Lumen CEO Kate Johnson says today's market complexity means executives can no longer rely solely on their own expertise and must build networks of internal and external partners for decision-making.
01Summary
- 01Kate Johnson spoke at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara on Tuesday.
- 02IBM's 2026 CEO Study found more than 80% of CEOs at AI-first firms engage external partners for risk and strengths.
- 03Boston Consulting Group reported that 60% of business leaders expect joint ventures and partnerships to be more important than M&A over the next three to five years.
- 04Lumen Technologies formed a strategic alliance with EY in June 2025 to improve autonomous networking with AI.
02Why it matters
This shift signals that traditional top-down leadership is becoming obsolete, meaning executives and their teams must prioritise collaboration and agility to stay competitive.
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