Stuti Jalan recounts her extraordinary experience of rubbing shoulders with the high and the mighty at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, and came back bowled over by the humility of the high-voltage personalities.
I had a pre-conceived notion that Fortune Most Powerful Women (MPW) Summit was going to be an amazing experience for me. I arrived in Los Angeles on October 2 and reached Ritz Carlton at Laguna Niguel after an hour’s drive.
I was all charged up to see some of the leading personalities like Warren Buffet, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook), Pattie Sellers (Fortune), Susan Chambers (WalMart), Molly Ashby ( Solera Capital), (Sherrie Rollins Westin (Sesame Street), Arianna Huffington, Indra Nooyi, Billi Jean King, Susan Lynn, Marissa Mayer (Google), Tyra Banks, et al. The hotel on a cliff faced the Pacific Ocean. I could see the action at the hotel’s ball room for the Fortune MPW, and there was high octane energy all around me. I slept early and was geared up for the next day.
All excited, I reached the solution desk at 9.00 am for the very first session on billion dollars babies: sparking corporate innovation which had Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Google; Christine Day, Chief Executive Officer, Lululemon Athletic and Stephanie Mehta was the moderator. The session turned out to be inspiring for me. Mayer said 20% of time should be dedicated to new ideas. She explained that Google focuses on the licence to be creative (20% time) and an open information culture for employees to organise themselves.
Her emphasis was that at Google “we believe it’s totally fine to fail. You just have to fail fast. In Google brainstorm meetings, they focus 70% of the time on core ideas, 20% on related stuff, and 10% on far-flung ones to inspire creative thinking”.
In the evening, there was more in store as we had a summit newcomer meet and greet by the gazebo. Once the summit winded up we proceeded for a sit-down dinner and that’s when I saw Buffet up, close and personal. As luck would have it, he was sitting on a table right next to me. Talking to him was the most memorable moment of the summit for me. Every woman in the room wanted a photograph with him. He showed me his wallet and I was amazed by his humility.
Interacting with stalwarts from diverse industries was a great learning experience for me. What make their accomplishments even more significant is their ceaseless commitment to corporate philanthropy and social responsibility.
Rosanne Cash regaled us with some peppy numbers.
Day 2 started with breakfast at 7.00 am, followed by a session on building your personal platform: asserting your power and skill outside the corner office.
The session was preceded by a talk, where the participants included Debra Lee, chairman and CEO, BET Networks; Member, President’s Management Advisory Board, Pat Woertz, Chairman, CEO, and President, Archer Daniels Midland Co.; Member, The President’s Export Council, and the Moderator: Jennifer Reingold, Senior Editor, Fortune.
The Goldman Sachs-Fortune Global Women Leaders award was given to María Gabriela Hoch, Founder and Managing Director, MGH Communication Management, Argentina and Rasha Lofty, Owner and Managing Director, AFNAN Co. for Heritages & Traditional Arts, Egypt.
Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, was the presenter. He played a key role during the financial meltdown. The Hollywood film, Too Good Too Fail, deals with the same subject.
Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, shared his insights with the audience.
He announced that Berkshire Hathaway’s five largest businesses would set records for earnings. “It was my boyhood dream I wanted a tax named after me. Since ’92 the average income of richest people has gone from $40-odd mil to $220 million. Yet, tax rate has fallen for the rich,” he said.
Actor Glenn Close introduced herself as Patty Hewes, the character she plays in Damages. On her new film, Close says the most interesting aspect is what face people (women) choose to put up with to survive. She felt that “women need their own money to have power”.
The session, by Darpa “am your math and science”, was for GenNext girls, who were inspired to generate intellectual capital that can drive the economic engine.
Billie Jean King, co-founder, World Team Tennis and a tennis icon conducted the next session. I have been a huge admirer of King. She spoke about your health: facing the big challenges, along with Charlene Begley, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, General Electric Co.; President and CEO, GE Home and Business Solutions.
When Susan Lyne, Chairman, Gilt Groupe, who also happens to be on the cover of Fortune magazine, addressed the summit everyone was in awe of her. “As women we tend to wait until we’re actually invited to the party,” she said. I managed a quick chat with her shortly after her session on the luxury market.
In the session, entrepreneurs: building from the ground up, Tyra Banks, chairwoman and CEO, Bankable Enterprises, was interesting and it was a trip down memory lane for me.
“I kind of like the wind in my face. If it wasn’t there, I don’t know if I would push as hard,” Banks said. Rosanne Cash talked about creativity, building on her famous father’s legacy and her addiction to Twitter. She had brain surgery four years ago. After she recovered, she says music became deeper, richer for her. While Hewlett-Packard’s new CEO Meg Whitman, who was on seventh day into her job, spoke about taking big risks in her career. Yet her biggest challenge is turning around America’s 10th largest company. Whitman says she’s in far better shape today to give a shot for the office of governor of California than before. “Politics is a blood sport, and it is personal,” she says.
Sheryl Sandberg spoke about the evolution of Facebook and her own career. My visit to her office later in the week at Palo Alto was an exhilarating experience. When she started talking about being a woman in business she was told by some that it would ruin her career. She added “Worry about growth, not career trajectory”. Gloria Steinem, writer- lecturer-editor-feminist-activist and co-founder of Women’s Media Center said, “You can’t have democracy without feminism”. Another interesting session was conducted by Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, AOL Huffington Post Media Group and her Interviewer: Chelsea Handler, bestselling author, talk show host and actor. Huffington said, “I love crying, almost as much as I love sleeping.” In fact, she has installed two nap rooms in her office. Their session revolved around sex, sleep, and power.
A gourmet barbecue was organized where guest chefs like Siapin Chutima, Lotus of Siam, Las Vegas, NV, Zov Karamardian, Zov’s Bistro, Tustin, CA, Dahlia Narvaez, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles, CA, Nicole Plue, Cyrus, Healdsburg, CA, Maricel Presilla,
Cucharamama, Hoboken, NJ, Andrea Reusing, Lantern Restaurant, Chapel
Hill, NC, Holly Smith, Café Juanita, Seattle, WA and Celina Tio, Julian,
Kansas City, MO, were in attendance.
Tracy Anderson, celebrity trainer and founder of Tracy Anderson Method, took care of the fitness.
Day 3 started with shaking up the board room: can quotas work?
Trina Gordon, President and CEO, Boyden World Corp.; Baroness Mary
Goudie, Member, House of Lords, U.K., Kristin Skogen Lund, Executive
Vice President and Head, Nordic Region, Telenor ASA, were part of the elite panel.
Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo spoke about “Conscious
Capitalism” and cited a speech by Whole Foods’ (WFM) John Mackey as an inspiration. “If we don’t practice capitalism with a conscience, we are doing the world a disservice,” she said, with a “plea to everyone who is a CEO.”
Indra was happy to know that I was from India. We discussed the company’s gradual shift toward foods that are “good for you” rather than simply “fun for you”.
The session winded up with Barbara Bush, CEO and Co-founder, Global Health Corps and on women, power, humor, and making it big by Chelsea Handler. Pattie Sellers, editor at large and Co-chair of MPW summit conducted the interview. “It’s about being really savvy, about making smart decisions, and about making original decisions” said Chelsea.
