I’m Whitney Pennington Rodgers, I’m TED’s current affairs curator. And the guest who's joining us now is not only a psychologically wise leader himself, but he looks to develop psychologically wise leaders to put them out into the world. From 2001 to 2018, he was the CEO and chairman of American Express, and now he is the managing director and chairman of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm which seeks to develop organizations that put out positive change into the world. He's also the cofounder of OneTen, which is a coalition of leading executives who have joined together to upskill, hire and advance one million Black Americans in 10 years. Please welcome Ken Chenault. Thank you for being here.
Ken Chenault: It's great to be here.
WPR: You have a quote that you often say: "The role of a leader is to define reality and give hope." In this time that we're living in, with COVID and massive changes in the workforce, how do you think about this idea of change, and how does this quote apply to that?
KC: The question is, how can you give people concrete reasons, and also inspiration to be hopeful. And in uncertain times, I think what's very important is the leader has to be grounded in some core values. Because, to me, what’s most critical about leadership and leading in uncertain times -- and I would emphasize that I think anyone at any level can be a leader, in their business, civic life, personal life -- and what they have to recognize is if you want to lead, you have to be willing to serve. So you've got to have that servant leadership mentality. But what you have to do is stand for something. And organizations are guided by values and behaviors. That's the way you're creating a culture.
And so in a time of uncertainty, what do you need to do? One is you need to give people context. What's happening? You can admit that you're anxious, that there are reasons, in fact, to be nervous. But what's important is you need to emphasize to people the reasons why you think that we can get to the other side.
WPR: Could you talk a little bit about your work now and what is General Catalyst, what are you looking to do with that organization?
KC: General Catalyst is a venture capital firm, and we're very focused on building companies. What's important is the philosophy of General Catalyst, which brings a level of intentionality, which is we want to invest in powerful, positive change that will endure. So our view is, the paradigm, sometimes, that's presented, which is you have to choose between profits, investment returns and social good. And we believe that’s a false choice. That, in fact, technology should be a great enabler. But the reality is "What's the intention?"
WPR: I love this idea of "responsible innovation," and I'm interested to know what the impetus was for you to really focus in this space. Were you not seeing enough of this happening?
KC: I would say there were several reasons. One is, as I decided in stepping down from American Express, of “What would I do next?” One, it was very clear to me from all of my experiences is that technology was the great enabler, and could be. But I thought we needed to have a force that was acting in a more responsible way. I also frankly thought that technology was not diverse enough, when I looked at the whole sector of technology and venture capital and private equity.
But what was really attractive to me was that my partners believed very strongly in this notion of responsible innovation, and they were willing to do what it takes to embrace it. And let me be clear, we're in the early stages of this. But one of the things I'm very proud of, for example, is what we've been able to do in health care, where we're actually partnering with health care systems. So, we're partnering with nonprofit entities, and our objective is not to disrupt and blow up the health care system, it's to innovate and transform the health care system as a partner. And so it's recognizing that our objective in health care is to provide high-quality, lower-cost health care to all segments. And technology can be a great enabler in doing that. And in addition to that -- it's not an either-or -- we believe that we're going to generate very attractive returns, which is important if we're building enduring businesses.
WPR: This idea of putting people first as you're developing your technology, but it's not just about people -- you’re thinking about responsibility in terms of the environment, responsibilities to communities. Could you talk more about that?
KC: What's critical here, fundamentally, what I have always believed and certainly have articulated over the last 30 years, is companies exist because society allows us to exist. And so we have a responsibility to society. When we're developing products and services, shouldn't we think about who is in, who are we serving, and who might be negatively impacted by a product or service that we're offering.
As we're building companies, let's start at the beginning and say, "How do we build a more diverse workforce in that company?" "How are we thinking about the environment?" So what's very important is, we can do a form, if you will, of social due diligence, side by side with the financial due diligence. But what's important is, as we're building companies today, let's have a broader mindset. Let's have a higher level of intentionality. And no one, I think, most people -- obviously, there's some exceptions -- start off building a company, saying, "I want to build a company that will hurt people."
WPR: Right.
KC: But that's not enough. What you've got to say is, "My intention is to build a company that will address the following set of issues." And actually, I want to, from the beginning, build a company that will have a positive impact on society, as well as generate attractive economics. Now that's simple, but it is hard, and people need guidance, people need the tools, and that's what we're trying to do with responsible innovation.
WPR: I'd like to pivot for a second to another organization that you're championing, that's really important to you, which is OneTen. You're the cofounder of this initiative that looks to put more Black Americans into sustainable careers. Tell us a little bit about how OneTen came about.
KC: So OneTen came about literally the day after the murder of George Floyd. And Ken Frazier, who was a former CEO of Merck, is still executive chairman of Merck, but is also now chairman of Healthcare Assurance Initiatives for General Catalyst. Obviously, we were devastated about what happened. And back to defining reality and giving hope, we said, "The reality of the situation is that Black Americans who do not have a college degree are a segment of our population that we need to address in a more comprehensive way." And what we said is we want to do something that is really impactful and enduring. And we think the private sector, particularly large companies, need to take a more active role.
And so we talked about what we could do. If you look at the facts, 80 percent of the jobs 60,000 dollars and above in companies require a four-year college degree. Now the reality is ... that a substantial majority of those jobs do not require a college degree. And so, it serves -- You talk about structural, systemic racism. What happens is it just knocks out a large population. And the reality is skills-first is what we should be focused on. And I want to be clear: I want as many people to go to college as can go to college. But to be successful, to have a family-sustaining job, should not mean that you have to go to college. And so what we decided is we wanted companies to embrace that. We had 60 companies sign up with hard financial commitments and a commitment to jobs. And here's what I think is exciting, Wendy, is that people are recognizing, because you're looking at the jobs, they're saying, "Well, a lot of these jobs don't require a college degree." And so here we have an initiative that is geared to Black Americans. But at the end of the day, it's going to end up benefiting all Americans, because the jobs, the specifications, the requirements are going to change. So in our society, where we have a win-loss mentality, by focusing on this issue, we actually have opened the aperture of opportunity for everyone.
So we are making progress. And I really think that our objective is, in 10 years, to have created a million family-sustaining jobs.
WPR: So OneTen is one million jobs in 10 years.
KC: In 10 years. You know, simple, objective -- not easy, right? Because part of what we're doing is the challenge of matching supply and demand, the skilling, the reskilling, all of that, that has to take place. The job supply network is very fragmented. So we've got to put that together. So what I think you're seeing is I look at OneTen -- "That's a start-up." But we are mission-driven, we are outcome-driven, and we're going to achieve that objective.
WPR: That feels like a great place to end. Thank you so much, Ken, for sharing all of this insight and wisdom. I feel like I've learned so much. I know that everyone watching has probably learned a lot, too.
KC: Thank you so much. I enjoyed the conversation.
WPR: Thank you.
