Kevin SuraceKevin Surace is an AI pioneer, inventor, author, and human effectiveness authority helping people thrive while AI reshapes work and life.

The CEOs People Actually Want To Follow

27 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:13

In this YouTube monologue, Kevin Surace challenges aspiring CEOs to reject the archetype of the ruthless, profit‑only leader and instead adopt a human‑centered form of capitalism. He opens with a rhetorical question asking whether a future CEO will be a "mean SOB" who neglects employees, customers, and vendors, or whether they will promote humanity and the well‑being of all stakeholders. Surace argues that companies that treat employees, customers, and vendors as part of a unified team consistently outperform those that ignore the human element, and this should be unsurprising. He then critiques the high‑profile example of Larry Ellison, describing his management style as harsh and unsustainable for employees, while acknowledging the massive wealth generated under such a model. Surace uses this contrast to illustrate that while aggressive CEOs can amass wealth, many other leaders successfully integrate employees and customers into a collaborative culture, leading to superior outcomes. The overall message is a call to future CEOs to embrace inclusive, team‑oriented leadership as the model people truly want to follow.

Chapters

Are you going to be the mean SOB CEO that runs a horrific culture that doesn't care about its customers or its employees? Are you going to be someone that promotes humanity and promotes what's good for your employees as well as what's good for the business, as well as certainly what's good for your customers and your vendors, right? This sort of capitalism that includes the human element has outperformed those that didn't, period, full stop. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Yet at the same time, in Silicon Valley, we struggle with the following because people will always bring it up. Well, you know, I'm going to pick on Larry Ellison. I shouldn't do that, but I'll pick it because not conscious capitalism, right? Known as a certain kind of manager and you could work for him for 3 or 4 years and then you couldn't deal with it anymore as an employee. Customers would get in arguments with him. I mean, this is what you have. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but then you say, yeah, but he made a couple hundred billion dollars, right? So there clearly are examples of people who manage companies in a pretty horrific way. And I think people like to point those out and say, well, look, you know, they manage in a horrific way. And yes, there are examples of it. There are a lot more examples. where people looked at their employees as part of their team. They looked at their customers as part of their team, and that we're all in this together.