Staying Principled in a Time of Uncertainty

I'm Adi Ignatius. I'm Alison Beard and this is the HBR IdeaCast. Also this is of course a tough moment for senior leaders. In addition to handling all of the uncertainty out there. They also have to deal with this backlash against some of the values that have

defined thoughtful and inspirational personal leadership in recent years. Things like diversity, like sustainability. Like paying attention to a range of stakeholders. Yeah, it's been actually weird to see how quickly Many businesses have pulled back from some of those issues based on prevailing political wins. Well today's guest has a lot to say about exactly that.

who was CEO of America Express for eighteen years. And his belief is that business has a fundamental responsibility to society. And while he certainly does not advise CEOs to speak out on every issue, he urges them to identify the company's core values and to stand up for them no matter what is happening externally. Well that is certainly music to my ears, but I also think that the data shows that employees and customers value businesses that are guided by clear principles like that. Absolutely. So Kenshinalt now sits on several corporate boards and he's chairman and managing director at General Catalyst. He's also the author of the new book, Equal to the Task, a life forged between America's Promise and Its Truth. Here's our conversation.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (32 minutes, 4,331 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.