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Forbes Contributor Edward Segal this morning reported findings of The Harris Poll’s new report “The Great Awakening,” which cited that while CEOs played an important leadership role for their companies and the public through the challenges of 2020, they shouldn’t let up on the gas in 2021. The pandemic has redefined so many aspects of life and business, and 82% of global citizens surveyed by The Harris Poll with the Milken Institute said that “this is an opportunity for large companies to hit the ‘reset’ button and focus on doing right by their workers, customers, community and the environment.”

Indeed, this is a priority for all C-suite executives, and how they work together to accomplish major initiatives and goals to succeed in a changed world will be key. According to results of the Forbes CxO Growth Survey, CEOs, in particular, are most frequently collaborating with COOs and CFOs and want to work more with chief revenue officers and heads of sales, with a desire to articulate where to strategically invest in people and technology to drive desired growth. And critically, C-suite executives will need to work together to accomplish DEI priorities.

According to the Forbes survey, 93% of CxOs said their organizations have prioritized diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. But only 57% have established clear recruitment strategies to attract more diverse talent. We expect to see greater traction in that area as we move into this year and beyond. You can find more information and takeaways from the survey here, and be sure to check out our Forbes CxO Nexus interview series to watch conversations among pairings of C-suite executives on various topics related to growth, opportunities and the challenges ahead.

Have a great week.

Comings & Goings

Last week, Chinese e-commerce site Pinduoduo reached 788.4 million active users, surpassing Amazon and its domestic rival Alibaba—and its founder, Colin Huang, stepped down. CEO turnover may have slowed during the pandemic, but these founders all left their companies in the past few months.

Headspace, the mindfulness and meditation app that has over $200 million in funding, hired former Hulu executive Val Kaplan Sabata as its first CMO. The move may indicate that the business is looking to double down on video.

Leadership & Strategy

Even if your business has gone above and beyond to support employees, it’s likely that you’re facing increased turnover due to the pandemic. For financial officers, retaining talent may mean adopting new practices around communication, empathy and flexibility.

One step your organization can take to retain young talent is providing a robust parental leave policy. The most generous policies in the U.S. tend to be offered by tech and finance companies, but any organization can boost its employee morale, gender equity and bottom line with paid parental leave.

When Kelly Steckelberg joined Zoom as its CFO in 2017, she never could have expected its meteoric rise during the pandemic: Last year, Zoom went from 10 million daily meeting participants to 300 million. Here’s how she weathered the storm, and what the company might look like post-pandemic.

By The Numbers

$7 billion

The amount that Alphabet is investing to expand its offices in 19 states.

Tech isn’t going remote for good: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichair announced on Thursday that the tech giant will be investing $7 billion into offices and data centers in 19 states.

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