Corner Office From Marketplace

You may not know the name Michael Ovitz, but you almost certainly know his work. For years, he was one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, the deal-making talent agent behind “Jurassic Park,” “Ghostbusters,” “Tootsie,” “Rain Man” and “Schindler’s List,” to name a few. Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency he co-founded and ran for two decades, represents Hollywood A-listers like Meryl Streep, George Clooney and Tom Hanks. Ovitz tells us how the practice of “packaging” talent together helped shift Hollywood’s balance of power from studios to artists and their agents. He also reflects on how the industry has changed and Hollywood’s #MeToo reckoning.

It started with a simple Google search to compare credit cards, but when nothing helpful turned up, an idea was born. Tim Chen is the founder and CEO of NerdWallet, a financial advice website with more than 100 million yearly users. While struggling to compare credit cards online, he got the idea for a website with all types of financial advice and products. He told Kai Ryssdal that the idea resonated with millennials because “millennials are just used to comparing things. Even college professors.”

When Dan Rosensweig took over as CEO of Chegg back in 2010, the company was mainly known for textbook rentals. The Chegg of today looks a little different. The company went public in 2013 and transitioned into subscription-based tools likes bibliography services, AI paper editors and tutors. We sat down with Rosensweig to talk about what it was like to lead the company through that transition and where a company like Chegg fits into the education landscape of today. 

Subscription box services may be the big apparel movement right now, but tech and data are allowing at least one company to go in a very different direction: custom tailoring. Colin Hunter is the CEO and co-founder of high-end men’s fashion company Alton Lane, and his goal is to make that retail experience personal — like, really personal. His company uses body scanners to get your body measurements in a matter of seconds, which are then sent to fabric makers who construct garments to order (which, of course, is not cheap). Also, the company’s showrooms have bartenders on duty to serve drinks. Hunter tells us why his company’s brand of retail could be the future, and how customer data could change the role of retail as we know it.

You’ve probably heard of MoviePass, the subscription-based movie ticket service — yeah, the one having a lot of problems recently. Sinemia offers a similar ticket plan through their mobile app, but with a different business model. It’s not a household name yet in North America, but Sinemia’s expanded to Canada, Australia, the U.K. and now the U.S. Founder and CEO Rifat Oguz moved the company to Los Angeles last year, and he told us how he plans to make the movie subscription business work.

Archie has always been a part of Jon Goldwater’s life. His father, John, co-created the iconic character and the rest of the Riverdale gang. But under the younger Goldwater’s tenure as co-CEO, the “Archie” of today looks pretty different from the “Archie” of yesteryear. From introducing the series’ first openly gay main character, to Archie’s infamous death, to the hit television show “Riverdale,” Goldwater has ushered the “Archie” brand through a tremendous overhaul. Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal talks to Goldwater about those decisions, the challenges of taking over the family business, and where “Archie” may be headed next.

Arne Sorenson is only the third CEO in Marriott’s history and the first not to have “Marriott” as his surname. In 2016, he oversaw the company’s multi-billion dollar merger with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, making Marriott the largest hotel chain in the world by far. Sorenson joined host Kai Ryssdal from the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in New York City to talk about how the travel ban has affected his business, that open letter he wrote to Donald Trump, why he hopes tax reform comes soon, what hotels of the future will look like and his personal tips for travel.

Spencer Rascoff has been at Zillow, the company familiar to many a person searching for a home or apartment, pretty much from the beginning. Since 2005, he’s weathered the housing crisis and another housing boom. And as CEO, he’s leading the real estate/tech/data company into a new market: buying and selling its own homes. He talked with us about where the housing market’s been and where it’s going. 

Nigel Travis has run Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins as CEO of Dunkin’ Brands since 2009. And he’s as surprised as the rest of us at the resurgence of doughnuts. In this interview, Travis talks about how his background in human resources makes him a better CEO, why it’s so difficult to find employees these days, and the No. 1 thing people like to buy with their doughnut (the answer will probably surprise you).