Wharton on Women in Leadership

7/30/2019 Wharton on Women in Leadership

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WHARTONon...Women in Leadershi

http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu http://knowledge.wharton.upenn


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Women LeadersWhile the glass ceiling is still a part of the corporate architecture for many wom

others have met with great success, rising to positions of power within their indus

Most would admit that it hasnt been easy, but they have managed to turn challe

into opportunities to showcase their talents and create value for their compa

What are the critical survival skills for women in todays workplace? What are

challenges that women leaders face? And how important is the elusive balbetween work and family? The following articles from Knowledge@Wharton fea

women business leaders who address these issues and more.

3ICICIs Chanda Kochhar:

Whenever Theres a Challenge,I See an Opportunit

ICICI is Indias largest privately owned bank.Chanda Kochhar, ICICIs joint managing

director and chie nancial ocer, has helpedshape the banks ever-evolving strategy.Wharton management proessor Michael

Useem spoke with Kochhar in January 2008at the World Economic Forum in Davos

about the leadership challenges she hasaced in her two decades as a banker.

8Citigroups Sallie Krawcheck

Talks about Leadership, Ethics, andHow to Survive on Wall Street

For Sallie L. Krawcheck, chairman and CEOo Citi Global Wealth Management, successmeans having a thick skin, learning to take

rejection, being lonely, working hard, eelingsuperstitious, showing sel-condence but

not arrogance, and always reporting theright numbers. And thats just or starters.

Krawcheck spoke at Wharton as part o theschools Leadership Lecture series.

14For Estee Lauders Thia Breen,a Successful Career Is Made Up of

People, Passion, and Performance

In her keynote address at the 28th AnnualWharton Women in Business Conerence inPhiladelphia, Thia Breen, president o Estee

Lauder Americas and head o Global BusinessDevelopment, told the audience that she was

nearly red rom her rst job. That was themoment I started to understand: I am totally

responsible or my own success, said Breen,

whose rst job out o college was unloadingshipments o toys at Marshall Fields.

6A Piece of Cake? Hardl, butAutumn Bales Helped Herselfand Others, Rise to the Top

Following the sudden departure o a suppchain executive a ew years ago rom TastBaking Company in Philadelphia, chieinormation ocer Autumn Bayles asked ishe could ll the gap. She succeeded,taking on many o the ormer executivestasks. Volunteering or new responsibilitiesand continuously growing in the job were to the suggestions that Bayles, now seniovice president o strategic operations,

oered her audience at a recent WhartonWomens Conerence.

11The Feminine Touch:Looking for Talent WithoutDistinguishing Between Gende

According to Nuria Chinchilla, a proessor IESE Business School in Madrid, women acontinuing to use their special talentstheeminine genius and energyto transorm

society and modern companies during th21st century. Chinchilla and other leaders academia, business, and politics discussethe status o women in the workplace durian international conerence on Women,Enterprise, Society in the Twenty-rst Cen

16Audio Instructions

Contents

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When it Was founded more than

hal a century ago by Indian industrialists,

the World Bank, and the Governmento India, ICICI was envisioned as therst development bank or a newly

independent nation. Today, ICICI isIndias largest privately owned bank with

assets o nearly $80 billion last year, andan expanding global reach. The groups

story is not just one o growth, but otransormation: ICICI has evolved rom adevelopment bank to become a corporate

and then a retail bank, meeting the needso a newly prosperous population.

Chanda Kochhar has helped shape thebanks ever-evolving strategy. Having

started out at ICICI as a managementtrainee in 1984, today she is ICICI Banks

joint managing director and chie nancialocerand is also widely regarded as a

leading contender or the CEOs positionin the uture. Wharton managementproessor Michael Useem spoke with

Kochhar in 2008 at the World EconomicForum in Davos about the leadership

challenges she has aced in her twodecades as a banker.

useem: What are the major leadershipqualities that helped you grow within ICICI

during the past two decades?

Kochhar: The organization has grown

and evolved substantially in these last20 years. Normally, we dene banks as

being either retail or corporate, but ICICItransormed itsel rom a corporate bank

into a retail bank, and now a universalbank. So although Ive been with thesame organization or the last 20 years,

Ive created and run dierent businesses.I joined on the corporate side o the

bank. Then, when inrastructure nancingbecame a big thing in India, I set up theinrastructure-nancing practice or the

bank. When commercial banking openedup or the private sector, I set up the

retail-banking division or ICICI and grewit substantially. I then ran the international

side o the ICICI Bank or a ew years.Having run all the businesses, Im nowa supervisor, overseeing a number o

unctions: nance, risk, audit, compliance,industrial relations, all those kind o things.

Its been a great journey or me.

useem: Some people would nd thosetransitions daunting: Moving rom retail

banking to commercial or investmentbanking. When you considered each othese new assignments, were you worried

about mastering the new areas?

Kochhar: I moved rom corporatebanking to retail banking about ten years

ago. The biggest challenge or me, orall o us, was that the consumer-creditmarket was very, very new or India and or

ICICI. I was trying to create something thatwas not just new or me but absolutely

unknown to the organization and thecountry as a whole.

I was running the corporate side o thebank and handling almost 50 percent

o its prots and assets and businessat that time; consumer credit was less

than one percent o the banks business.When my CEO asked me to take over theconsumer credit business, I asked, Why

should I move rom handling 50 percento the bank to handling one perccent

o the bank? I clearly remember himanswering: Because I want you to makethis business more than 50 percent o th

bank. And that did happen.

On a personal level, it wasnt always easBut as a leader, I think you need to be,

rst o all, adaptable, so you can quicklyunderstand and move orward in newbusiness situations. Second, you need to

treat each challenge as an opportunity. Itreated this challenge as an opportunity,

not just to learn or my own developmenbut also to create something new or theorganization.

useem: In 1998, ICICI created a major-clients group to handle relationships with

the banks top 200 clients. You headedthat eort, setting up cross-divisionalteams to market the banks products.

What lessons about internal teamworkand marketing did you gain rom that

experience?

Kochhar: At that time, we had a bank,a securities company, and various othercompanies, so each o us was going to t

same corporate customer and marketingdierent products. The idea was to set

up this group to handle relationships witall clients and to draw on the experienceo all the product groups internally. I was

purely a corporate banker at that time,with no experience o investment bankin

or commercial banking. So, rst, I had tocreate a team, and I created one with eig

members drawn rom the dierent parts the ICICI group: Investment banking, thesecurities business, commercial banking

and so on. I organized our work so thatwhile each member o our team handled

ICICIs Chanda Kochhar: Whenever Theres a Challenge

I See an Opportunity


4/16Wharton on... Women in Leadership 2008 University of Pennsylva4

clients, we met every morning and every

evening to exchange notes. I learned it ispossible to quickly share knowledge and

ideas with each other, rather than sittingon a pedestal, saying, Im the boss, and

Im not here to learn rom anybody.

useem: In mid-2000, you led ICICI Banks

oray into the retail industry. How did you

go about ormulating your strategy to enterand grow that business?

Kochhar: As I said earlier, the retail indus-try itsel was very, very small in India atthat time. The rst strategic question was

whether to plan or a big-scale business ora small-scale one; we had to guess whether

this industry was going to grow signi-cantly or the coun-

try or not. We knewthis: I per-capitaincome crosses say,

$500, there is a shitin consumer behav-

ior, which results in ahuge amount o con-sumer spending and

consumer borrowing.Then we made the

strategic call, saying,India is passing

through that phase,and thereore this industry is going to be abig one. Lets plan not or the small size the

industry is today, but or what the industryis going to be ve years rom now. Clearly,

many people were skeptical, saying wewere creating a scale that may never be

used. But, as it turned out, this industrygrew by more than 50 percent per annum,year on year, or many years.

The other strategic challenge was that the

business was very new or ICICI itsel. Ihad to create a team o people who hadworked in this industry or other banks.

What I brought to that team was ICICIs

strategic thinking, but when it came todomain knowledge or product nuances, Ihad to learn rom the team. In that way, I

was a kind o a leadership bridge betweenICICIs way o thinking on the one handand the domain knowledge o the team on

the other hand. I had to arrive at decisionsnot based on past experience, but on a mix

o their domain knowledge and my gut eel.

useem:As you look now at 2008, howdoes the year ahead look in light o the

world economies hitting a speed bump,

or worse?

Kochhar: Let me put India inperspective. In the last ve to seven

years, India has grown on the basis o itsknowledge economy and consumerism.The IT industry, and its related industries,

provided jobs or Indians. As Indians

earned more, they spent more, and thatshow consumerism drove economic growthas a whole and also led to a huge growth

in the retail-credit and consumer-creditbusiness in India. As we speak today, thisgrowth in consumerism is leading to a

huge investment cycle in India. Becausemanuacturing capacities have been ully

utilized, and inrastructure needs to beestablished,people are now

investing inmanuacturing

capacities andinrastructure.

I estimate theIndian corporatesector has

plans today toinvest about

$700 billion inmanuacturingand inra-

structure, which will be spent over the nextthree years.

The next wave o growth or India is

going to come out o capital investment.While growth or the retail and consumerindustry is going to be between 10 percent

and 15 percent, the growth in corporatelending will accelerate and be between

30 percent and 40 percent. In the last ouror ve years, the growth was essentially

driven by consumer credit. Now thegrowth is going to be driven more byinvestment cycles and corporate credit.

useem: ICICI has set itsel a goal o notonly becoming a global bank but also

becoming a top-25 bank, or even a top-10bank in the next ve to 10 years. What isyour strategy or getting there?

Kochhar: The strategy is two-old. One,

India-related growth is really going to let usgrow. The Indian banking sector is growing

at a rate not matched by many bankingsectors the world over. Two, were going tocapitalize on the globalization o the Indian

economy. As our Indian corporate secto

acquires companies abroad and sets upmanuacturing capacities abroad, we ha

positioned ourselves very eectively interms o setting up a global network: Weare already assisting our Indian corporat

sector in global ventures.

Over and above this, were going to

become big as a group, because oursubsidiaries are creating a lot o value ous. We have subsidiaries in lie and non-lie insurance, securities, private equities

and so orth. As we aspire to get into thetop-25 and top-10 league, organic growt

is coming to us very well rom the Indianeconomys growth and globalization.

When we eel the time is right, we willlook at some inorganic growth as well. Itgoing to be a mix.

useem: What steps are you taking now

to anticipate challenges ve to 10 yearsdown the road, the slowdown in the wor

economy being the most obvious? Howcan you anticipate and be ready or such

hurdles?

Kochhar: Challenges could come orIndia, or or the bank, so I will break thisup into two. As ar as India is concerned

we are watching very closely whetherthe current world economic scenario will

impact India and by how much. In theglobalized world o today, no countryremains immune to what happens

elsewhere, but at the same time, India isvery resilient because o the sheer act

that the domestic economy is very largeIndias reliance on the global economy in

terms o exports is also less than that omany Asian economies. So while I wouldnot say India will remain totally insulated

I will say Indias resilience is much highethan many other Asian economies. The

undamentals o the Indian economy willcontinue to drive its growth or a long

period.

Thinking about ICICI as an organization

ve to 10 years rom now, as a leaderI have to make sure as we grow and

become more successul that wedont become complacent. We have tocontinue to innovate in order to keep

ahead o others in the race. Its notenough to become a leader: You must

maintain that leadership, and thereore,you have to ensure the cultures

As a leader, I think

ou need to be adaptable,so ou can quickl

understand and move

forward in new

business situations.



innovation, energy, and competitiveness

doesnt get lost.

useem: Looking back on your two-plus-decade career at the bank, what are some

o the biggest leadership challenges youhave aced personally? What did you takeaway rom those moments?

Kochhar: All my challenges havebecome opportunities. As India evolvedas a country in these 20 years, ICICI as

an institution evolved substantially. I Iwas not a person who could adapt andmove with this evolution, I would not

have grown as a leader. The constantchallenge is to keep evolving and adapting

as the country and the company evolves.Moving rom corporate banking to retail

banking to international banking tosupervisory roles has meant completelyreinventing mysel. But every move ed

on the previous one. When I movedrom corporate to consumer banking, I

brought a lot o synergy with me. WhenI moved rom consumer banking tointernational banking, I thought I brought

a lot o insights rom India we couldimplement globally. Now that Ive moved

to the supervisory role, having run allthe businesses, Im able to appreciate

the challenges o a business in a muchmore rational manner. So, adaptabilitywas a big challenge or me personally,

but this opportunity to handle all sides othe bankglobally, I cant think o many

bankers who have had this opportunity.

useem: Youve managed to look upwardand not see a glass ceiling above you as

you moved up in the bank. Is there still aglass ceiling or women in banking and,

more generally, in business in India?

Kochhar: India has evolved a lot in

this aspect in the last 20 years. WhenI started my career, there were clearly

some industries and some companieswhere we, as lady students, would not

even apply, because we knew there wasa glass ceiling and we would not moveorward. But now I see an intentional

consciousness in all Indian corporationsto recruit women executives. They have

learned that diversity has its advantages,and that its better to be a merit-orientedorganization and use the talent available,

regardless o whether it comes rom amale or a emale.

Even ICICI was very dierent 20 years

ago. When I entered that group, I thoughit was one o the most proactive groups,

the sense that it has always been a merioriented organization. Every time theres

an opportunity, a job to be assigned, theorganization doesnt look at whether theright person to do it is male or emale,

the organization just hands over that

responsibility to the person most suitedto the job. The rewards and punishmentsare based on perormance and not ongender. I have experienced that, and tha

has enabled me to grow and move in thiorganization.

But this is a two-sided coin. While many

women have moved orward in ICICI, thehave done so because they have workedas hard and as many long hours as men

have. Thats the way going orward.Organizations should look at merit and n

discriminate based on gender. Similarly,women should not expect any special

advantages or avors. I they want to grothey have to put in the hard work and thhours and the travel thats required.

useem: Looking back on your owncareer, what advice would you have or ayoung person entering banking today? O

business more broadly?

Kochhar: A person should enter theircareer with a very open mind, because

you have to constantly learn. When weleave school, we tend to believe weknow it all. But when we start to work,

thats really the beginning o school allover again. We need to start work with

the idea that were going to learn everyday. My second piece o advice wouldbe that there is no substitute or hard

work. Even as one gets opportunities,one gets challenges, and hard work is

essential or success. Third, whenevertheres a challenge, I see an opportunity

in it: You have to nd a way o convertingchallenges into opportunities. Thats theway one learns and moves orward. I

evaluate a leader more in terms o howthe leader perorms in dicult times,

rather than how that leader perorms ineasy times. A person who can take on achallenge and maintain equanimity and

turn it into an opportunityaccording tome, thats the biggest leader.

I have to make

sure as we grow

and become more

successful that

we dont become

complacent. Wehave to continue to

innovate in order to

keep ahead of others

in the race.

While man women

have moved forward

in ICICI, the havedone so because the

have worked as hard

and as man long

hours as men have.

Thats the wa going

forward.


6/16Wharton on... Women in Leadership 2008 University of Pennsylva

A Piece of Cake? Hardly, but Autumn BayleHelped Herself, and Others, Rise to the Top

in 2005, about tWo years after

Autumn Bayles became the rst chie

inormation ocer at Tasty Baking

Company, a supply chain executive quit

the company.

As a part o my technology work, I

was very involved with that side o the

operation, said Bayles, who was hired

to be part o president and CEO Charles

Pizzis turnaround team. I raised my

hand and said, Why dont you let me do

this? Ater some deliberation, Tasty

Baking executives divided up the ormer

executives responsibilities, giving Bayles

a share. I was grateul or what I got. I

dug in and did it to the best o my ability.

Then they gave me another piece, andnally they gave me the whole thing. So

raise your hand, ladies and gentlemen,

because thats the way youre going to

get the opportunities you want, said

Bayles, who is now Tasty Bakings senior

vice president, strategic operations. Its

not always going to be handed to you.

Bayles was keynote speaker at the

recent Wharton Womens Conerence

whose theme was Make Your Mark

a slogan that Bayles addressed directly

at one point during her presentation.

When I think about making your mark,

I want to be CEO o a big corporation.

That doesnt mean I want to work 20

hours a day. Anecdotally, I want my

picture in the Wall Street Journal, one o

those little pencil drawings. And I dont

want to be there or the wrong reason.

I want to run a company in such a way

that people say, Gee, she really does a

great job.

That said, coming to Philadelphia,Pa.-based Tasty Baking Company was

certainly not what I had in mind when Igraduated rom Wharton, said Bayles,

who earned an undergraduate degree

rom Lehigh University and an MBA romWharton. Prior to joining Tasty Baking

Company, she was managing principalconsultant or IBM Business Consulting

Services, and beore that, held the sameposition or PwC Consulting (acquired by

IBM Consulting Services in 2002). Sheheld a variety o other consulting jobsbetween 1992 and 2001.

She took the Tasty Baking CIO job because

o her ondness or the city o Philadelphiaand or Tastykakes. They are an icon inPhiladelphia. I love

to eat, and I loveTastykakes. It was

also about makingmy mark. In 2003,

despite a loyal brandollowing, the TastyBaking Company

was in deep trou-ble, almost bank-

rupt, said Bayles. Icould toil away doing

what I was doing[at IBM], or I couldwork with a team o

people and turn a small company aroundand really bring that company back to lie.

Resuscitation was denitely needed. Thecompanya leading baker o snack cakes,pies, cookies, and donuts with close to

900 employees and sales o approximately$170 millionhad seen its operating margin

drop to -4.9% in 2002, down rom 7.9%in 2000. CEO Pizzi was quoted as saying

that Tasty Bakings system and process

resembled that o a 1975-ish compan

In addition to the need or a turnaround,Tasty Baking Company presented Bayle

with a huge challenge o a dierent kind.In November 2004, the company wentlive on a new, mySAP-based enterpris

resource planning (ERP) system thattied together all its core processes:

nance, logistics, production, sales anddistribution, plant maintenance, inventor

and warehouse management. It was aradical change in both IT inrastructure abusiness processes or the (then) 90-yea

old company.

Under this new system, veteranemployeesincluding many w

hadnt had much,i any, experience

with computerswere required

to use them onan hourly basis.Bayles headed up

the transition. Sheand her team had

aggressively vette

the technology,developing manu

or every unctionrole and training SAP power users in

each unctional area. But it wasnt enouto ully address the problems generated

by a technology-centric, company-wideprocess change.

It was a month o rough times, Baylessaid, recalling the early reports coming

about things not working, employees no

Raise our hand,

ladies and gentlemen,

because thats the

wa oure going to

get the opportunities

ou want.

6



understanding what they were supposed

to do and Tastykakes not getting out tothe eld. I tried to maintain my calm,

she said. These people were in a panic,too. I Im fipping out, all hell was going

to break loose. Bayles quickly gatheredher team to identiy problems andpossible solutions, and called in extra

help to support the workorce as it made

the transition to the new system.

Ater brieng the Tasty Bakings executivesta, Bayles and her team worked to

calm and ocus the company. We laidout the plan [explaining] how we were

going to address the problems, Baylessaid, adding that she emphasized, This

is not a one-day x. People were like,OK, maybe the world is not coming to anend. Cakes started coming o the line

and one by one, [employees] started toget it. They werent araid o the mouse.

They werent araid o the computer. It eltbetter. Then they got good at it. Now they

are antastic at it. Meanwhile, I wanted to

kill mysel, she joked.

Beyond the bottom line, the next

major challenge acing Bayles andthe Tasty Baking workorce is the

relocation o the companys Philadelphiaoperationscurrently housed in a

six-story manuacturing acility built in

1922to a new state-o-the-art bakeryand green corporate headquarters in

the Philadelphia Navy Yard, a commercialand industrial development center in

south Philadelphia. Construction isslated to begin in late 2008. Tasty BakingCompany expects the acility to be ully

operational in 2010. Transitioning to thenew acility will eliminate approximately

215 positions.

Bayles said that when she talks to TastyBaking employees about the relocation,

she tells them: Its going to be rough,but weve done this beore. I need

your help. And they are like, Yeah,

we can do it! That experience [the ITtransition] prepared us or this new

project. Ultimately, she noted, Theresno magic to business success. I

think its very simple: Treat people withrespect. Be good at what you want to d

Volunteer. Im very grateul or where

I have been able to get in my career. It

wasnt easy.

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Getting the Bu-in

The IT transition re-armed Bayles belie in the value o beinghonest and upront in business. When aced with problems,you gure out what they are, x them and x them ast, shesaid. In addition:

folloW your PassionX

Do what you love. Money is not the most important thing in

the world. I you ollow your passion, do what you love, themoney always, always ollows. Passion helps buoy a personthrough dicult or mundane times, she said, because youbelieve in the long-term goal at the end o the road.

alWays be the bestX

No matter what youre doingwhether its making copiesor checking page numbersalways do your best work.

Always exceed expectations. I youre antastic, its hardor people to not notice you. It also minimizes obstacles.She raised the question o whether women have to be betterthan men in order to progress. My answer is, It depends,she said, adding that she has experienced cultures,companies, and people or whom gender does not matter.

But I would be nave to say that I have never noticed asituation where that was the case. I youre the best, ittakes that away and makes it irrelevant.

alWays be niceX One should treat people how they want to be treated, Baylessaid. For you to understand that, you have to understandthe persons motivation [and] agenda. Be appreciative,she added. I always make sure I thank everybody or whatthey do, because without those people, I could be a ailure.

seeK helPX Seek help rom mentors, help rom networkingorganizations, peers, colleagues, said Bayles. A lot ogreat men and a lot o great women helped me achieve whI have achieved. I dont orget that. Seek help, and whenyou get to the point [that you can] give it back, do so.

continuously learn, imProve, and GroWX Its easy to all into your niche, nd something youre reall

good at, and keep doing it over and over and over, Baylesaid. I you ever want to move beyond that point, you havto stretch yoursel. Do something thats a little bit scary, anater a year it wont be scary any more.

taKe care of your PeoPleX Its not just about what you need rom them, said BaylesIts about actually caring about whats going on in theirlives, whats going on in their careers. Sometimes thatsin direct confict with what you need. You, as a leader,need to step back and think about whats better or theperson in question.

be a salesPersonX No matter what job you are doing, everybody is in salesand marketing. In her current role working with all thedierent departments within Tasty Baking Company, Isell my ideas. I sell things that may not be popular in thecompany. I sell insight. I sell strategies. Im selling me: Imcredible. You can trust me. I know what Im doing. Beingright isnt enough, she added. I you have the best solutiothe best idea, it does not matter, i people do not buy intoyour idea.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/audio/Article%201900.mp3



Citigroups Sallie Krawcheck Talks about Leadership, Ethics, &

How to Survive on Wall Streetsallie l. KraWchecK once told

an editor at Fortune magazine that goingto an all-girls school in Charleston, S.C.,

was tougher than surviving on WallStreet. I had the glasses, the braces, thecorrective shoes, she said in the Fortune

article. I was hal-Jewish, hal-Waspy. Icouldnt have been [more o an] outcast.

There was nothing they could do to me atSalomon Brothers in the 1980s that was

worse than the seventh grade.

Krawcheck more than survived her

middle school traumas, not to mentionWall Street. Every year or the past

several years, she has been namedone o Fortunes Most Powerul Womenin Business and is now chairman and

CEO o Citigroups Global WealthManagement division.

To be a leader, Krawcheck told students

during a Wharton Leadership Lecture,you have to have really thick skin, andin order to be successul you have to

learn to take rejection. (At the time o thelectureFall o 2006Krawcheck was

chie nancial ocer and head o strategyor Citigroup.) Plus, she added, there is

just no substitute or hard work, none.And you have to accept that people are

occasionally going to be mad at you, andthat you may have to zig when everyoneelse is zagging.

And one more thing: You cannotembarrass easily, she said. When you

do things that are dierent, people willtell you that you are crazy, you are wrong,

they will attack you, argue with you inmeetings, say things behind your back.

But I cannot be embarrassed any more. Iell on national TV, and my children have

it on TiVo and they love it. As I was goingdown, I was thinking, Oh dear, this is

going to be bad. But I went right back upand I didnt let it bother me or a second.

So you just have to say, Im out there,things are going to happen, and you

have to be ready or it.

But even more important is accepting the

act that leadership can be very lonely.Leadership is sometimes consensus-building, but leadership is very oten

making decisions and leading a groupto a place where they may or may not

want to go. I learned very quickly that youbetter be pretty darn comortable being

uncomortable. Leadership can be a veryuncomortable experience.

Wall Streets Mrs. Clean

Krawcheck traced her rise rom

investment banker and research analystto one o the most prestigious jobs on

Wall Street, sprinkling her lecture withsel-deprecating stories delivered with awisp o a Southern drawl.

She was unny: I hate those magazines

that say, You can do it all. I do not doit all. I do not. I work. I work, and then I

work. And i any o you are disillusionedand you want to be CFO and not workvery hard, Im sorry to give you the

bad news. Ive got my kids, Ive got myhusband. We dont go out. We do

not have those Saturday night datesthat everyone says they have. I didnt

exercise until six months ago [when] Iwas over 40. But you cant do it all. Ivemade joyul choices. Im thrilled to do

what I do and I couldnt love it any more,but it is all about hard work.

She was animated: She snapped herngers to drive home a point; she

whistled once to illustrate a story; shetapped on the podium (Touch wood)

while admitting that there is an elemeno luck to nding success in any caree

and that she is very superstitious. I keemy ngers crossed, I dont have a blackcat walk in ront o me, and I dont walk

under ladders.

And she was serious, particularly whenalluding to business maxims that helped

drive her eorts to restructure CitigroupSmith Barney equity research business the wake o a corporate scandal in 2002

or dealing honestly with todays eorts tboost her companys languishing stock

price and deliver earnings growth. I catell you, as CFO, the rst thing I say toolks who work in a nancial organizatio

the rst and most important thing isthat the numbers have to be right, said

Krawcheck. I can tell you personally thI have reported quarters that disappoint

the Street. It hurts...and it shouldnt. AsCFO, you should be able to wake up onthe morning o the earnings call and say

Hey, it is what it is. But you cant. Sowhat Ive done, personally, is Ive stopp

giving earning guidelines to the Street.

Krawchecks insistence on corporateethics, honest numbers, and solidresearch-based reporting has earned he

a reputation as Wall Streets Mrs. CleaHer photograph even once appeared

with the headline, The Last HonestAnalyst. This reputation started whenshe was a prestigious Morehead Schola

at the University o North Carolina. Ategraduating with a journalism degree,

she moved to New York and a job as



an investment banker with Salomon

Brothers. She didnt like it, so shewent to business school at Columbia

University to break out o investmentbanking, graduated during the recession,

couldnt nd a job, and went backto being an investment banker atDonaldson, Lukin & Jenrette. Ater a

year, she decided that she didnt want

to be an investment banker any more.Pointing to the audience, she added,

And I did not do what youre going todo: You are going to take your time,discuss the pros and cons o what to do

next, nd a new job. I got married, gotpregnant, and quit.

Krawcheck claims that being pregnant

and being home with a baby is whenmy business education started. Idiscovered pretty quickly that I am

really not a t mother, she said jokingly,although her humor didnt hide the point,

which is that Krawcheck achieved aclarity about her career path that ew

working mothers resolve so quickly. Myhusband and I decided I would be bettero i I went to work, she said. And

ater that, or me, it has never been aquestion.

Learning rom past mistakes, Krawcheckcareully thought out her next career

move. While she enjoyed the qualitative

work and adrenaline, rush o deadlinesthat characterized investment banking,she wanted to have time or her

amily and not be beholden to therhythms o a team. She decided tobe a research analyst, and in 1994,

she sent her resume out all over WallStreet. Everyone she applied to turned

her down. Krawcheck listed them at aast clipSalomon Brothers, Goldman

Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley,Smith Barney. Smith Barney rejected

me twice; they werent sure I got theletter so they sent it twice. What I quickly

learned is that in order to be successul,you have to learn to take rejection. You

cant give up. I got very thick skin. Theonly job I accepted is the only job I got.

A Training Ground for Leadership

She was hired to be a research analystat Sanord C. Bernstein, a research

boutique that did no investment bankingor underwriting. I have to tell you, I

loved this job, said Krawcheck. Sheknows that being a research analyst isa little out o style, a little 1990s, but

it is an unbelievable training groundor leadership. Why? Because being

a research analyst provides training inthe areas that Krawcheck considers

essential to being a good leader:

learn to WorK alone.X

The research analysts job is apretty singular responsibility, reallydepending on [ones sel] withoutgathering consensus rom a team.

be comfortable beinGX

uncomfortable.I you go out and recommend astock, and everyone says, Whata great stock, and you eel verycomortable and happy, most likelythat stock is not going anywhere.

Because i everyone likes it, everyonehas already bought it. When she wastalking to large mutual und managersabout why she liked XYZ stock, andthey told her they didnt like it, I hadthe opportunity to change minds.Leadership, to me, can be a veryuncomortable experience, goingsomeplace where people are notready to go. As a research analyst, Ihad years o practice in doing this.

accePt that you are notX

Perfect.

As a research analyst, you have theopportunity to be wrong a lot. Everyday, the market tells you i you areright or wrong. You learn pretty quickthat you must get over it. Makingmistakes is part o it. You use all parto your brain, you get negotiatingskills, and you are constantly learninrom the clients as well. Thats veryimportant.

develoP a healthy eGo.X Maybe we are not supposed totalk about this, but the only way youbecome a successul research analyis to have a healthy ego, revel inyour success and make a name oryoursel. Part o it is that i you wantto be successul, youve got to be outhere. Being a leader is not necessar

[about] shining a spotlight on yoursebut going into the spotlight whenits important to get your messageacross.

maintain the ability to looKX

forWard.You always think, as a successulresearch analyst, not about whathappened but about whats goingto happen. You develop a point oview that is not backward looking.You are always looking orward, you

execute, you communicate and you git done.

Ater a ew years at Bernstein, Krawchec

had become known as one o the most

infuential analysts in the nancial eld.

She was promoted to director o researc

It was a great learning experience. I

immediately grew an even thicker skin

because almost everyone in the research

department quit because they didnt wan

to work or me. Gee, you got here ater

did; youre too young; youre a woman; w

dont like you. How do you get back rom

something like that? Well, you recover,

you rebuild, you grow. Ater having a job

as an analyst where it was all about me,

learned very quickly that being the direct

o research was all about them, the othe

research analysts, and celebrating their

successes. Being a director o research

is a cross between being a teacher and

a psychiatrist. You have to completely

subjugate your ego.

Leadership is sometimes consensus-

building, but leadership is ver often making

decisions and leading a group to a place

where the ma or ma not want to go.



In 2002, Sandy Weill, ounder and head o

Citigroup, hired Krawcheck to be the CEOo Smith Barney (ormerly Salomon Smith

Barney), Citigroups stock research andretail brokerage operation that Krawcheck

the analyst had requently clashed with. Atthe time, the research unit was in crisis aterone o its superstar telecommunications

analysts was ound to be championing

stocks o companies that were headedtoward bankruptcy.

From this position, Krawcheck ashioned

another o her hard-earned leadership tips:Keep your mouth shut or the rst three

months. Take the opportunity to learn.And what I learned during that period o

crisis is that, rst, you should not overcommunicate. And second, you need tosimpliy, simpliy, simpliy. People want to

know where you are going to take us, howwe are going to get there, and whats in it

or me. Thats all they want to know. Theyreally cant see dierent shades o blue

or green.

Two years later, in November 2004, ater

successully restructuring the equityresearch business, Krawcheck wasnamed Citigroups CFO. I like to say

that Im the CFO, but I call mysel the

CF NO, said Krawcheck. BecauseI spend a lot o time saying no.Though Krawcheck says no quickly to

nancial deals that dont measure up,she suggests another approach when

it involves a career opportunity. Heradvice here is that when you are oere

something, dont say no. Go home, thabout it, and i you must say no, say n

the next day.

Krawchecks nal piece o advice: Lose

the arrogance, she said. Some o themost successul people I know are sma

They work hard, they have great insightand they know it. That really turns peop

o. So many great leaders are humbleWhen you get to your company and youstart working, no one will care or long

where you went to school or what yourGPA was. They are going to care what

you are doing then and there. I you arearrogant, i you make others eel not assmart as you are, it really puts people o

Take it home and eel pleased at home,

but at the oce, let your actions speakor you.

you have to accept

that people areoccasionall going to

be mad at ou, and

that ou ma have to

zig when everone

else is zagging.



The Feminine Touch:

Looking for

Talent Without

Distinguishing

Between GendersGradually, over the course of the 20th

century, many companies and governments around theworld developed a new perception o the role o womenin the workplace and universities. Little by little, many

women have risen to higher positions in academics,politics, and the proessions. These women are conde

that they can be more ecient than men. According toNuria Chinchilla, a proessor at IESE Business School

in Madrid, women are continuing to use their specialtalentstheir eminine genius and energyto transormsociety and modern companies during the 21st century

Chinchilla spoke during the second InternationalConerence on Women, Enterprise, Society in the

Twenty-rst Century, held at IESE in April 2006.

The conerence brought together leaders rom businessacademia, and politics, both rom Spain and othercountries. The participants launched a dialogue about

the challenges, achievements, and obstacles thatproessional women ace in their working environments

Several distinguished executives shared their experiencand viewpoints about how they have developed their

own careers and achieved proessional success. Theyalso discussed the obstacles that women ace inmanagement and the solutions that they have applied a

their companies.

According to Chinchilla, every woman must directly deawith dicult obstacles in order to achieve the ambitiono a good lie that ullls proessional goals and the roles

o mother, wie, and citizen. To achieve total integrationand harmony, they must move toward a new concept

o success that involves reedom and fexibility intheir corporate cultures as well as social conditions.



Governments always play a helpul role,

but women avor global policies thatassist and promote the total participation

o women in all aspects o lie, includingpolitics, business, and the amily.

Juan Jos Toribio, the proessor at IESEwho established the conerence, began

by noting that both entrepreneurs and

managers must maximize their potentialor humane and ethical behavior. AtIESE, we try to incorporate women intothe cloisters o academia. One o our

main challenges is to conront every sorto discrimination against women. We are

totally opposed to squandering emininebrain power.

Chinchilla, who has conducted two othese conerences during the past year,

said that the current century is a deningmoment or women. But i women are to

achieve success, men must [also] playa role. According to Chinchilla, women

have a much greater ambition than men,although to achieve success, bothgenders must work together. Chinchilla

recalled the words o Alvaro dOrs, aproessor at the University o Navarre

in Spain. In place o the revolutionarythreesome o liberty, equality, andraternity, dOrs oered responsibility,

legitimacy, and paternity. Chinchillanoted, No two people are alike. So

why not talk about diversity instead oequality? She emphasized that raternity

is a term that could reer to eithermaternity or paternity.

First Steps b the NigerianGovernment

Until 2003, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeriascurrent Minister o Finance, was vice

president o the World Bank. She is oneo only three women in the world to hold

that position. Her task now involvesreorganizing a country that has been

ranked the second most corrupt countryin the world, ater only Bangladesh. Hergoal is to guarantee that Nigerias huge oil

revenues (36 billion in 2005)which aremisspent by the countrys small eliteare

used or providing drinkable water,schools, and health care or Nigerias137 million people. Ibukun Awosika,

ounder o the Christian Missionary Fund,which provides support or missionaries

in Nigeria, said, Nowadays there are

a lot o women in strategic positions inthe Nigerian government, and they are

introducing a lot o changes. They arealso a source o inspiration or manyyoung women who are starting to emulate

the model created by these high-levelwomen, and are introducing changes or

the country. Awosika, a mother o three,

is also managing director o Soka ChairCentre Ltd. She added that women in high

positions in Nigeria got there throughhard work, not by being elected. She

issued a call or nding the reedom thatwe need so we know what to do; we have

a responsibility to ourselves and to oursociety.

Success in lie has to do with thebroadest meaning

o the word, saidJanne H. Matlary,

a proessor at theUniversity o Oslo,and a mother

o our. In herspeech, Matlary

said that powerand money arevery addictive.

She added thatbusiness leaders

are increasinglymotivated by

brands, notby products.Success should

be measured in terms o work that isullling to every individual. Matlary

supported the concept that when peopledemonstrate that they are responsible

parents, they change the way theyinteract with their employees. Politicaland social conditions do not avor

reconciliation between the demands othe amily and those o the workplace.

Nobody can measure how much is lost

when a woman works outside her home.Matlary urged people to recognize the

importance o work that involves noremuneration, such as taking care o the

children and the home.

Toward a New Paradigm

Another speaker at the conerence

was Chong Siak Ching, who has beenpresident and CEO o Ascendas sinceJanuary 2001. Ascendas is the leading

provider o business space in Asia, with

a presence in 10 countries. Siak is amember o the Asia Pacic Economic

Collaboration Business Advisory Group(ABAC), and she advises governments

about how to improve economicconditions or women in Asia.

In Malaysia, women are undervalued

but it is very encouraging to think thatlittle by little the situation is changing.In Singapore, as well, leaders are veryauthoritarian. They do not react, they are

araid o risks, and they dont take criticiswell because almost all o the leaders are

men. Siak argued that women are ready conront these complexities. We women

are creating a new paradigm. We have amore holistic vision, which makes us mo

prepared to be leaders; we dont have to

be just like men.

However, many women give up their

business careers because it seemsimpossible or them to pursue both their

personal and proessional goals. As aresult, many talented people are lost

along the road. At IBM, every workerwas asked what was needed to create

the perect working environment. Wewant to emphasize a business culturethat is more ocused on getting results

than on how many hours are spent atthe oce, said Amparo Moraleda, thewoman who became president o IBMs

Iberian operations in July 2001. The oldculture still believes that those people w

spend more time in the oce are morecommitted [to their work]. The secret o

successul head hunting is to know hoto go beyond the generic to the specic;



to put a rst name and a last name

on an idea, and expose employees todierent challenges that provide you with

assurances that they can develop.

To sustain its corps o leadership, acompany must be able to recognize,attract, and keep talented women, added

Moraleda. For her and her company, the

greatest asset o any company is thewealth o knowledge o the proessionalswho comprise it. IBM tries to takeadvantage o everyones skills. To that

end, IBM has developed procedures oracilitating the promotion and development

o women. Promoting diversity is abasic component in innovation, and in

creating a competitive advantage, saidMoraleda, noting that people are the keyto success in any organization, especially

those companies in which innovation,creativity, and/or customer service play

an important role. Moraleda argued thatan intelligent enterprise should not skimp

when it comes to preparing its corps outure leaders. Increasingly, the processo incorporating women into proessional

lie is becoming more proactive. Were onan unstoppable course toward achieving

reconciliation between amily lie and work.

True Talent Makes No DistinctionBetween Genders

Establishing a culture in which there is a

healthy balance between work and amilyis the main goal o Jaime Aguirre, humanresources director o Ferrovial, the Spanish

construction company. Talent doesnot distinguish between genders, said

Aguirre, a ather o ve. He agreed thattodays employees become much moreproductive when they manage to reconcile

their amily lie with their work schedule.Three years ago, Ferrovial established a

code o proessional ethics, which wentinto eect this year. We are evaluating the

productivity o our employees. Amongthe eatures o this plan are early workinghours at the oce, intensive workdays

that t into school schedules, permissionor breast eeding, and assistance or

disabled employees.

Construction is a hard sector or women toenter. At least thats what people thoughtuntil recently. According to Raael Montes,

human resources director at Acciona,the ourth-largest construction company

in Spain, the most important thing is to

change the mentality o males. Whenyou have a responsibility but you donthelp out, you should be doing something.

Males need to be conscientious aboutsharing all the housework with women.

He added that a lack o education has

created a culture that doesnt avorintegration o men and women. He argued

that everyone has a responsibility to ndhis or her proper role in society. That

would contribute to changing the malementality so that women can develop oursociety by using their talents.

According to Macarena Cassinello,

Nissans General Manager in Europe,the value o a company increases when

it guarantees equality between theheadcount o employees by gender inthose markets we are involved in. The

automobile world is a sector managed anddirected almost exclusively by men, she

added. We cannot compromise qualitybut i emale candidates apply, we canhire them i they have the right skills,

Cassinello said. Nissan is pursuing anaggressive policy o improving the position

o women, and the company has alreadymade strides in improving interpersonal

relations. Labor unions have more power.Clearly, women have the attitude thatthey will permanently improve the working

environment, she added.

In Search of Personal Equilibrium

Success in lie is not about achieving your

goals in only one area o your lie andsacricing everything else. Knowing thatthere is a balance permits me to continue

to contribute value, and to eel good aboutevery aspect o my lie, explained Maria

del Mar Ares, a partner at Ernst & Youngin Spain. She added that true successmeans achieving a lie with value; its

not about the external actors that peoplenormally identiy with success. The

economy is losing a signicant amount o

value because many emale proessionawith experienced positions have a hard

time reconciling their working lie withtheir personal lie, she said, noting that itcosts 1.5 times as much to replace a go

proessional employee as it does to reta

one. Retaining women with talent will saa great deal o money and contribute a

great deal o value to companies.

In the uture, women will be the rawmaterial or companies to mine or great

talent because it is a act that there isa shortage o qualied personnel, saiddel Mar Ares. Traditionally, many women

who are approaching the age o 30 andbecoming mothers reconsider their

careers and decide to make a change.They think that the responsibilities o the

jobs are not compatible with their private

lives. However, the new generation o thetwenty-rst century has a very dierent

mentality than the dominant viewpoint o10 or 20 years ago.

More and more, other actors arebecoming the key to attracting and

retaining people in companiessuchaspects as the quality o lie or both me

and women, added del Mar Ares. Mostpeople think that there is no discriminatio

when it comes to oering promotions tohigher positions. It is a matter o personachoice. A womans career can come to

a screeching halt i she cannot manage

to reconcile both roles. Nevertheless,the latest data shows that most womenin Spain who have achieved managerialpositions and partnerships are also

married and have children. In Spain, ouout o our ten newly promoted partners

have been women, and three o thosewomen were expecting their second

child, del Mar Ares noted.

More and more, other factors are becomingthe ke to attracting and retaining people in

companiessuch aspects as the qualit of life

for both men and women.



For Estee Lauders Thia Breen, a Successful Career Is Made Up o

People, Passion, and Performancein her Keynote address at the

28th Annual Wharton Women in BusinessConerence in Philadelphia, Thia Breen,

president o Estee Lauder Americas andhead o Global Business Development,cited three actors that have elevated her

to one o the most powerul positionsin the American retail market: people,

passion, and perormance.

The theme o the event was Business &Beyond: Forging Our Own Paths in Careerand in Lie. The daughter o a small-town

druggist in Benson, Minn., Breen knowsquite a bit about orging a career. I guess

I have always had retail in my blood, shesaid. Im still selling cosmetics and mybrother runs the drug store back home.

The turning point in her own career came

relatively early, she noted. That was theday I learned I was about to be red, or, let

me correct thatalmost red.

As a young graduate o the University

o Minnesota, Breen had gone to workor Marshall Fields, the retail chain, in

Minnesota. Work was her only option then.I had borrowed money o my grandather

to buy a car, she said, and I was acingcar payments, plus paying him back. I

really needed a job. The only opening inthe store was in the toy department. Breentook it. It was a two-person department,

me and the woman I worked or. Icounted stock, I transerred stock, and Iordered stock. It was hard work and very

physical work. When the trucks came in,I received the stockwhich is the same

thing as unloading it.

Breen said she made the most o thatopportunity. Ater about six months,

our department was the best-perormingunit in the store, and I wanted some

recognition. The woman I worked ornever had much to say, so I talked to

the manager and asked him about apromotion. But Breen was shot down.

Nobody gets promoted out o thatdepartment, he told me. The womanyou work or just doesnt do promotions.

Ever. That was bad enough, Breen saidbut then he added, I think youre going tobe red, anyway.

Breen was stunned and asked him why,

noting that the departments numbers hadgone up. His response: The women in

the regional oce just dont like you. Thedecision has been made.

The incident taught her a critical lesson.That was the moment I started to

understand: I am totally responsible or myown success. Up until that point, I kept

expectingbelievingthat there wouldalways be someone else there to [takecharge o my career]. I also learned that it

is entirely up to you, and you alone, to askor what you need.

Shortly ater that, as she was preparingto leave, the store manager asked Breen

what she knew about cosmetics. Theanswer was, Not much. But I wasnt

going to tell him that. So, instead, Isaid something like, I know I can learn

everything I have to know in threemonths.

And that was the real beginning o Breenscareer.

There will be times when lie seemsunair, she told her audience, but

navigating those times will be the most

important thing you can do.

Bleeding Clinique Green

Continuing her career in cosmetics soon

meant relocating to Los Angeles, Cali., aa Clinique account executive or The Est

Lauder Companies. My blood was abouto turn Clinique green, Breen noted.

It was 1977, and she was immediatelytaken with her new assignment: organizia sales team to begin selling the newly

introduced Clinique cosmetics productline in a territory o 25 stores. I saw all

these women walking around in long whcoats; they seemed to be so special and

so apart rom the rest o the stores. I realoved that idea.

She relished the challenge o puttingtogether what she calls the high-

perormance team. I you can achievethat, you can achieve anything; thats thepeople part o the ormula, she said.

The rest ollows rom the team-buildingThe passion or what you are doing has

to be there, o course, and the team giveit an outlet. Put those together, and you

can turn it into high perormance.

This was where Breen also learned howto manage. In order to manage well,she noted, you must have a rm base o

account knowledge and service skills.But her experience in the pharmacy and

the department store, stocking toys, hadalready given her a ormidable array oservice skills.

Thats hardly where it ends, though,

Breen said. You develop the ability tomanage by giving the people who work



or you honest, direct eedback and letting

them know what theyre doing right andwhat needs improvement. Thats the best

thing you can do or them. How well youwork with your people will make or break

your career. And, i you are charged withdeveloping a high-perormance team,learning how to let someone go with

dignity is a very important part o it. I

became acutely aware o this because Ihadnt been shown [such consideration]back in Minnesota. I was determinednever to make another person go through

that.

Through Breens and her teams eorts,Clinique became the top perormer or

Estee Lauder in Caliornia. But a newlaunch was just around the corner: By1985, Breen would get a promotion to

national sales manager as a membero the ounding team or Origins. The

Origins line was launched in departmentstores next to Clinique. It was aimed at

the customer who had to be the rst oneon her block to have something new inthe prestige beauty and repair cosmetics

line. The quality was certainly there. But,putting it right next to Clinique, which

had become the number-one cosmeticsproduct in American department stores,was not the way to do it.

Breen elt that the team had gotten away

rom its core ocus, which she describedas what we do besthelping customers

get great skin through great productsand great service. Clinique and Originswere ghting each other. That kind o

competition can be great or business

and energizing, Breen said, but what wegured out was that to succeed, Origins

also had to have that store-within-a-store concept that had worked so well

or Clinique. It needed a completely newbusiness model. It couldnt be sitting there

next to Clinique. Thats the ascination oretail. The ideal business model, it turned

out, would be to launch a line o separate,stand-alone stores, just or Origins.

By 2001, with the learning curve o the

Origins experience behind her, Breen hadbecome a major orce in the cosmeticsindustry. She was now senior vice

president, general manager, Clinique NorthAmerica, and her grasp o the market

was rm. Our customer has, collectively,$2 trillion to spend, and she still shops

in a department store. She still buys ourproducts because she knows theyre orher. The Lauder brand is the more mature

brand. The Baby Boomers trust us.

Personally, Breen was enjoying recognitionas never beore. She had been one o

the rst top-level executives to championinnovations like job-sharing, and heremphasis on intense team-building had

become an industry role model and

mantra.

Taking Risks

Despite her success with Estee Lauder,Breen made an unexpected switch backto department stores in 2002, when she

joined the Federated MerchandisingGroup (Macys and others) as senior vice

president o cosmetics and ragrances.I took the risk, Breen said. In our

category, 8,000 new products werelaunched last year alone, and most othem end up in department stores. At

either end o cosmetics, manuacturingor retail, the business is still all about

possibilities and great partnerships. AndI include partnerships inside and outside

the company. Change in any position

is broadening. I was convinced that Iwould spend the rest o my career, very

happy and still learning, at Federated.

The rest o Breens career turned out

to have a shel lie o only three years. In2005, she was lured back to Estee Lauder.

I was a tough sell this time, she said.

But, sold she was, and she re-upped witthe cosmetics behemoth as presidento Estee Lauder Americas. Her recent

promotion, in which she now oversees ao Lauders global development as well,

turned out to be a career capstone.

Breen is the rst to admit that earlier in h

career she was the essence o all workand no balance. And, that was a proble

You have to be able to evaluate yourwork habits and ask yoursel why you ar

working all the time, i you are. That isnta good thing. For Breen, work no longe

spills over into seven days, although hertravel schedule would exhaust a secretao state. Dubai, Japan, Korea, Belgium,

Paris, London, some other Asian nationsand Canada; thats about six weeks

worth. At this point, San Francisco seemlike a bus ride.

I had not taken the time to give backto the community, and I made sure I

changed that, too, she said. This givingback includes Breens chairmanship o th

Mothers Day Council, which, along withthe Fathers Day Council, is dedicated topublicizing the months o May and June

a time to honor mothers and athers. Sheis also an active board member o the Sk

Cancer Foundation and Fashion GroupInternational, among others.

And, as the busy new architect o Laudeglobal expansion, Breen has some very

denite ideas. Its no longer enough justto be a Western company, she said.

That might have worked even as recentas ve or six years ago. Not now. Localcompetition, as long as it oers quality

products, is pushing our industry harderand harder. The competition tends to be

boutique and somewhat localized. Wereally have to get rid o that one-size-

ts-all approach in cosmetics. Thats

especially true in Asia, where the potentimarket is so big and so promising.

She added: But, basics are still basics.

Thats product quality, targeted messageidentiying and listening to your core

customers, and staying tuned to what thwant. Its still about protecting your branequity through strategic decisions and

building teams and partnerships.

you develop the abilit to manage b giving

the people who work for ou honest, direct

feedback. How well ou work with our

people will make or break our career.


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