{"id":18435,"date":"2026-10-17T01:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=18435"},"modified":"2026-10-17T01:59:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T01:59:28","slug":"lumen-ceo-theres-a-new-era-of-ceo-partnerships-as-boards-are-no-longer-rewarded-for-being-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=18435","title":{"rendered":"Lumen CEO: There’s a new era of CEO partnerships as boards are no longer rewarded for being right"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Amid geopolitical uncertainty and the AI boom, executive leadership has had to become a much less insular affair.<\/p>\n

Lumen Technologies CEO Kate Johnson, speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, Calif. on Tuesday, said that as companies have had to become more nimble in their decision-making, it\u2019s no longer realistic for them to rely only on their respective leaderships to make tough calls and should instead rely on partnerships between, not just within, C-suites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis notion of the boardroom and the conference room that I grew up in\u2014we were rewarded for being right. We had to know our stuff. We had to be the best. We had to come in with a strong opinion. We had to have all the facts we had to master, and that is just not possible in today\u2019s market,\u201d Johnson told Fortune\u2019s Diane Brady.<\/p>\n

Johnson explained that instead, you have to \u201cbuild a machine\u201d for decision-making, which includes coming up with a hypothesis, but then looking at signals, as well as experts inside and outside a business to inform constant course-correction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting signals every day, and we\u2019re pivoting every day,\u201d she added. \u201cMy job is to get a grant and to allocate the capital accordingly, and you have to have a bench of partners that you can go to to deliver those outcomes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

IBM has already begun to measure changes in how CEOs are interacting with one another. More than 80% of chief executives of AI-first companies are engaging partners from external or specialized networks to talk about risk and build off each other\u2019s strengths, according to its 2026 CEO Study. A large part of that shift comes from rapid changes in AI and how workplaces are adopting it, compressing decision-making cycles and forcing companies to break down previously established boundaries in search of cooperation, the report noted.<\/p>\n

More broadly, Boston Consulting Group similarly observed that as mergers and acquisitions slow, companies are instead looking for alliances, with 60% of surveyed business leaders saying that over the next three to five years, joint ventures and partnerships will be more important to growth than pursuing M&A.<\/p>\n

Lumen Technologies found one such partner in consultancy EY. In June 2025, EY U.S. and Blue Planet formed a strategic alliance to improve autonomous networking with AI, and Lumen was the project\u2019s first client.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s initial connection with EY CEO and Global Chair Janet Truncale was a spontaneous one. Johnson approached Truncale at a Business Roundtable breakfast a few years ago and in hopes of improving her day, Johnson said to Truncale, \u201cWill you be my best friend?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was happy to oblige,\u201d Truncale told Brady.<\/p>\n

The interaction shifted Truncale\u2019s own approach in meeting new leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last two years, I\u2019ve frankly tried to pay that forward,\u201d she said, \u201cso when there are new CEOs, I try to reach out and say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve just been through this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

#Lumen #CEO #era #CEO #partnerships #boards #longer #rewarded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amid geopolitical uncertainty and the AI boom, executive leadership has had to become a much…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245],"tags":[3474,2820,585,960,11069,911,4200,4038,11049,23172],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}