Fortune

Jerome Powell’s continued presence on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors after his term ends might be a big favor for Kevin Warsh. On Wednesday, Powell diverged from long-standing tradition and announced he will remain on the board until the investigation into renovation of the Fed’s headquarters is truly complete. Powell’s break from the norm could be useful for Warsh, who faces a balancing act of a president demanding rate cuts and the reality of elevated inflation. Read more: https://bit.ly/4cYepqO

Today's AI stack is delivering big productivity gains, but it continues to suffer from serious shortcomings. CEO of adaption Sara Hooker joins #BrainstormTech in June to discuss how we get from the stack we have to the stack we truly need. Apply to attend: https://bit.ly/3QBf762

Mark Hoplamazian has run Hyatt Hotels for nearly two decades. He has navigated the 2008 financial crisis and a pandemic that sent hotel demand to zero overnight. But sitting down with Fortune at the Great Place To Work For All Summit in Las Vegas, the CEO said the moment he finds himself in now has a different texture—less acute than a single catastrophic shock, more corrosive. “I would describe it as unsettled, as opposed to maybe completely negative,” Hoplamazian said. “There’s been a period of time during which there’s been a lot of cubbyholing of people based on their gender identity, or based on their sexual preferences, or based on whatever. And that creates a lot of stress. It creates a sense of us versus them. It creates a sense of disquiet.” For Hoplamazian, the response to that unsettledness is the same thing it’s always been: culture. Hyatt just earned its 13th consecutive spot on Fortune‘s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Those milestones aren’t incidental. They are, in Hoplamazian’s telling, the operating system. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eRfHWhni

Everyone is obsessing with data centres and the energy demands of keeping the AI Mega-Revolution going. But I think we may be missing something happening right in front of us. Last week India experienced temperatures of 46°C - so hot people had to stop working. A report by the World Meteorological Organisation said that Europe faced “rapid warming” and “dangerously high air temperatures”. America experienced its hottest March in 132 years of record-keeping. Keeping cool - aircon - is becoming a rapid growth sector. And its expansion will suck up almost as much new energy demand as data centres - and that's a lot. I sat down with Fortune 500 CEO Dave Regnery of Trane Technologies, which has just published revenue figures well above forecasts. Their shares are up 26% this year, orders are up 40% in the US 🇺🇸 He told me about sunshine on buildings, empty cafeterias and why AI is actually helping one of the great challenges of the century - protecting people from intense heat. My latest Letter from London for Fortune 👇🏽 https://lnkd.in/eBrf43DD

Among 22 large public companies with significant tariff exposure, eight boards shielded executive pay from the tariff tumult, according to an exclusive analysis released on Wednesday by executive pay consulting firm Compensation Advisory Partners. Executives include RTX's Christopher Calio and Gap's Richard Dickson. “We all know tariffs had an impact on a lot of U.S. companies with operations overseas, or supply chains overseas,” said Shaun Bisman, a co-author of the new CAP report. “Tariffs not only hit income statements, they hit incentive plan design as well.” Among the 22 companies CAP reviewed, 11 mentioned tariffs in their proxy statements, and four of the eight—distiller MGP Ingredients, RTX, Ross Stores, and The Gap—did not disclose exactly how much the adjustments boosted executive payouts. Read more: https://bit.ly/4ukuZZf

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is fed up with managers who enable bureaucracy, which he considers a silent killer for organizations that brings with it a host of other problems. “Bureaucracy, complacency, and arrogance will take down a company,” he said during the Norges Bank Investment Management’s investment conference Tuesday. “Bureaucracy is like the petri dish of politics and everything else.” The longtime CEO, who helped build JPMorgan into a $830 billion behemoth and the world’s largest bank by market cap from a $130 billion market cap when his tenure started in 2006, said these internal issues are often the biggest factors in deciding whether a company lives or dies. Bureaucracy can often fester in large companies like JPMorgan, which has more than 300,000 employees globally, but it can also plague small organizations or even smaller parts of a large organization, said Dimon. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eTWdCMQN

A cursory glance at today’s travel landscape can be a blinding look at the world of high-end indulgence. From airlines cutting economy seats to the sudden disappearance of affordable hotel rooms, the hospitality and travel sectors are pivoting to treat the high-spending consumer as the only guest who matters. The sector has been a prominent example of the K-shaped economy narrative, where options for big spenders grow while budget alternatives dry up, as travel executives recognize the wealthy as the primary engine of their businesses’ growth. The matter has seemed so settled, that one hospitality boss caused analysts’ heads to turn when he said a business case for catering to the middle class still exists. Instead of being K-shaped, the hospitality economy might be curving into a C-shape, according to Christopher Nassetta, CEO of the Hilton hotel chain. During the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Nassetta eschewed the industry-standard preoccupation with luxury-driven sales, instead forecasting “improving performance in the lower and mid chain scales” through the rest of the year. Hilton’s revenue available per room, a crucial industry metric used to determine how much revenue a property generates based on inventory, has become less reliant on upscale offerings, he said. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e6dQXRrQ

In the latest episode of the Fortune's Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell the truth about becoming a Fortune 500 chief: sometimes you experience imposter syndrome. “A lot of times, you're in the chair and still not certain that you've earned it,” Bastian told Shontell. "You're trying to prove yourself, that you actually deserve the seat you're sitting in," he added. 🔗 Watch the full episode: https://lnkd.in/eC5t8Q98

Last week, I was Fortune's representative at the Great Place To Work For All Summit for the second time, talking to business leaders who made the list about the peaks and valleys, the nuances and difficulties of maintaining a great place to work while staying a top-performing company. Ed Bastian from Delta Air Lines told me about why he refuses to use the term "artificial intelligence," and Anthony Capuano from Marriott International and Mark Hoplamazian from Hyatt told me about preserving the values of hospitality amid uncertain times. Anirudh Devgan of Cadence and Brian Doubles of Synchrony talked about tech and finance culture. And Julie Sweet of Accenture walked me through the tremendous change she's been leading through — blowing up not just 50 years of company history, but her own operating model from 2019 — while staying near the top of the Best Companies to Work For list. We’re really proud of that,” she told me. “It is genuinely difficult, and a lot of these changes create uncertainty." Thank you to Kim Peters and Michael C. Bush for your partnership. https://lnkd.in/eawpAnbM

General Motors has now committed more than $6 billion to U.S. manufacturing in just 12 months. Its latest installment, announced Wednesday, is an $830 million infusion across three propulsion plants. The new funding includes flows to Romulus Propulsion Systems in Michigan ($300 million, its second such investment after an identical commitment last year) to expand 10-speed transmission capacity for full-size trucks and SUVs; Toledo Propulsion Systems in Ohio ($40 million, also a second tranche) for light-duty truck transmissions; and Saginaw Metal Casting ($150 million) to boost production of heads for sixth-generation V-8 engines destined for next-generation pickups and Corvettes. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/eUZFA3bM