Good morning everyone and welcome to

Vanguard's breakfast at DealBook.

This morning's panel will dive into

mission as a multiplier. [music]

Vanguard is one of the world's leading

and most respected asset management

firms.

Vanguard has a strong point of view

[music]

and a proven history of anchoring the

organization in its mission.

A mission can be a basis for building

trust [music] grounded in ethics.

And it's also a basis for innovation and

economic growth.

And in turbulent [music] times, which

I'm sure many of us would agree

describes this moment, mission can be a

pathfinder and a guide.

>> [music]

>> When I think about mission and purpose,

it's almost like ethic statements.

There's rhetoric and there's reality and

and it's hard to execute on. Talk a

little bit about Vanguard and what how

you see mission in the context of this

conversation. Yeah, so for our

organization, if you think about it, I

mean, we're founded 50 years ago by Jack

Bogle and Vanguard is a mutual company.

So, it's a mutual mutual fund company.

It's owned by the Vanguard funds, which

are owned by our investors. So, there's

no concern about other shareholders or

private owners or anything like that.

It's about really to take a stand for

all investors, to treat them fairly and

give them the best chance for investment

success. And the reality is we come to

work because we want to help people save

for retirement. We want to help people

buy their first house. We want to help

people put their kids through college.

And so, for our folks, that's something

very motivating and purpose-driven. And

so, when we come together as a team, we

know how to prioritize cuz we're focused

on our clients, but our crew just love

the impact that they have on people's

financial lives and it's something that

truly, truly drives the culture of the

firm. It's about doing good for people.

Since you're new to Nike, I would love

to hear your thoughts on mission. How do

you think about making it something that

is really true to the business core?

Nike's mission today is to bring

inspiration and innovation to every

athlete around the world. Asterisk on

athlete because I'll put myself in this

category. I don't see myself as an

athlete. You're a runner. But if I if I

have a body, I am an athlete. And every

single day we've got a company thinking

about new ways that you can put

something on your body and make you

better. And that's like people can see

that and they can believe in that.

Simon, I want to go to you.

What are you seeing in terms of maybe

the disconnect between what you say and

what you do when you're looking at

companies and you're

talking about the why.

So,

here's the good news.

When I started talking about this stuff

15 years ago or so, if you used the

words purpose and work in the same

sentence, that was like some hippy dippy

stuff. You you couldn't do it. And now

talking about purpose at work in serious

environments, it's it's a purpose

perfectly normal conversation. So,

that's a good thing. And you made a

comment which I found sort of

interesting, which is when you were

describing how great Vanguard is, you

said, you know, we don't have to bow to

the pressures of internal or external

investors, you know, the private

investors or the public investors. Um as

if we all take it for granted like, oh,

that's a terrible thing, right? But we

do. Like that is sort of an understood

thing that investor pressures, whether

it's venture capital or or the public

markets, do put tremendous pressure on

companies to make the wrong decisions

for the long-term value of the company.

We need more leaders who are willing to

actually make decisions for the

long-term value of their their employees

and their customers.

I want to talk a little bit about AI cuz

I think it's an important question we

all have to deal with. There's pressure

to reduce costs. There's the opportunity

to accelerate, you know, innovation. And

yet there's going to be disruptions and

it's not something

that is easy to sort of

be good for all people in this

situation. Obviously, AI is the

conversation at every conference. Um but

to balance that off is also the

conversation about humanity.

Um and and not just our jobs and the

preservation of jobs and not just that,

but what is it about our humanity and

how does it show up at work? And so,

this conversation of of purpose at work

and mission at work, I think is the more

human side, which is what is it that

connects people that want to come to

work and give their best and brightest

ideas on a daily basis. For us, we've

always been in a place where every year

we're trying to raise the bar to try to

get better.

And you want to make sure you're

leveraging all the tools that are

available to you. And it's not just the

use the tools, it's because we want to

provide better service and better

outcomes to our clients. That's the

humanity, it goes back to what Simon was

saying. Like when you when you work at

an organization that you believe very

strongly about what the organization is

doing and is doing something good for

society, it's a very, very powerful

formula for success.

>> [music]

>> Talk a little bit about what this means

to you and and what's your own

purpose and mission cuz that evolves as

well. Give me a sense as to what drives

you and gets Greg Davis up in the

morning. Yeah, I would I would say,

look, I I come from a um

I come from a military family, first

generation college graduate, right? So,

I never expected to be in these types of

conversations anywhere um along the way.

So, but one of the things that that has

really

um helped me over the years is people

believed in me. And they invested in me.

And what I've always tried to do

career-wise was to pay that forward. So,

my proudest moments at work and what I

do is when I look at people that I I've

had an impact on their careers get

promoted, take on bigger seats. And that

that brings me great joy because I

received the same type of impact when I

when I joined Vanguard and I've been

trying to do nothing but pay that

forward when I think about um you know,

the crew that work at Vanguard and the

people that I have some uh impact on.

>> Yeah. What motivates you? What's driving

you now and where do you think of

mission at the intersection of

your own leadership? It's a great

question. I was thinking I didn't

realize you're doing life reflections on

Wednesday morning, but this is awesome.

>> [laughter]

>> Do you guys have like 20 minutes we can

unpack this together? Um I It's good for

people to know who's up here.

>> I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

I'm honored. I

I think the honest answer is it changes.

I mean, my head goes to my children, my

head goes to my family.

But when I when I think about what I do

for work and why I'm privileged to to do

this job, I do believe that companies

with scale have a great ability and a

great responsibility to have positive

outcomes in communities across

the globe. But I lived in um rural Kenya

and

when you have access to footwear there,

it means you're able to go to school.

When you're able to go to school in that

environment, your chances of so much

more go up significantly. So, Nike

definitely resonates with me in that in

that pursuit. Simon, how are you? I

almost want to put you not in a

soothsayer role, but an advice role.

When you think about both the two brands

that we have up here represented

and your advice to leaders right now as

they're dealing with

pressures on many different sides,

where mission fits and how even

executing on that mission may shift.

Neither Greg nor Michael are talking

about, you know, how they wake up every

single day to look at the spreadsheet of

how, you know, how the company's doing

and that's what gives them life. You

what you're listening to are stories of

leadership. You're talking about the

greatest fulfillment they get is being

able to to foster the the the success in

the lives of other people in their care.

And to talk about culture or purpose

without talking about leadership is is

is blind. You know, cultures don't

happen by default. They happen by

design, the good ones. And and it is

entirely driven by good leadership.

>> [music]

>> Some final thoughts in terms of

your own call to action here. When I get

back to the mission, which is to

provide inspiration innovation to every

athlete in the world,

that means there's a lot more people

that haven't had the experience that

makes them want to go do something

differently with their day. Yeah. But

there's so much potential on executing

that mission. And I think when we talk

about the importance of mission, it's

having one that is authentic enough,

having actions that are authentic enough

where you can say it in beautiful places

like this and you can say it in the

break room in your manufacturing

facility. And I've carried that message

with me for over a decade now and uh I

think about it a lot. So, I imagine a

world in which the vast the vast

majority of people wake up every single

morning inspired. They feel safe

wherever they are and they end the day

fulfilled by the work that they do. And

I've committed myself that every product

I make, every book I write, everything

that I do will help advance closer and

closer towards that ideal. And it is an

ideal. I'll never get there, but I'll

die trying, which is the point of

mission. You'll never get there, but

you'll die trying. And I think every

single one of us has the opportunity to

wake up every single day and be the

leader we wish we had.

Last word goes to you, Greg. Yeah, I

would just say again, it goes back to

what we do every single day trying to

provide really strong and positive

financial futures for our clients.

Again, whether or not it's saving for

retirement, putting your kids through

college, it has such a huge impact on

society and people's well-being. It's

one of the, you know, key things that

people need is financial security and

we're very proud of being a key

contributor to that for 50 million

investors and something that, you know,

all of us at Vanguard are really proud

about. Great. I love that. Thank you for

the honor of us speaking with you. Enjoy

your day at DealBook. Thanks again.

>> [applause]

[music]

>> Mhm.