it's content, whether it's, it's thought, whether it's, it's
41:11participation on, at a broader scale. I think those are the things that we're, we're very focused on, in terms of how we, we,
41:18we continue to grow. We turned 100 years old this year. First US airline.
41:24Happy birthday.
41:25Thank you. I never, I never, I never realized turning 100 felt so good.
41:28And never turned 100 before, right? And we, we first US airline to reach that mark, which, which is a
41:38testament to the staying power. But the reason we got to 100 first, in my opinion, is that we're
41:45constantly learning, constantly changing, constantly moving to where the world wants us to go. And for us,
41:50that's international. And again, while the world, the world we living in today has such uncertainty,
41:54and people are wondering what the, what, what the international relationships around the world are
41:59going to be, that that's, that's the core to our future. You know, people ask me at, at Delta, you
42:06know, air travel is, is ubiquitous. We jump on a plane, it seems like at a moment's notice to go to
42:11wherever you need to go, whenever you need to go. But do you realize only one in five people in the
42:16world have ever been on an airplane? Only one in five. And so that tells me where we need to go for the
42:23future, we need to figure out ways to make air travel accessible, sustainable, affordable,
42:27to, to many, many parts of the world. And the beautiful thing I love about that, that's going
42:32to make the world a better place, because we're going to bring understanding, or we're going to
42:35bring an ability to, of communication and engagement that, that truly is authentic. It's, it's, it's in,
42:42in the, in the person, not, not just something that people dream about, something that we can
42:47actually make happen. Yeah. And, and Julie, let me pivot. Thank you so much. I think that's
42:52very powerful thoughts, Ed. Let me pivot a bit to, to incorporate another question here. And it's
42:58something I'd love all three of you to weigh in on. There's an appreciation that nobody wants to and
43:04should be partisan in this environment, but yet the importance of, of the business voice, especially
43:09with influential companies like Accenture and Delta on the call. What is the role right now of, of
43:16business leaders and advising political leaders or shaping policy or any thoughts there on,
43:22on how you engage? And I know, Julie, you get into rooms, we don't get to go. This is something
43:27your clients are coming to you with as well. What advice do you have in terms of the help or the
43:33voice that business has in this environment? You know, one of the things I often will talk to
43:38clients about is that, you know, innovation doesn't happen within the four walls of any particular
43:44company, you know, and Ed, you just talked about ecosystems and how important that is, right?
43:48When you went to CES and, uh, in innovation, whether it is in policy, right? Whether it's in moving
43:56countries forward or companies do require asking for help, partnering differently. And what we've always
44:06focused on regardless of country of, um, of political, who's running the country is how can we
44:14partner? What do we bring to the table to really help, um, companies and countries, uh, innovate,
44:21right? And so, for example, we, we spend a lot of time in, um, on, you know, AI and what it's going to
44:27do for the workforce and, you know, how do you innovate? We've innovated around apprenticeships and,
44:32you know, in the U S for years now, uh, we are spending always a time in our communities around
44:38that. And I think making sure that companies, right. Are bringing that expertise to countries,
44:45um, to industry groups is a really important role that we have played. And, you know, Ed, you and I
44:52have done that. We've done this together. We've got, you know, Michael, you do it. And I think continuing
44:56to make sure that we are focused on that is how we'll all move forward, um, uh, faster and better,
45:04you know, and, and you raise a good point, Julie, which is your global businesses. So Ed,
45:09let me pivot the question a little bit for you, because obviously policy does have an important
45:14impact, um, on Delta. And we talk a lot in the U S context. Do you find yourself getting out more now
45:22to talk to policymakers in other countries? I know you always have, but I think this was a question
45:28more about balance and advice for other leaders. Well, certainly why, uh, I, I spent a lot of time,
45:35uh, with international leaders and business leaders trying to, trying to make sense of our world here in
45:41the U S because the change was so stark and sudden. I think a lot of people aren't quite sure what's
45:47happening. And it doesn't matter whether you're in Mexico or Canada or Europe or, or in Asia. And I
45:52think all we can do is let people know that, uh, you know, while, while there's, there's a lot of
45:59discourse and debate as to how to, how to address global trade, the reality is, is the U S will,
46:05will be a leader, uh, over time. And we will, we will maintain that leadership post and we will do it
46:11in a way that's always worked for us for many, many years. And that's by being great partners and, and,
46:15and, and, and setting the example, the leadership example. And it's hard to see at the moment. I,
46:20I appreciate that. But over time, we know the strength of what we've built, the momentum of
46:25our businesses and our communities and our customer base, that that's, that's the real power. And that,
46:30that, that, you know, a policy decision isn't, is it, you know, policy decisions can be taken and they
46:36can be changed in a moment, uh, building relationships with customers and brands and across borders,
46:42those things are unbreakable. And, and that's what, what we have. And that's, that's what we've,
46:46we've been able to create. And, you know, right alongside that, you kind of think about where,
46:54where we're headed on, on an international basis, uh, the world, the world needs, needs, uh,
47:01you know, authenticity. I think Michael, you use that word in terms of leadership and,
47:05and what's happening in business. And it was one thing to have a lot of people prognosticate about what,
47:11what could happen or forecast what's going to happen around a consumer sentiment survey.
47:17We actually have the facts. Uh, and it's been interesting this month as companies are,
47:23are able to report their first quarter results or their, their March quarter results. And, uh,
47:28Delta was in the unusual position. We're the, we, we close our books fast. We're the very first
47:32company out reporting early, uh, early April, right after the, the tariff announcements had been made.
47:38And we were able to give the facts about what we see in, in our, our business and the Ford bookings.
47:43And, and, and, and those are under indisputable, you know, people love to dispute facts today. And
47:49fact check has become somehow a part of our, of our, uh, our new vocabulary. Uh, we have real facts
47:55as, as to what's happening. And I think the, I did not think, I know the administration is very tuned in
48:01to, uh, to kind of also make sure of paying attention to the facts. Yep. I love that. And,
48:05and Mike, let me turn the question a little bit for you in terms of advice to policy makers on what
48:11it takes to create a great place to work. We're talking to leaders too, but, um, you speak to a lot
48:17of people, give us a sense of, of the fundamentals that you want to convey. And I know a lot of it has
48:23been conveyed here and I really appreciate the insight so far. Yeah. You know, the, uh, Ed and
48:30Julie and other CEOs that are on the 100 best list and a lot of CEOs who aren't, um, are, are, are great
48:37people. And the, the same people who want to have a great place to work for all actually want a great
48:42place to live for all. This is it. They're doing a lot of things. Uh, and, and so I think about that.
48:49And so for policy makers, uh, what I would say is when you've got leaders like this and, and I can
48:54go down a list, you know, a Chris Nassetta at Hilton, a Toto Capuano at, and Marriott, um, a Jensen
49:00Wong, um, a Brian doubles at synchrony. I could go all the way down that list of great companies. Um,
49:07look at their financial performance, uh, through good times and bad, which is for these companies that
49:14are publicly traded. You can look at the stock chart. Um, they outperformed
49:19S and P 500 consistently since 1998. And in times of turmoil, like now, the gap gets actually wider.
49:27So in crisis, they actually do better, uh, because of what they're doing. And so for policy makers,
49:32I'd be like, don't tell these leaders what, how to run their company. That's what I would say,
49:36you know, because they know what they're doing. Um, you know, they're creating great jobs. They're
49:42healing communities. They're providing healthcare and benefits. You know, tomorrow is mental health
49:47awareness, uh, month. They know it in their companies. They're already talking about it.
49:51They're rolling those things out. Uh, it's Asian Pacific Islanders month. They know it in their
49:56companies. So the, the, they're very for all and everything they do. They're very intentional
50:02as Julie says. And so I'd be like, stay out of their business. You know, you do your thing,
50:07let them do their thing. Cause they're doing great things all around the world. They both are built on
50:12connection and caring for people. And when they think about people, when they think about their
50:17employees, I know these leaders and the other ones that I've named, they care about their people
50:22and their people's families. However, they define them. They even care about their people's pets.
50:28Okay. So these are super caring leaders connecting on that basis, leave them alone. Uh, you know,
50:35that's what I'd say, um, to, to any policy leaders, um, you know, who would care to listen with an open
50:41mind about what's great for people, uh, what's great for our country, uh, and what's great for
50:47the world. No, no, what you do well, but also, um, of course, engage. I think getting a great advice
50:53from great leaders is, is great too. I have to thank, first of all, before we finish up, um, you know,
50:58the audience, you've, you've all had terrific questions. And before I go to final thoughts,
51:03I want to kind of pull out what I, what I tease to be sort of the, you know, whether it's the
51:09tough economic times, times of change, there's a real curiosity here for what do you hire for?
51:16What is the hardest thing to hire for? And is it changing in terms of the kinds of skill sets
51:21that you're looking for? I know, Julie, you spoke about a learning mindset and the learning culture,
51:27anything else in terms of what, what's the tough talent challenge in this environment
51:33or what you're looking at and looking for? I think there's some people here who want to work
51:38for Accenture, I'm guessing.
51:39Sure. So one of the things I didn't talk about, which maybe because I think it's so obvious,
51:44is that technology and understanding what you can do with data and what you do with artificial
51:49intelligence is something that every person at our company and other companies actually have to do.
51:56In fact, when I became the CEO in September 1st, 2019, the first thing I did as CEO is to say the
52:02next decade is going to be about these things. And so we launched something called TQ for every person
52:08at Accenture, wherever you worked. So when Gen AI hit, we already had 500,000 people who'd taken the
52:14first course in AI. That has only become more relevant as Gen AI has happened and every enterprise
52:22is going to change. And so one of the things we are now looking at, like, regardless of where you
52:27are, we look at every leader's technology skills. And what we're doing as a company for people who've
52:32been here and maybe didn't grow up with the level of skills now that they need, because it's more than
52:38they needed in 2019 when we started the fundamentals, we're investing, right? We're defining what those
52:44skills are. And what I'm doing is spending time because I've got daughters who are college age and
52:48going off is to say, look, when you go to college, these are skills that you need to make sure whatever
52:54your interests, because whether you're going to be a therapist or you're going to, you know, go drive a
53:00business or, you know, going to do something and, you know, code and computing, right? AI is going to be a
53:08part of it. And so companies are going to increasingly start to expect. They're not today, because it's new,
53:15but they will be. And so I do think that's important. So we're investing to bring all of our people, you know,
53:22to be upskilled, but we're doing it very much as a, this is a, you know, a prerequisite to continued
53:29development at the company. Interesting. How about for you, Ed, both talent challenges that if you
53:35think that the skill sets that people need in this environment are shifting, give us some insights
53:41into your own mindset around hiring. So the thing at Delta that's always been true, and it's true in
53:50good times and bad, is that we hire people based on hearts they have for service. We're in the
53:58the world of flying airplanes. Yes. But more importantly, about certain people, serving
54:03customers, serving our colleagues, serving our communities. We can teach them a lot of the
54:09technical depth about, about this business, but you, it's really hard to teach a heart. And so
54:15the thing I always look for, and I know our leaders do when they, when they deploy is, is do we have,
54:20do our people have that heart, the potential employees to serve and how they've demonstrated that
54:26in past, whether it's work they've done in, in a prior employer or work they've done in their
54:30community or their church, where, wherever, wherever that is. So I think that's first and foremost.
54:34The second thing about equipping people, and yes, we have a lot of technology and AI and other,
54:39other things going on around us is so understanding that, you know, when you're on an airplane, you're,
54:45you're sitting with 200 kind of strangers, you know, people that, you know, most people that you don't
54:50know, and you're, you're, you're locked into a tube for maybe two, three hours, maybe 12 hours, who
54:56knows, depending on where you're going. And our, our crews, you know, kind of set the tone for the
55:03cap and set a set of positive tones, set an optimistic tone. It's not, it's not about, you know,
55:10finding ways in which people can, you know, our people can, can engage with the public that,
55:16that is, that is going through a lot of challenge at this time and kind of keeping things positive
55:20and keep people looking, looking towards, you know, the journey they're on rather than kind of what
55:25they're, they're running away from what they're running towards. And that, that's a whole other
55:30science is that, how do you, how do you deal with the public in an enclosed setting? It's not like you
55:35can have an engagement in the counter and someone walks away. You're, you're living with these people
55:38for, for a number of hours in, in very close proximity. So I think the, one of the things that makes
55:44Delta special is our people really understand how to do that and how to, how to create a mood,
55:48how to create an environment where people feel respect, feel appreciated, but also feel important
55:55as to where, why they're traveling. Yeah, I think that's great. And I certainly feel it on, on your
56:00flight. So, so thank you for that. Let me go back to each of you, Michael, I'm going to go to you last
56:06for some final thoughts. And Julie, it's really about just taking an opportunity. We're talking about
56:13managing change. We're talking about culture. And of course, we're talking about leadership.
56:18Any final thoughts you want to give in terms of what you'd like people to take away from this?
56:25Yeah. Is it to Michael or to Julie?
56:27I'm going to give it to you first, Julie,
56:29some final thoughts, and then I'll give Michael the, the last word here.
56:33But I would just say, sure. I would just say both personally, professionally, as an, and a leader,
56:39I've always found that by embracing change, you open up new opportunities. And so I would encourage
56:45everyone to be optimistic and to embrace change as the path to move forward.
56:52I love that.
56:53Thank you for this great conversation, Ed, Michael, and Diane.
56:57Yeah, really powerful. So thank you. Ed, any final thoughts that you'd like to convey around
57:02these topics or others? What's on your radar?
57:05Yeah. You know, it's when, when you're going through uncertainty, you'll never lose sight of
57:10why you do what you do and never lose faith that you're going to get through this and understand
57:16that what's going on in the world around you doesn't, doesn't define who you are. It's your
57:20response to what's going on around you. That defines who you are. And we get examples in our
57:25business all the time. You know, things in air travel, sometimes things happen. You know,
57:29planes sometimes encounter weather or bags get mishandled or something. It's not that that
57:34something happens. It's your own response, whether as a leader or as a, as an individual
57:40to dealing with tough times, that'll, that'll, that'll define, define your outcome.
57:45Yeah. Great. Michael?
57:47Yeah, I think I would say, you know, just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean it's
57:51the right thing to do. And, and you want to be really conscious about the people that you're
57:56talking to the people that you're around and the experience that they're having and
58:00take an optimistic attitude that you can make it better. Uh, so this connection,
58:04Delta talks about connection a lot. Uh, Julie does that too. You know, search,
58:09she surveys every employee in our organization. I think the only company on the list who does that
58:14because she says every person matters. And so we want to hear from every person. Ed at velvet.
58:20I'll just tell you there's thousands of people. They have to have 45 minutes just for selfies.
58:24Okay. There's a reason. And I've been with CEOs where nobody wants a selfie. Oh, okay. So,
58:29but there's a reason this, these are two real people. And so for those who are listening,
58:34you can be a real person. You can be a caring person. You can be a developing vulnerable person
58:40and do great in business. You can do exceptionally well in business. It's not one way or, or the other.
58:48And, uh, being a great place to work for all running a company and a few people making money.
58:53I just don't think that's interesting at all. It's about taking care of everyone, you know,
58:58uh, getting, getting bonuses and payments, uh, to everybody and caring about everybody's mental
59:03health, not just executives. These companies are doing it and are proving that you can succeed in
59:07business by just doing the right thing. I love that. Well, thank you all. And, and also Julie,
59:13Ed, Michael, I mean, the, this is the greatest joy of my job is having a chance to speak with people
59:19like you and also for our audience. This is a valuable hour of your day. I really appreciate
59:24you spending it with us. So thank you. And congratulations again to Accenture,
59:29of course, and Delta for being on our hundred best companies to work for, and also for the
59:34partnership with great place to work and UKG. I always appreciate having a chance to create these
59:40sorts of village greens for really important conversation. So thank you all for joining us.
59:45Thank you for the insights I've learned a lot. I hope you have too, and I look forward to our next
59:50conversation. Thanks again.