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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you’re reading this newsletter on the website, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. For the first Modern CEO newsletter, published in January 2023, I contacted executive recruiter Jana Rich to talk about the importance of creative leaders in businessa theme Ive explored a few times as generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) and other technologies threaten to commoditize many aspects of work. So, when Rich recently announced that she has stepped away as planned from Rich Talent Group, the firm she founded in 2014 after 12 years at Russell Reynolds Associates, I asked her to reflect on her experiences during the last decade. Edited excerpts follow: Why did you start Rich Talent Group? It was for two primary reasons. One was I really lovedand still loveworking with founders who are to some degree building their first leadership team, their first board. And I didnt feel like that was particularly well aligned with the big firms. I dont think thats really where they spend their time and energy. And then, equally as important to me, was I wanted to do everything I could to find, identify, and promote women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ folks. I also felt, and still do feel, that is not a strong suit of the big firms. What were you seeing in Silicon Valley at the time? When we opened the doors in April of 2014, on day one, we had [as clients]and Im going to use the names that they were called back then versus what theyre called todayFacebook, Uber, Square, Airbnb, Pinterest, Dropbox, and Twitter. All of them. Day one. Why did they take a chance on a boutique? We had relationships, yes. But I truly believe they were all looking for a different approach. They wanted more creativity and a fresher approach to things. I look back and Im like, holy moly, that was a killer group of clients. What kind of searches did you do for them, and how were you different from the incumbents? Just to give you an example, we [recruited] Airbnbs first-ever chief marketing officer (CMO), Jonathan Mildenhall from Coca-Cola, who is Black and gay. We were different because we found someone who had never been in tech or high growth [but] who did have a global perspective and was uniquely passionate about belong anywhere (Airbnbs ethos and branding strategy). Relatively early, we were doing board work, which was unusual in that the presiding wisdom at the time was that board work is done by the biggest firms and the most senior [people in them]. We were a brand-new firm, but we built the first-ever board at Square, the first-ever board at Eventbrite, the first-ever board at Asana. From 2014 to today, how did your business change? Its hard sometimes for people to remember, but in 2014, very few people were talking about DEI. There were no heads of DEI. Those roles didnt exist. If anything, there might have been more junior-level positions that were focused on diversity recruiting. Every single year we would do an offsite, and we would ask one of our clients to come and be unscripted, to sit with us and tell us what we do well and not do well. How can we be better? In 2018, I remember it so clearly. Four years into the journey, this woman who is a Black woman, who was heading recruiting at one of the biggest tech companies, comes to the meeting. Ill never forget, she says, I think you really have to stop talking about DEI because its making you too much of a niche player, and its difficult for me to sell you [as a recruiter] to my big tech company. I cant be mad at her for telling us the truth, but after she left I don’t think Ive ever been in a room of people that I was tasked with leading where the morale was lower. I said to them, I know that each and every one of you have come to this team at Rich Talent Group because you care deeply about this mission. I dont fundamentally believe that its niche. It might be right now, but I didnt jump out of the safety and security [of Russell Reynolds] to build something I thought was going to be inconsequential or tiny. Then you jump forward to the murder of George Floyd and even beforehand. The demand for diversity increased dramatically during this time period. The challenge for us was to do our due diligence to ensure that the [client] was deeply committed to diversity as part of their mission versus merely trying to check a box. What do you make of corporate Americas retreat from diversity? It feels like [DEI] is happening but under the cover of the night or something. Were playing a little bit of a nomenclature game right now. Dont say “diversity” or “equity” or “inclusion,” but its okay to talk about “best teams” or “meritocracy.” Were changing words and, in the best possible scenario, were not changing efforts. Its sucking up a lot of energy that I wish could be just used for the betterment of these teams. Great recruiters should always focus on fully qualified candidates while looking outside the box to broaden the aperture for potential candidates. This is not only about hiring for diversity but also building the best teams. While there has been less emphasis on DEI, this is also a time when great companies are standing out because they are not backing down, such as Costco, for example. How should CEOs think about executive search going forward? Ive been in it for 30 years now, and one of the things I wish most for it is that [executive search] becomes as valued as a CEO relationship might be with McKinsey or Bain. I dont think its there yet, but I do think Ive seen a lot of positive change during a period of time whereby the right founder or CEO looks to a top-notch recruiter as a thought partneras somebody that understands the context of whats going on in the marketplace, the competitive set. The diversity name game How is your company framing diversity efforts today? Have you dismantled diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and if so, why? Please send your experiences to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id be excited to share your stories in a future newsletter. Read and hear more: changes in DEI Does changing the language of DEI protect companies? The wider impact of DEI change What comes after DEI?
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This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here. Googles AI Studio and Labs let you experiment for free with new AI tools. I love the way these digital sandboxeslike the one from Hugging Facelet you try out creative new uses of AI. You can dabble around then download and share what you make, without having to master a complex new platform. Read on for a few Google AI experiments to try. All are free, fast, and easy to use. 1. Transform an image Upload a photo and use Geminis AI Studio Image Generation to transform it with prompts. Iterate on your original image until you get a version you like. The model understands natural language, so you dont have to master prompt lingo. 2. Generate an AI voice conversation AI-generated voices are increasingly hard to distinguish from human ones. If youre surprised, try Generate Speech in the AI Studio or Googles NotebookLM. How to use Generate Speech in Googles AI Studio Paste in text, either for a narration or a conversation between two people Open the settings tab to pick from 30 AI voices. Each is labeled with a characteristice.g. upbeat, gravelly, or mature. Click run to generate the conversation. Optionally adjust the playback speed. Download the file if you want to keep it, or paste in different text to try again. Example: a silly 90-sec chat between two violinists I scripted with Gemini and rendered quickly with this Generate Speech tool. Use case: Make a narration track for an instructional video. ElevenLabs has a better professional model for this, but AI Studios is free, easy and quick. Alternatives Googles Gemini AI app can also now generate audio overviews from files you upload, if youre on a paid plan. Googles free NotebookLM has a new mobile app, and now lets you generate an audio conversation in any of 50 languages. Unlike Generate Speech in AI Studio, NotebookLM audio overviews summarize your material, they dont perform words as written. Why NotebookLM is so useful. Googles Illuminate lets you generate, listen to, share, and download AI conversations about research papers and famous books. Heres an audio chat about David Copperfield, for example. A bit dry to listen to, but still useful. 3. Make a gif Try Magical Gif Maker, one of 20 showcase apps in the Build section of AI Studio. Try making a moving visual featuring the name of your publication, group, or event. I experimented with kinetic text and word art. Also worth trying in the Build AI Studio: Flashcard maker, Video to Learning App & Maps Planner. Alternative: You can also make a static image with Googles Imagen 3 or the new Imagen 4. Write a short prompt and select your preferred aspect ratio. So far I still prefer Ideogram (why I like it) and ChatGPTs new image engine. 4. Generate a short video Googles Veo 2 and Flow let you generate free short video clips almost instantly with a prompt. Create a clip to add vibrancy or humor to a presentation, or a visual metaphor to help you explain something. Here are 25 other quick ideas for how you might use little AI-generated video scenes. How to create a video clip with Veo 2 Pick a length (5 to 8 seconds) and select horizontal or vertical orientation Write a prompt & optionally upload a photo to suggest a visual direction Example: Take a look at a parakeet photo I started with and the 5-second video I generated from the photo with Veo 2. Tip: Convert short video clips into gifs for free with Ezgif or Giphy. Unlike vido files, gifs are easy to share and auto-play in an email or presentation. Whats next: Remarkably lifelike clips made with Googles newer Veo 3 model went viral this week. These AI-generated visualswith soundare only available on the $250/month(!) plan for now, so try Veo 2 for free. 5. Explain things with lots of tiny cats This playful mini app creates short, step-by-step visual guides using charming cat illustrations to explain any concept, from how a violin works to the concept behind the matrix. This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.
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In the last 12 months, Target has publicly walked back its long-held DEI commitments, faced a weeks-long boycott from customers, and become one of several corporations that diminished its annual support for NYC Pride. But when June 1 rolled around, the company still trotted out its annual collection of Pride-inspired, rainbow-adorned merchand, for a number of reasons, its not landing well with queer customers. This years collection includes a series of apparel printed with slogans like Authentically Me and Glowing with Pride, rainbow-hued cat and dog doys, and, oddly enough, a couple of Pride-themed collectible bird figurines. Since the merch debuted, customers have been quick to notice an issue: Several of the items labels are printed with lorem ipsum filler copy. Targets pathetic 2025 Pride collection has arrived, one Reddit post on the subject reads. According to a spokesperson, Target is aware of the error, which it says originated with a vendor, and is working to address the issue. But for many customers, this labeling oversight feels like both a symptom and a symbol of larger issues at Target. For years, the company has turned Pride Month into a full-on branding extravaganza, releasing entire collections in stores and showing up as a sponsor at Pride parades across the country. In a series of events starting in 2023, though, Target has capitulated to rising conservative pressure, dialing back its Pride merch, ending its DEI commitments, and, this year, retreating from Pride parade sponsorship. Taken together, these factors make Targets 2025 Pride collection feel, at best, like a desperate bid to save face, and, at worst, like an attempt to cash in on a community that its too afraid to support outside of store walls. Targets retreat from Pride Target first launched pride products in 2015, and largely continued to expand its Pride-based inventory in the years following, openly doubling down on its support for the queer community during a bout of transphobic backlash in 2017. However, starting in 2023, the brands approach to Pride has been in flux. In May of 2023, CEO Brian Cornell told Fortunes Leadership Next podcast that the companys DEI efforts had fueled much of our growth over the last nine years. Mere weeks later, though, Target removed some items from its annual Pride collection after receiving an influx of conservative pushback, and even threats to its employees, over the items. The waters have been increasingly muddy for Targets Pride efforts ever since. In 2024, the company scaled back its Pride Month sections from all stores to only select locations and online. Then, this January, as companies across the country stepped back from DEI initiatives under the Trump administration, Target announced a series of its own concessions. The brand shared it was concluding certain goals and initiatives tied to racial equity in hiring, no longer participating in external surveys from the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign, and renaming its supplier diversity team to supplier engagement, shifting its focus away from explicitly courting brands with diverse ownership. To many loyal customers, this announcement felt like a betrayal, especially given that Target had previously been more vocal than its corporate peers on DEI initiativesand that the company has profited annually on Pride Month. This sparked a boycott of the brand that caused foot traffic to drop and share prices to plummet. In the aftermath, the Twin Cities pride parade announced that it would no longer accept Target as a sponsor. And, according to NYC Pride spokesperson Kevin Kilbride, Target was one of several brands that either backed out, reduced its contribution, or asked for its involvement to go unpublicized in the event. Targets retreat from Pride is part of a larger trend this year of corporations choosing not to renew their sponsorshipa pattern thats left many queer consumers wondering if corporate support was always just rainbow washing, or an attempt to signal affinity with LGBTQ+ customers merely to profit off of them. The [queer] community has been completely abandoned by a number of major companies, across a lot of brand categories, Joanna Schwartz, a professor at Georgia College & State University with a specialty in LGBTQ+ marketing, told Fast Company in May. The current prevailing wind is out of a far more conservative place, and companies are trying not to make anyone mad, but the companies that were really trying to make an easy buck off of the community were the first ones to leave. ‘Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity’ Now that Pride Month has officially arrived, Target is left in a sticky situation. The company is attempting to walk a tightrope between avoiding a conservative outcry for its Pride merch while also striving not to alienate LGBTQ+ customers (who, according to a 2023 study by the investment adviser LGBT Capital, hold an estimated $3.9 trillion in global purchasing power). This year, Targets Pride collection looks fairly similar to last years and is, once again, only available in some locations. In a statement to Fast Company, a spokesperson shared, weare absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyoneour team members, our guests, our supply partners, and the more than 2,000 communities were proud to serve. As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by offering an assortment of celebratory products, hosting internal programming to support our incredible team, and sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country. Regardless of its intentions, Targets Pride merch is coming off decidedly hollow for queer customers this year, given its backtracking from the community at large. Whenever its time to profit off Pride, Target rolls out the rainbows, one X user wrote. But when it comes time to actually stand with the queer community? Crickets. Your Pride merch means nothing without a spine. On Reddit, users under a post regarding the unfinished lorem ipsum tags expressed discomfort with parts of the collection. One of the items is a moving truck figurine decked out in the lesbian flag and the phrase “Move N,” a reference to the concept of U-Hauling. Per Urban Dictionary, the slang term pokes fun at the stereotype of the speedy act of moving in together after a brief courtship between lesbians. One commenter called the figurine insulting AF. Others pointed out the lack of any reference to the trans or nonbinary communities. Still others were generally frustrated with the companys unreliable support. Gay folks never asked for Target to sell cheap low quality merch with rainbows splattered all over it, one user commented. All we asked for was to be treated fairly and allowed to live our lives. They made this shit to get our business. Now they’re trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity.
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E-Commerce
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