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The corner office isn't always a comfortable seat — sometimes it's a hot seat! Join us as we count down our picks for the CEOs currently navigating their most turbulent times in the business world. From struggling retail giants to tech empires teetering on the edge, these executives have their work cut out for them!
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00:00AI can help us be wiser.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for chief executive officers currently in especially tenuous positions.
00:09What, no one wants to know whether it was cyber attack?
00:19Before we continue, check out this single from SoundMojo's Aria, Songs from Iran, reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock, metal,
00:27and pop songs.
00:28Check out the full track and album below.
00:45Number 10, Ryan Cohen, GameStop.
00:47The infamous GameStop stapler that damaged the Nintendo Switch, starting what has been dubbed the Staplegate, has now hit the
00:56auction block.
00:57And for a good cause, this morning we are talking to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, who's a little bit behind
01:03some of this.
01:04For decades, GameStop has been one of America's largest gaming retailers.
01:08During the 2010s, their profits began declining as online shopping became increasingly popular.
01:12The company did experience an infamous short squeeze of their stock in 2021, which helped them stick around for longer.
01:18Since 2023, Ryan Cohen has been their CEO, and he's tried a few things to fix the company, but none
01:23are as lucrative as he'd hoped.
01:24That's because GameStop, which sells video games and consoles, is not doing well.
01:29Their sales are plummeting, and their stores are shuttering.
01:32Most analysts say profitability is still years away.
01:35One catastrophic idea this decade was a GameStop NFT marketplace.
01:39In early 2025, they shut down over 400 stores and have tried to pivot to becoming an online seller, but
01:45not everyone is optimistic about this plan.
01:47The guy has no clue.
01:49Not the first clue.
01:50They are a blockbuster.
01:52And absolutely, physical retail is going away.
01:56Number nine, Jim Farley, Ford.
01:58I'm just an old-school car person.
02:00And I guess I wrote the op-ed because I think many of us at Ford started to get tired
02:10of all the politics in the EV business.
02:15And I guess, from my perspective, it's time to really take a step back and reflect on what it's like
02:22to actually drive an electric vehicle.
02:24One of America's most famous car companies has been around for over 120 years, making you think it would be
02:30impossible for them to fail.
02:31Since 2020, they've been led by Jim Farley, who has overseen some drastic changes.
02:36One of his greatest gambles has been their new EV strategy.
02:39This pivot to manufacturing cost-efficient electric cars isn't expected to make them any profit.
02:44How deep was the damage?
02:46Can you quantify that in terms of F-150 units or Expedition and Navigator units?
02:52How hard did it hit you?
02:54Or will it hit you in the fourth quarter?
02:56In fact, they predict they won't break even until 2029.
02:59Since 2022, their EV sector has lost over $16 billion from this endeavor.
03:03They're gambling on a new production method that will save them in 2027, but it's unclear if they can hold
03:08out that long.
03:09There are parts, fasteners, wiring looms from other countries.
03:12And we pay our tariffs, sometimes up to 70% on those parts.
03:16Who ends up paying that?
03:18Well, the company right now.
03:20And in the end of the day, it's all these workers.
03:23Number eight, Michael Fiddlekey, Target.
03:25Target has been a staple of American high streets for decades.
03:28They've also had too many controversies to count, making brand new CEO Michael Fiddlekey's job a bit of a poison
03:33chalice.
03:34The branding for this pressure campaign is we ain't buying it.
03:37Organizers want you to pull back from spending money at Target and Home Depot and Amazon.
03:43Now, in a press release, they say the companies have caved to Donald Trump's bigoted and anti-democratic attacks
03:48on our communities and our values from cravenly abandoning their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
03:54One major source of backlash was the rollback of their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in 2025.
03:59This led to some widespread boycotts in February 2025, causing them to lose $12.4 billion in stocks.
04:05There's Target this morning announcing it has chosen its next leader in the wake of the retailer's sluggish sales and
04:10stock price.
04:11COO and company veteran Michael Fiddlekey will succeed Brian Cornell as CEO in February of next year.
04:17Fiddlekey is now scrambling to save the day, hoping he can reconnect the company with its consumers.
04:22Not everyone thinks he's the man for the job, though, but only time will tell.
04:25It's a really complicated time for Target because it's facing a whole host of challenges,
04:29and that really came through in my interviews with customers, former employees, and suppliers.
04:32But the company is not only facing things like backlash to its DEI decisions and stiffer competition from Walmart,
04:40but also it's facing a lot of challenges with a lot of the traits that it was once known for.
04:44Number seven, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike.
04:47Global computer systems in healthcare, banking, and airlines are slowly coming back online
04:52after a digital outage disrupted networks in many countries.
04:56The crisis was caused by a faulty software update which affected Microsoft Windows systems.
05:01But it could be some time before all the backlogs are cleared.
05:05This cybersecurity company was founded by Kurtz, who has been the company's CEO for its entire existence.
05:10From at least 2023 onwards, their annual net income has consistently declined.
05:15This is guaranteed to be because of the company's historic blunders.
05:17The most famous came in 2024 when their software update bricked Microsoft systems globally,
05:22which was one of history's largest IT outages.
05:25Are you fighting any subpoenas?
05:27Are you just said, OK, we'll send you everything we have?
05:31Yeah, I mean, ask a question, we answer the question.
05:33We'll tell them what we know.
05:34OK.
05:35That's how we operate.
05:36To try to repair their reputation, they apologized to partners alongside giving them $10 Uber Eats gift cards.
05:41Many viewed this as a pitiful concession for shutting down many major services, including many emergency hotlines.
05:47So all of the challenges that we've seen over the many years of humans getting themselves into trouble
05:53is only going to be exasperated by agentic AI, and we need security like CrowdStrike is delivering to protect it.
06:00Number six, Stephanie Pope, Boeing.
06:02In the late 2010s, public opinion of Boeing went out the window after their infamous 737 MAX scandal.
06:08These models were considered unsafe after two horrific plane crashes.
06:11Have you considered resigning?
06:14I think the important thing here, again, is we're very focused on safety.
06:17And I can tell you that both of these accidents weigh heavily on us as a company.
06:22I've had the privilege of working for the Boeing company for 34 years.
06:26And we know that lives depend on what we do.
06:29We take that very, very seriously.
06:31Issues are still being ironed out with a nearly catastrophic accident happening in January 2024.
06:36Since March of the same year, Stephanie Pope has been the company's CEO.
06:39Sadly for Pope, many people have called this a glass cliff position.
06:43This is when a woman or someone from an underrepresented group is given an executive position during a crisis.
06:48If this is the case, she's likely doomed to fail.
06:51It pushed them to pretend like their new plane behaved exactly like their old one.
06:56Even when it didn't.
06:58Number five, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms, Inc.
07:01Imagine you put on your glasses or headset and you're instantly in your home space.
07:06Facebook is a platform that's been around so long it's unlikely to ever vanish.
07:09Their 3D virtual reality, the Metaverse, seems unlikely to ever take off.
07:13Now Zuckerberg is going all in on AI after these failed endeavors.
07:17Reality Labs, which used to be called Oculus VR, reportedly lost the company $4.4 billion in Q3 2025.
07:24They've since made major cuts to spending on this sector pivoting to AI.
07:28So Zuckerberg's experimental decisions have improved lucrative, but they still own Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
07:33That's a glimpse of a few ways that we're going to be able to get together and socialize in the
07:37Metaverse.
07:37Unlike other AI companies, they're developing the technology to sell adverts rather than the AI being the product itself.
07:43So for them, it's barely a gamble.
07:45I find that it just makes it easier to follow along.
07:48But if you have an issue hearing, then I think that this is going to be a game changer.
07:52Number four, Sam Altman, OpenAI.
07:54It is true that the expectation of what we'll have for someone in a particular job increases,
08:01but the capabilities will increase so dramatically that I think it'll be easy to rise to that occasion.
08:06One of the most well-known companies on Earth right now is Easily OpenAI.
08:10They created ChatGPT, a website that basically everyone knows.
08:14Despite its popularity, the website is a bit of a money pit for its owners.
08:17We really care about this model being useful to everyone, not just the early adopters or people very close to
08:25technology.
08:26Some estimates claim they won't make any money until 2030.
08:29Even when someone does pay, they can use it so frequently that it doesn't make them any profit.
08:34This has led them to introduce ads to the service alongside multiple subscription tiers, the most expensive costing about $200.
08:40Many predict the company's fate is tenuous on account of the alleged AI bubble,
08:44but they are easily the most well-known generative AI on the market.
08:47We have reached a point where a single training session for one AI model costs more than the GDP of
08:53some small island nations.
08:55And it gets worse.
08:56Number 3. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA
08:58It's an interesting time to have you, obviously, which any time is, but especially given what's been happening within the
09:03market.
09:04During the 2020s, this tech company has become one of the largest in human history.
09:08They're led by founder Jensen Huang, who is unsurprisingly one of the wealthiest people alive.
09:12This success is primarily due to their pivotal role in AI development.
09:15Despite their immense prosperity, their position isn't completely safe.
09:19The only regret I have is I didn't give him more money.
09:21The rise of DeepSeek revealed this fact, which caused the company to lose a historic $600 billion in a day.
09:28Also, if the theoretical AI bubble turns out to be real, then the company has dire straits ahead.
09:32But given how necessary their technology is, they're likely to survive, but it won't be smooth sailing.
09:37You can't make everybody's chips.
09:39We could try.
09:41Number 2. Elon Musk, Tesla Inc.
09:43One of those names is the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
09:46He's always denied any close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
09:49But they exchanged numerous emails trying to arrange a visit for Musk to Epstein's island in the Caribbean.
09:55Few figures have controversies more well-known than Musk's.
09:58He's currently the CEO of multiple companies, including SpaceX, XAI, and Tesla.
10:03Some of these, like SpaceX, are hugely successful.
10:05Others, like Tesla or social media platform X, have struggled in recent years.
10:09Musk also had a very public fallout with President Donald Trump in mid-2025.
10:14Additionally, his name appeared in recent Epstein file releases.
10:17Musk denies being friends with Epstein, but the leaked emails say otherwise.
10:20While his reputation is far from stellar, he's one of the wealthiest humans ever and is close to becoming a
10:25trillionaire.
10:25So it's not all doom and gloom for Musk.
10:27It must be also very open.
10:29I think it's actually quite helpful to have this openness because then you can sort of see what people are
10:33working on in their computers.
10:34Number 1. Lip Bhutan, Intel.
10:36You know, are we in an AI bubble?
10:38Of course, right?
10:39You know, we were in that bubble.
10:40You know, of course we are.
10:41I mean, you know, we're hyped, we're accelerating, we're putting enormous leverage into the system.
10:47You know, that said, I don't see it ending for several years.
10:49For years, it felt like Intel's dominance over CPU manufacturing would never be challenged.
10:53Their primary competitor has been AMD for years, but they've been gradually closing the gap.
10:58In 2021, Pat Gelsinger was appointed as CEO, but he only stuck around until 2024, then retired after failing to
11:04turn the business around.
11:05No new networking, no new security models, no new IT, you know, things to learn, no proprietary networking.
11:13It just works on the industry standards.
11:16This came a few months after they cut roughly 15,000 jobs.
11:19Now the company is being run by Lip Bhutan, who isn't doing much better than his predecessor.
11:23In early 2026, he reported they lost $333 million in the previous quarter and expects even more losses in the
11:30coming months.
11:31I'm deeply committed to this journey.
11:33Under my leadership, we will return our roots into an engineering-first company
11:41and follow the footsteps that I learned so much from Albert Yu and Datter Permuda.
11:47Were there any CEOs in tough spots we didn't mention today?
11:49Let us know in the comments section.
11:55Let us know in the comments section.
11:57Let us know in the comments section.
11:57Let us know in the comments section.
11:57You
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