After suffering record shattering drops in revenue from Covid-19, JetBlue has had to rethink every plan and every assumption. Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue's president and chief operating officer, explains how the airline built a new system for flexing the business, to ramp up only when demand arises, deploying cost cuts but no furloughs, and looking for opportunity amid the downdraft. With JetBlue and airlines across the board now grappling with a renewed global infection surge, Geraghty says her decisions rely on new types of data as well as gut feeling – from re-opening middle seats starting in January to expanding flights to London. The volume of choices Geraghty has to make and the uncertainty around the risks are dizzying. But despite the challenges, she says, JetBlue is rising up.

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman

Rapid Response: Balancing Data with Gut Feeling, w/JetBlue's Joanna Geraghty

The best business ideas often seem laughable at first glance. So if you’re hearing a chorus of “no’s” – it may actually be a good sign. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb – they all sounded crazy before they scaled spectacularly. So don’t be discouraged by rejection. Instead, learn to hear the nuance in the different kinds of “no.” That’s what Tristan Walker did. After stints at two successful startups, he launched out on his own with Walker &amp; Company, makers of the Bevel razor – and learned to navigate the world of investors who may or may not share your vision.Read a transcript of this interview at:&nbsp;<a href="https://mastersofscale.com/tristan-walker-beauty-of-a-bad-idea/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://mastersofscale.com/tristan-walker-beauty-of-a-bad-idea/</a>Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at&nbsp;<a href="http://eepurl.com/dlirtX" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://eepurl.com/dlirtX</a>

3. Learn from every “no,” w/Walker & Company’s Tristan Walker

Legendary ad agency Wieden+Kennedy pioneered some of the most successful campaigns in history. But 2020 has raised the stakes for companies—and fundamentally changed how advertising works, W+K president Colleen DeCourcy tells us. Even as her own business adapts to financial and cultural strains, DeCourcy and her team have been guiding brands from Nike to Coca-Cola to Uber in selecting the right messages in a turbulent world. Meshing an economic goal with an emotional message has never demanded more creativity. Brands should take a stand, she argues, but not on everything.Want to learn more about Wieden+Kennedy's work with Nike? Check out our episode with Nike founder Phil Knight:&nbsp;<a href="http://listen.mastersofscale.com/PhilKnight_WK" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://listen.mastersofscale.com/PhilKnight_WK</a>Read the full transcript at <a href="http://mastersofscale.com/rapidresponse" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mastersofscale.com</a>Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter: <a href="http://eepurl.com/dlirtX" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://eepurl.com/dlirtX</a>

Rapid Response: Why brands must take a stand, w/Wieden+Kennedy's Colleen DeCourcy

Forget looking for a needle in a haystack – instead, build a new type of metal detector, to find undervalued assets that others don’t see. That’s exactly what Franklin Leonard did when he started The Black List, an annual survey of screenplays everyone loved (but no one was making). Devise ways to find things no one else has found – or didn’t think to look for – and it could be the difference that drives you to scale.&nbsp;Cameo: Software engineer Tatiana Mac.Learn more about The Black List: <a href="https://blcklst.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://blcklst.com/</a>Learn more about Tatiana Mac: <a href="https://tatianamac.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://tatianamac.com/</a>

76. How to find hidden value that others miss, w/The Black List's Franklin Leonard

In-office engagement or remote flexibility? We don't need to choose, says Dropbox co-founder and CEO Drew Houston. Facing the biggest shift in work habits in half a century, Houston has embarked on a radical experiment to reimagine how work gets done. The company's recently announced Virtual First plan dedicates all in-office activity to creative, team-based efforts, rebranding its offices as Dropbox Studios. Individual work will happen offsite, either at home or a self-chosen co-working space. Project teams set their own schedules. The unique opportunity of this moment, Houston says: How do we make work better? Yes, he admits, remote work feeds Dropbox's business, which now includes a collaboration with Zoom as part of a re-thought product roadmap. If Dropbox is going to design for the future of work, says Houston, then its own workforce needs to live in that future, right now.

Rapid Response: A virtual-first workplace, w/Dropbox's Drew Houston

Great branding is about identity – and it’s about matchmaking too. No one knows this better than the legendary co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight. When he and his partner, Hall of Fame track coach Bill Bowerman, started the sneaker company, they never tried to force-feed customers a product just to drive up the bottom line. They focused on one thing: making an excellent product for people who believed in the edgy Nike ethos. Because they knew, when there’s a mismatch between product and market, the bottom usually drops out. Instead, they told the world who the are, and then did everything they could to find their ideal customers. And made history. Cameo appearance: Eddy Lu (GOAT).

75. Nike’s Phil Knight: How to sell without selling

With Covid-19 cases surging, businesses may be forced into a new wave of adjustments. Will the crisis-management tactics of spring and summer be successful as winter unfolds? Dr. Bon Ku, an ER physician at Jefferson University Hospital and director of the Health Design Lab, returns to the podcast to share what he’s seeing as we enter a new season and how we might respond. His proposals for health care delivery – about both heightened vigilance and creative shifts to financing, supply chains, digital tools, etc. – provide a bracing wake-up call. While doctors and hospitals have gotten much better at information sharing, testing, and treatment, Dr. Ku warns that without significant change we might be looking at a devastating period ahead.

Rapid Response: Pandemic Planning, Phase Two, w/Dr. Bon Ku (Jefferson University Hospital)

Small business is being taxed emotionally as well as financially, and that tax is rising, says H&amp;R Block CEO Jeff Jones. As the pandemic hit, entrepreneurs did what entrepreneurs do: solved problems, protected teams, served customers. But as uncertainty has persisted, anxiety among business owners has risen, even since the summer, according to a major new H&amp;R Block study. With small enterprises the backbone of his customers, Jones has a unique vantage to offer advice and lessons: about asking for help, prioritizing needs, and finding calm. Jones sees small businesses as key to thriving economies, convinced that entrepreneurial resilience can eventually overcome all hurdles.Read the transcript at <a href="https://mastersofscale.com/rapidresponse/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mastersofscale.com/rapidresponse</a>Subscribe to the Masters of Scale weekly newsletter at&nbsp;<a href="http://eepurl.com/dlirtX" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://eepurl.com/dlirtX</a>

Rapid Response: Small business – more stressed than ever, w/H&R Block's Jeff Jones

Internet pioneer Caterina Fake knows: Online communities are built one human connection at a time. As the founder, you need to establish guidelines and norms from Day One – because the tone you set is the tone you’re going to keep, even as you go viral.

16. Build a more human internet, w/Caterina Fake

95% of your business disappears. What do you do? Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson recounts how the travel industry drastically changed last spring, with hotel bookings all but disappearing overnight. In the midst of his own battle with cancer, Arne has spent the year balancing the needs of his workforce against those of his partners; having blunt but critical conversations; and empowering his team to make tough decisions. He has wise words about the role of business leaders in times of social unrest, including how to think about who you speak for – and when to speak up. Arne admits the hotel industry will take years to recover. That hasn't dimmed his personal belief that travel matters more than ever.

Rapid Response: When your business disappears overnight, w/Marriott’s Arne Sorenson

A social network that limits your network? Yes. Meet Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social network that’s all about who you really are and where you really live. Although it goes against everything that we've come to expect from social networks, Nextdoor’s secret to scale lies in real personal connections based on empathy and kindness. And this is what Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar knows: No, these connections don’t scale as fast – but they tend to be stronger. And they can be the flywheel that drives you to scale.&nbsp;

74. The Empathy Flywheel, w/Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar

As big movie chains shut down, Shelli Taylor's determined to keep her theaters open. With revenue at a trickle, the CEO of Alamo Drafthouse is negotiating daily with landlords and banks, and even tried her own video-on-demand service. Her balancing act – a conviction that long-term demand will be strong, while near-term economics are dismal – is familiar among entrepreneurial leaders. By defiantly keeping the movie magic alive, she's leaning into hope, the human need for community, and a creative new model. Yet there's no guarantee how this story will end.

Rapid Response: Movie-theater drama has come to every business, w/Shelli Taylor, CEO, Alamo Drafthouse

What's more important than product-market fit? Product-VALUE fit. If you choose the right values to drive product development, you'll draw the people, resources, and speed you need. It’s true for for-profits and for nonprofits. And Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales knows this well. Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has famously stuck to its values of openness, neutrality, and remaining not-for-profit. But he arrived at those precise values through trial and error – on an earlier free encyclopedia project that stalled. Once he found the right product-value fit, Wikipedia rapidly scaled from a niche side project to one of the most valued treasures on the internet.

73. Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales: To scale, find the right values

To safely re-open a business, you need more than masks. Covid testing is key – and the options are changing quickly. We found the most in-the-know person in public health to walk us through the choices, costs, and protocols to keep an entrepreneurial team, and all of us, safe. Rajiv Shah is president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which has led response to health crises in the United States and around the world for 100 years (including the 1918 flu pandemic). Applying what he learned fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Shah has brought together business, government, and health officials to turbo-charge Covid testing development. Next-gen test kits are coming soon: cheaper, easier, more abundant. If deployed correctly, says Shah, they can make us all safer and healthier in 2021.

Rapid Response: The Covid test facts every CEO needs, w/Rajiv Shah (Rockefeller Foundation)

When you scale at warp speed, it’s easy to lose your bearings. You have to establish your company’s true north, or the dizzying pace of growth will push you off course. No one knows this better than Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. Under her leadership, YouTube has grown to be the world’s largest video platform. And in her previous role at Google, she was a chief architect of its advertising and analytics model. In both roles, she achieved massive scale – and grappled with massive challenges. Susan shares the guiding principles that help them stay the course – as well as stories from Google’s early years that you’ll hear first here. Cameo appearances: Dr. Becky Smethurst (astrophysicist, Oxford), Shishir Mehrotra (Coda, Google, YouTube).

72. YouTube's Susan Wojcicki: How to find – and keep – true north

The best startup advice from Silicon Valley &amp; beyond. Iconic CEOs — from Nike to Netflix, Starbucks to Slack — share the stories &amp; strategies that helped them grow from startups into global brands.On each episode, host Reid Hoffman — LinkedIn cofounder, Greylock partner and legendary Silicon Valley investor — proves an unconventional theory about how businesses scale, while his guests share the story of how I built this company. Reid and guests talk entrepreneurship, leadership, strategy, management, fundraising. But they also talk about the human journey — with all its failures and setbacks.&nbsp;With original, cinematic music and hilariously honest stories, Masters of Scale is a business podcast that doesn’t sound like a business podcast. Guests on Masters of Scale have included the founders and CEOs of Netflix, Google, Facebook, Starbucks, Nike, Fiat, Spotify, Instagram, Airbnb, Uber, Paypal, Huffington Post, Twitter, Medium, Bumble, Yahoo, Slack, Spanx, Shake Shack, Dropbox, TaskRabbit, 23&amp;Me, Mailchimp, Evite, Flickr, CharityWater, Endeavor, IAC and many more.

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Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman

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