Ryan Peddycord, chief executive of the private equity firm Tide Rock, has set out the principles he believes separate successful chief executives from the rest, placing a no-debt investment strategy at the centre of his approach. Peddycord said the strategy, which he described as one most private equity firms keep to themselves, has shaped both his career and the way he runs the business.
The argument rests on a simple proposition: companies that avoid heavy borrowing are better placed to survive downturns and to make decisions on operational grounds rather than under pressure from lenders. For Peddycord, that discipline is not merely a financial preference but a leadership test. The chief executive who resists the temptation to load a business with debt, he suggests, is the one who can focus on the underlying performance of the company rather than on servicing obligations.
His comments come as several senior business figures have been discussing the habits and judgments that underpin successful leadership. Emma Grede, the entrepreneur behind the shapewear company Skims, told a Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in Santa Barbara that she does not second-guess herself, attributing her ability to keep brands relevant to an assuredness in her own intuition. Grede, who is co-founder and chief product officer of the business, said many people possess the same skill but talk themselves out of it.
She described waiting until one feels ready as one of the most expensive habits, and said she had failed often enough that failure had stopped mattering and no longer held her back. Grede, who was raised by a single mother in East London and did not attend university, has built a career spanning investing, fashion design and consumer products. Her most recent venture is Off Season, a luxury sports-fashion brand founded with the designer Kristin Juszczyk.
Grede said intuition had led Skims to release a series of unexpected products, including a push-up bra with a raised nipple detail. Initially viewed as provocative, the product serves women who have undergone breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy, she said. Other items, such as a face sculpt wrap, are intended to create and occupy a new market rather than simply meet existing demand.
She described her approach as taking a problem that already exists and making it make sense for a new generation of customers, adding that much of what she does is about making things one per cent better rather than reinventing them. She has set out her views in a book, Start With Yourself: A New Vision for Work & Life, and argued that too much advice directed at women is feel-good rather than practical. Grede said she is not trying to make people comfortable but to speak about the reality of operating a business, including the sacrifices and trade-offs involved.
A similar emphasis on the human side of leadership came from Latriece Watkins, chief executive of Sam's Club, who said her greatest source of power is watching people she has invested in succeed. Watkins, who began her career as an intern at Walmart and rose to lead one of America's largest grocery retailers, told the same summit that seeing colleagues promoted and progress is what makes her feel most powerful.
She said focusing solely on one's own career can leave opportunities for greater impact on the table. Watkins became the first woman and first person of colour to serve as Walmart's chief merchant in 2023, one of the most influential roles in retail, and has spent three decades at the parent company. She described a symbiotic strategy with peers in which contributions are greater than any individual could achieve alone.
In her eight months as chief executive of Sam's Club, Watkins said she has found that understanding the power of workers and delivering clarity are essential. Employees look to the top boss for transparency and a clear vision, she said, which means leaders must be clear themselves and should not think out loud. She recommended setting aside time to think matters through so that decisions are communicated with the certainty staff expect.
Taken together, the accounts point to a common thread in leadership: the willingness to back a judgment, whether that means avoiding debt, trusting an instinct about a product, or investing in people whose success may only become visible years later. Peddycord's no-debt strategy is the most concrete of the three, but each describes a discipline that is difficult to replicate and easy to abandon under pressure.