Forbes - The Perils And Perks Of Technology

Plus: 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki On Owning Your Power

Hello everyone,

As I was driving back from a marathon road trip to Canada this weekend for family reasons—it felt a little safer to get tested and go by car rather than fly—I was reflecting on the perils and perks of technology. While the ease with which we can communicate from anywhere can help us stay connected to work, it’s not always a good thing.

Remember that guy who fired 900 people via Zoom last week? His three-minute call instantly became a case study in what not to do when laying off employees, from insulting them and pledging not to cry to, well, firing them via Zoom. Better.com CEO Vishal Garg is now taking leave “effectively immediately,” according to this piece by my colleague David Jeans. The company’s board has commissioned an independent assessment of leadership and culture at the company.

And then there’s Australian TV host Matt Doran, who lost the right to air his coveted interview with Adele after he admitted to the singer that he hadn’t heard her new album. The reason: Doran missed the download link that was emailed to him by her record company. That’s the stuff of nightmares for journalists and anyone else whose inbox is flooded with emails. It’s easy to miss important messages amid the firehose of content. Then again, I can’t imagine interviewing Adele about her new album without first getting a chance to hear it. There’s a case for picking up the phone to make sure you get what you need to be prepared for a high-stakes interview.

We’ll take a closer look at some of the more noteworthy career coups and crashes of the year in next week’s newsletter. Feel free to nominate some yourself by emailing me at dbrady@forbes.com. (Ah, the irony. Forgive me if I don’t respond.)

We have two more big packages dropping from our team later this week. The first is the final chapter of the 2021 Forbes Next 1000 list, which will be published on December 15. That will be followed on December 16 by the Forbes Halo 100, in partnership with Hundredx, which will give you new insights on which brands are serving customers in a responsible way.

Have a great week.

Diane Brady

What's Next

Keeping your personal brand relevant and in the spotlight is no easy task in the entertainment industry. Alexandra Sternlicht looks at how two artists from our 30 Under 30 franchise are handling it. The first is Miley Cyrus, who was featured in this year’s Hall of Fame and made the list back in 2014. Cyrus continues to stay front and center through her raw talent and tactics that I’ve come to associate with Madonna. Sternlicht also profiled a newcomer to this year’s list: Kentucky rap artist Jack Harlow.

As you start to look ahead to 2022, I also want to point to two guest posts that might provide some inspiration. Anne Finucane, who will be retiring from her role as vice chairman of Bank of America at the end of this year, wrote last week about resilience as an underrated trait among powerful women. Former PepsiCo chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi, meanwhile, wrote about the importance of paid leave in helping her build a career. Both serve as important reminders that many things can push a woman off the path to success, from illness and caregiver responsibilities to career stumbles. While we can’t control what comes our way, we can do more as leaders and as a society to create conditions that make it possible for women to take positions of power.

By The Numbers

$8.6 billion

That’s how much Mackenzie Scott had disclosed as gifts to 780 organizations over the past two years. She has not yet revealed the dollar value of her latest tranche of giving. Here’s why we named her the most powerful woman in the world this year.

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