CxO: Nadella, Kanye And The Power Of Pickleball

Here is an excerpt from most recent CxO newsletter that went out this morning. Sign up here if you’d like to get it sent directly to your inbox every week. Ah, the office.

Who needs it? Can any amount of free snacks and natural sunlight ever compete with the allure of a hand-stocked fridge and nanosecond commute? Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella suggests it’s time for bosses to adopt a new mindset. “All of us are now event managers,” said Nadella in San Francisco last week. “If I say I’m having a meeting, nobody will come.

If I say I’m having an event, they will check it out. ” Nadella has a point. Who doesn’t love a great event? He was speaking to LinkedIn cofounder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman at the inaugural Masters of Scale Summit , named after Hoffman’s podcast on WhatWhat .

The discussions ranged from the power of psychedelics to the joys of rural life. Prince Harry talked about therapy opening his eyes while former Merck CEO Ken Frazier said he was “very worried about our society unraveling. ” Psychologist Shefali Tsabary spoke about how “the most success is not driving the most joy” while Fable’s Padmasree Warrior reflected on the power of the digital detox and reading stories together.

Yes, there’s excitement about big things on the horizon, from Boom’s supersonic airliner to architect Bjarke Ingels’ inspiring plan for the planet. Francis deSousa, CEO of DNA sequencing giant Illumina, was clearly chuffed at prevailing over an FTC challenge to acquire GRAIL, a multi-cancer early detection test. For anyone who’s lost a loved one to cancer, the impact of rapid advances in sequencing are genuinely exciting.

Said deSousa: “If Moore’s Law moved as fast, we’d have a $1,000 Ferrari and a $5 iPhone. ” But much of the discussion felt aimed at enriching people’s souls as much as their minds. Why such a personal tone? For one thing, we are all wrestling with seismic shifts.

Judging by our own events , in-person gatherings are also tapping into a growing desire to connect. While employees may claim to love the freedom of working in their pajamas, many are also missing those opportunities to laugh and learn from each other. Instead of just recasting meetings as mini-events to spark curiosity, managers may start to treat external events as offsites for their teams.

Few have the time or resources to plan their bespoke gatherings every month. And look for people to increasingly seek out ayahuasca retreats or other mind-bending experiences that promise to heal their aching souls. For more insights on the people and trends shaping the future of work, be sure to check out Jena McGregor’s special package that will come out next week – and tune in for our upcoming Future of Work Summit on Nov.

15. But first, we have a terrific CIO Next Summit this Thursday in New York and Forbes CMO Summit in Miami next week. Check out our full roster of upcoming events here .

Have a great week. Diane Brady What’s Next: Stressed Out: Every week brings more somber studies about employees threatening to quit if dragged back to the office. Meanwhile, as Jena McGregor reports, a new study shows increasingly stressed executives are feeling less benevolent about granting flexibility to their team members – and less inclined to trust that the work is getting done.

TikTok Troubles : Beijing-based Byte Dance planned to use its TikTok app to monitor the location of some specific American citizens , according to materials reviewed by Emily Baker-White. While the platform continues to mint new millionaires , trust and safety continue to be a concern. A new documentary also looks at the platform’s impact on teen’s mental health .

Power Pickleball: You’re not imagining it. Pickleball, a combination of tennis, ping-pong and badminton, is all the rage. NBA Star Kevin Durant is the latest celebrity to buy a pro pickleball team .

But the real sign that America’s fastest-growing sport is here to stay: Comedian Stephen Colbert has teamed up with Funny or Die to host a celebrity tournament that will air on CBS on Nov. 17. The goal is to raise money for Comic Relief US ’ efforts to support homeless and displaced children and young people.

Carrie Byalick, Colbert’s longtime publicist who’s now president of Colbert’s Spartina Enterprises, tells me actress Emma Watson (a. k. a.

Hermione) is the one to beat. The Tax Man Cometh : While former President Donald Trump may have migrated to Florida, he still has to pay a hefty tax bill on Trump Tower. By the Numbers: $400 million That’s the much-diminished net worth of Ye , as rap artist Kanye West now prefers to be called.

His anti-Semitic comments have cost him a lucrative deal with Adidas and billionaire status. Here’s how brands are dealing with difficult celebrities . Finally , Giacomo Tognini takes us inside the fortune of Britain’s new Prime Minister .

Along with his wife Akshata Murthy, the daughter of an Indian tech billionaire, U. K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has a collective net worth higher than the personal fortune of King Charles III.

A man of the people, indeed. .