Salesforce, Slack And The Next Wave Of M&A | Leadership Lessons From Tony Hsieh | How CFOs Can Prepare For 2021

Plus: Forbes 30 Under 30 2021

A significant shift is taking place in IT planning that creates an even more powerful commercial logic for the combination of Salesforce and Slack—a shift that’s likely to fuel more enterprise tech M&A in the year ahead, wrote CIO Network Senior Editor Martin Giles last week. CIOs and other tech leaders are now looking toward a future in which many more employees are allowed to work remotely than before the Covid-19 pandemic began, according to Giles, who added that this shift is going to have a significant impact on the tech stacks CIOs are building to support workers. The result is that CIOs are increasingly demanding the seamless integration of everything from collaboration tools to data analytics capabilities and project management software.

We will continue to track trends in the C-suite world, spotting patterns and shifts and looking beyond the headlines to identify the implications behind them—especially as we move into a new year with a new administration and new business frameworks.

We also will continue to track the role shifts C-suite executives are making, whether within industries, across industries or even across titles. Those shifts can provide revealing insight into companies’ changing directions, talent priorities and growing industries. Be on the lookout for those weekly.

This digest of Forbes content is your weekly touchpoint as you negotiate internal, external and cultural factors. We hope you find it useful, and let us know what else you’d like to see here.

Have a great week.

Comings & Goings

Jamie Moldafsky, previously the CMO of Wells Fargo, has been appointed to head marketing and communications at Nielsen Global Media. She is known for handling Wells Fargo’s image rehabilitation following its 2016 account fraud scandal.

Citizenship & Governance

The 2020 hard seltzer gold rush has been a boon to the flagging beer industry (and provided a flashy facelift for the once-unremarkable vodka soda), but you’d be forgiven if you couldn’t tell the brands apart. Coors is hoping to differentiate itself by pairing its hard seltzer sales with river water restoration efforts.

Pairing your business with social purpose can deliver tangible results along with feel-good branding. Warby Parker, the budget-meets-fashion glasses mogul, built a social purpose into its business from the start, and it’s paying off.

The tragic death of former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh last week has prompted fond remembrances of his personal and business instincts. One of his core leadership principles was investing in corporate culture; here’s how he did it.

By The Numbers

22 million

The number of jobs lost so far in the coronavirus pandemic.

New reports from the Federal Reserve on the state of the economy are increasingly grim. As Covid-19 cases continue to skyrocket, economic recovery seems to have stalled, and many lost jobs may not come back.

Money & Markets

Salesforce’s $27.7 billion bid for control of Slack would make it one of the biggest and most consequential acquisitions of the year. But it’s not an outlier: Expect more M&A as companies look to combat software “tool fatigue” and work-from-home becomes the norm.

While a bipartisan stimulus package might finally see the light of day, it may be too little too late. The Federal Reserve staved off the primary recession, but absent sizable relief soon, a double-dip is almost guaranteed.

From conducting stress tests in real time to developing flexible labor models rapidly, CFOs have had their work cut out for them in 2020. Here’s what they can look forward to in 2021.

The CxO Profile

Across Forbes