CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel
In just five minutes a day, Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer of Workforce and Labor for Culture Partners, unpacks the latest research, trends and strategies shaping workplace culture, and driving business results. CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
You Paid the Tariffs. Who Gets the Refund?
In today’s episode:
Companies are finding unexpected ways to distribute tariff-related savings, from employee 401(k) contributions to support for suppliers. But who deserves the money back?
If consumers paid higher prices because of tariffs, should businesses compensate their employees instead?
A company’s headline-making decision can look like a win for workers while leaving a critical question unanswered: Who actually gets made whole?
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequ...
The AI Bottleneck Nobody Is Talking About
In today’s episode:
Your company has a lake of data, but AI still struggles to deliver the answers you need. The missing piece could be a technical layer most business leaders have never heard of.
Why do databases and dashboards fall short when you need deeper insights? The answer lies in how AI connects business information, relationships, and context.
Before investing in more AI capabilities, ask whether your organization has built the foundation needed to turn raw data into useful intelligence.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where bu...
Why Isn’t Your Company Getting Value From AI?
In today’s episode:
What’s the unspoken reason enterprise AI adoption keeps stalling?
A culture consultancy ran an internal experiment pointing AI innovation at specific cultural beliefs instead of random productivity wins, and the results are still coming in.
Company size turns out to change everything about whether AI efficiency threatens your job or just means more work to go around.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by J...
What the David Bar Controversy Teaches Leaders
In today’s episode:
A viral protein bar built its success on a special ingredient, and then bought the company supplying it, cutting off every other brand in the process.
The infamous business tactic involving insulin pricing that demonstrates how far companies have gone with this same playbook, and why it’s considered predatory.
How a software founder sold the same type of company to private equity three separate times.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Offi...
Can a Mission Statement Attract Better Employees?
In today’s episode:
A new CEO reveals why the mission statement he inherited was so broad it could have worked for a health clinic or a yoga studio, and what he replaced it with.
There’s a telling reaction employees had once the new mission rolled out.
A CEO pitching an archivist in Warsaw, Poland shows the real tension between chasing long-term opportunity and justifying the near-term return.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at C...
Could Hackers Be Inside Your Company Right Now?
In today’s episode:
Attackers are now living undetected inside company systems for months before striking, and most leaders have no idea just how long that window of exposure is.
A major automaker’s hack froze operations for an entire month, and the ripple effect hit companies that had nothing to do with the breach.
There’s a human cause behind devastating attacks, and it reveals why cybersecurity is really a culture problem in disguise.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Je...
What Would You Change If the World Might End Next Year?
In today’s episode:
A thought experiment about a non-zero chance the world ends next year leads to a surprisingly practical list of things worth changing right now.
There’s a stark difference in how two people imagine their final days, one building a worship table, the other dreaming about ice cream.
Cybersecurity is quietly becoming an existential problem for leaders, and most are nowhere near ready for the war room moment when it actually happens.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by D...
Would Your Company Survive a Major Tech Outage?
In today’s episode:
A barista’s innocent apology about a “Microsoft outage” reveals just how misunderstood one of the biggest tech failures in recent memory really was.
There’s a specific architectural mistake that caused the outage, and one CEO explains why his company deliberately avoids that same risky setup.
A blunt question keeps coming up in nearly every customer meeting, and the answer reveals the real difference between reacting to a crisis and preventing one.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by...
Do Your Policies Serve the Company or the Boss?
In today’s episode:
A leadership habit occurs every time work becomes harder to see, and most leaders don’t even realize they do it.
Research from Stanford reveals a direct link between a CEO’s personality and the culture employees describe on sites like Glassdoor.
There’s one question every leader can ask about a new policy that reveals whether it’s actually helping the organization or just making them feel more in control.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessic...
Why Hackers Target Your People First
In today’s episode:
A planted USB drive labeled with a tempting personal file took less than ten minutes to get plugged into company laptops, revealing just how unsophisticated most successful cyberattacks actually are.
A simple search on someone’s name and email can surface a decade’s worth of old passwords sitting on the dark web.
A well-meaning pet photo contest for a company bonus reveals exactly the kind of emotional bait hackers count on.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr...
Why Do the People Who Know AI Best Trust It Least?
In today’s episode:
New SHRM research reveals a counterintuitive pattern: the people who understand AI best actually rely on it the least.
A 5AM email from one executive turned into a surprisingly satisfying 15 minute inbox cleanup.
The dynamic between the person who knows AI best and everyone else.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John Frehse, Global Head of Labor Strategies at Ankura.
Jessica an...
What Happens When the AI You Rely On Goes Down?
In today’s episode:
A teenage driver’s first response after a car accident points a finger at the technology itself.
Database strikes in Russia reveal just how fragile modern life becomes when banking, taxis, and even entire startups disappear overnight.
A massive global outage a few years ago offers a telling preview of how companies react when something breaks and there’s no one obvious to blame.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Cultur...
Will Your Next Boss Be an AI Agent?
In today’s episode:
Managerial ranks have shrunk while the spans of control employees report to have tripled, and the strategy for handling that shift is often missing.
An AI advisor built to give better management advice than even a trusted mentor raises uncomfortable questions.
There’s a popular new pitch promising to automate performance reviews, and Mike argues it removes one of the most human moments left at work.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Offi...
Should Leaders Reward Loud Workers?
In today’s episode:
The new workplace trend that reveals exactly how insecure employees have become.
A quote from an unexpected source perfectly explains why people feel the need to broadcast every accomplishment they make at work.
A blunt take on AI promises something that might not be true for most of the workforce, and the gap between what’s promised and what actually happens could be bigger than anyone admits.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Stra...
How to Get Buy-In for Change When Nobody Reports to You
In today’s episode:
A CIO’s enterprise-wide change effort runs into an issue that has nothing to do with the technology.
There’s a reframe for implementation that flips the usual top-down pitch into something state agencies actually want to say yes to.
A quick jab about consultant fashion reveals a surprisingly relatable truth about why CIOs get labeled as blockers instead of enablers.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is fre...
Does Your Company Reward Sacrifice or Punish It?
In today’s episode:
Companies running multiple transformation efforts at once often don’t realize they’re working against each other.
A bakery’s leadership team celebrated saving millions in warehouse costs, completely missing a far more expensive price being paid somewhere else.
There’s a specific reason employees sacrifice for the greater good but still get penalized at review time, unless leaders recognize it.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequen...
Who Gets Fired When the AI Makes the Mistake?
In today’s episode:
A viral story about Tony Robbins’ AI assistant buying him an actual robot raises a strange but serious question about AI accountability.
A financial company lost hundreds of millions of dollars on a bad AI trading decision, and the answer for who should be fired might surprise you.
The growing gap between how much access people are willing to give AI into their personal inbox versus their work email, and the reasoning behind it.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisd...
When You Can’t See the Work, Manage the Results
In today’s episode:
A fast-growing company reveals why going fully remote actually forced them to become more results driven, not less accountable.
There’s a core internal document that acts as the operating system for an entire culture.
A phrase borrowed from elsewhere, “Culture Over Control” explains why documentation became the real key to scaling a company’s values.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John Frehse, Gl...
Three Questions Before Your Next Acquisition
In today's episode:
A study of over 400 acquisitions reveals when past success actually makes a CEO's next big decision more dangerous.
There's a simple filter one CEO uses to separate a deal that solves a real problem from one that's just buying revenue.
One source of pushback could be exactly what stops a bold decision from becoming a costly mistake.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John...
Geopolitical Risk
In today’s episode:
A tariff expert predicted a major policy move two weeks before it happened, revealing a surprising strategy companies need when the rules keep changing.
A tech executive faced a life or death decision about pulling employees out of a conflict zone.
A CEO facing a costly data breach made a choice that reveals how real leadership shows up under pressure.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is fr...
If You Cannot Explain Who Owns It, Do Not Automate It
In today’s episode:
A general counsel went from a manageable workload to ten times the contracts overnight, and automation might be hurting more than helping.
There’s a specific type of workflow where nobody actually knows who’s responsible once AI speeds everything up.
A clever supply chain concept from a classic business book explains why the most painful tasks get automated first, while the real bottleneck just moves somewhere else.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief...
Shackleton Created the Crisis. Why Do We Teach Him as the Hero?
In today's episode:
A famous polar explorer studied in business schools everywhere turns out to have been a disaster of planning and poor decisions, while the one who actually succeeded is rarely talked about.
There's a name for the bias that makes dramatic, fire-fighting leaders look heroic, even when they're the ones who started the fire.
A reorganization at a major company got celebrated as visionary leadership, when it was really just one executive cleaning up a mess he created two years earlier.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast...
The Easier Communication Gets, The Harder It Is to Be Heard
In today's episode:
A paradox about modern communication reveals why being heard has never been harder.
The specific phrase coined for the kind of content that actually cuts through noise.
A comparison to a legendary comedian reveals why calling out the absurd, everyday rituals of corporate life lands harder than any survival story.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John Frehse, Global Head of Labor Strategies at...
Culture Ate Strategy for Breakfast
In today's episode:
A CEO credits more than half of his company's dramatic earnings growth to one specific investment, and it's not the one most executives would expect.
Why calling HR to fix culture is like asking the finance department how to make more money.
A leader eyeing the future shares how he's trying to make sure the culture survives without him.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined...
Strong Results Gave Frank Vella Permission Not to Follow the Crowd
In today's episode:
A tense moment at a CEO roundtable reveals a sharp divide over who holds power.
There's a blunt argument about why forcing intelligent, results-driven employees back to the office could backfire on companies that assume the leverage has shifted.
A lesson borrowed from Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer decades ago about trusting employees with data still shapes one CEO's philosophy today.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is...
The Mattering Effect with John Miles
In today's episode:
There's a form of disengagement that explains why so many high performing people feel invisible at work even while succeeding on paper.
A ranked-last employee engagement score at a major retailer revealed something deeper than morale, and the fix had nothing to do with shareholder value.
A clever reframe connecting one team's daily work to their own family members shopping in the store completely changed how employees saw their impact.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica...
Amazon's Boomerang Bet
In today's episode:
A company laid off thousands of workers and then called a surprising group of former employees.
The costly mistake some companies make during mass layoffs, and why it happens.
A shift in the hiring market reveals the difference between a shortage of talent and a shortage of exceptional talent, and why that distinction matters.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John Frehse, Global Head...
The Humility Hack That Saved a Company
In today's episode:
A company on the brink, with barely two weeks of cash left, found its turnaround not in new strategy but in something leadership had stopped doing.
A humble admission about what blocks great leadership.
There's a simple framework for sorting people into believers, skeptics, and cynics.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by John Frehse, Global Head of Labor Strategies at Ankura.
Dave...
Stop Watching the Jobs Report
In today's episode:
A single monthly number moves markets every time, even though it's meant to be revised.
There's a good reason your hiring struggles might have nothing to do with the national labor market, and everything to do with something closer to home.
A struggling factory town looked like nothing but bad news on paper, until one company saw an opportunity that most CEOs would have missed entirely.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer...
Are You Solving a Problem — or Shopping for a Solution?
In today's episode:
Research on narcissistic CEOs reveals why some leaders keep chasing acquisitions long after they should have stopped.
A CEO's own filter for deciding whether to buy another company reveals the difference between solving a real problem and trying to buy revenue.
A story about a 25 year old accidentally increasing a company's sale price by three million dollars shows what happens when honesty gets in the way of a deal.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel...
The Best Recession Strategy Was Neither Cutting Hard Nor Investing Big
In today's episode:
A study of 4,700 companies across three recessions reveals a surprising winning strategy.
There's a specific reason fear pushes leaders toward bigger, riskier moves during downturns, and understanding it could change how CEOs should react next time.
A historical pattern about economic cycles offers a simple way to stay calm when everything feels like the end of the world.
CEO Daily Brief is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom. Hosted by Dr. Jessica Kriegel, Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners. She is frequently joined by...
Is the Labor Market Your Diagnosis or Your Alibi?
In today’s episode:
The favorite excuses leaders are using to explain poor performance, from COVID overhiring to “consumer malaise” and a familiar generational complaint.
What if the problem you’re blaming on employees is actually a leadership problem? Jessica and John examine how “going below the line” can turn accountability into an alibi.
A meeting nobody wants to attend may be telling you something important about the person running it. The question to ask before blaming the audience might surprise you.
Why virtual presentations can feel like speaking into the void, even w...
What Does Your Company Know That BLS Never Will?
In today's episode:
There's a reason recruiting is difficult even when macro data says the labor market is cooling, and it has nothing to do with the economy.
A staggering statistic reveals where most people actually get their beliefs about a company.
A strange new trend that shows how AI screening is reshaping when and how candidates apply for jobs.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
John Frehse, Global Head of Labor Strategies at Ankura, joins Jessica...
Supply & Demand
In today's episode:
There's a strange economic contradiction happening right now, interest rates rising while the economy cools, and one theory points to two very specific culprits.
A comparison between today's mortgage rates and the 18% rates of decades past reveals a much bigger story.
Massive government borrowing and data center spending may be locking small and medium businesses out of the capital they need to grow and hire.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
John Frehse, Global...
Resilience & The Last Man Off the Miracle on the Hudson
In today's episode:
A guest who was the final passenger off Flight 1549 – The Miracle on the Hudson – reveals the exact words that ran through his head as water rose around him.
There's a specific lesson about decision making that one parent taught their kids early in life, and it made all the difference in a life or death moment.
A survival story becomes a framework for improving the culture within organizations.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
Dave...
50% Turnover Is Not “Normal.” It’s an Operational Defect.
In today's episode:
A private equity leader confronts CEOs who dismiss high turnover as just how the industry works, and challenges them to solve it like any operational problem.
One small change to how a company handles its engagement survey can rebuild trust with employees.
A word choice reveals why so many CEOs assume culture work is a distraction, when it’s anything but.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
Pete Stavros, Co-Head of Global Private Equity at...
Leadership 'Training'
In today's episode:
Leadership training budgets are disappearing even as teams beg for it, and there's a specific reason the old three hour workshop model never actually stuck.
There's a free agenda for a leadership session that costs nothing and gets straight to the beliefs actually blocking a team's results.
A simple two question exercise reveals the elephant in the room.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
John Frehse, Global Head of Labor Strategies at Ankura, joins...
There Is No Such Thing as “The Labor Market”
In today's episode:
A company with over 100,000 hourly workers reveals why there's no such thing as a single national labor market for them.
There's a coming AI tool built for frontline managers working the night shift alone, and it could change how tier one HR support actually works.
Language turns out to be one of the biggest hidden barriers in a massive frontline workforce, and AI is stepping in to close that gap.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.<...
AI is Creating Capacity. Will Leaders Cut Costs or Build a Growth Engine?
In today's episode:
Almost everyone answers the same way when asked why they're using AI. But they’re answering the wrong question entirely.
A study of 7,000 knowledge workers found real time savings from AI, but something surprising happened when it came to organizational results.
What happens when your workers get work done… early?!
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.
Jessica launches her new partnership with SHRM on The Work Signal newsletter, unpacking why individual AI productivity gains rare...
Announcing The Work Signal
In today's episode:
A call from one of the largest HR organizations in the world sets off a partnership that's about to change what shows up in your inbox every two weeks.
There's a specific gap between what research predicts, what companies attempt, and what actually happens, and that gap is exactly where the real signal lives.
Why Culture Partners' new partnership with SHRM makes a lot more sense than it first appears.
CEO Daily Brief with Dr. Jessica Kriegel is a 5-minute daily podcast where business pragmatism meets inner wisdom.<...
