Employee ROI
Executive Symposium for Women Business Leaders
Jan 26, 2005
Alliance Capital, NY
 The Executive Symposium for Women Business Leaders was a great event. It started off with a generous breakfast with all of the fixings. The breakfast was followed by a round of informal peer networking, during which women business leaders from every type of business conceivable exchanged business cards, and got to know each other.
The master of ceremonies was Ms. Barbara Adolf, the Principal and Senior Managing Director of EmployeeROI, who’s extenstive background includes leadership positions at Buck Consultants, Towers Perrin and Kwasha Lipton. Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, not-for-profit organizations and government agencies in a wide range of fields, clients including Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, Brookstone, Business Roundtable, DesGrippes Gobe, Faith & Values Media, Discover Financial Services, and many, many more. Prior to introducing the keynote speaker, Ms. Patricia Morrison, Ms. Adolf spoke about how far women have come in terms of corporate leadership. She quoted an article from the New York Times as stating that Washington State is challenging legislation that it is illegal to bring a woman’s virtue into question while in public. Women are rapidly becoming an essential part of the way Corporate America does business.
Ms. Adolf proceeded to introduce the first speaker, Ms. Gail Blanke, who gave everyone an overview of the mission strategy of the symposium, which was, simply stated, “The right women show up.” She said that each of the women attending the symposium were those that were meant for each other, commenting on the way that, in today’s world, women are much more now than ever supportive of each other—in a more powerful way. She briefly reminisced about a woman she had met—and ended up voicing her opinion on TV about President Bush’s inaugural address. She summed it up by saying “See who’s there for you—someone who you did not anticipate.”
Ms. Blanke then introduced the keynote speaker, Ms. Patricia Morrison. Ms. Morrison has a most impressive background. Currently, she is the Chief Information Officer of Office Depot, Inc., a position which she had held since 2002. Her responsibilities including overseeing and managing of Office Depot’s global information systems, which includes its $3.5B e-commerce platform. They include responsibility for the worldwide development and support of applications for merchandising, marketing, sales, e-business, finance and support of applications for merchandising, marketing, sales, e-business, finance, human resource and supply chain business functions. Ms. Morrison started off her speech by stating that she first thought the business of “paper and pencils” would be fairly simple, but then realized that it is the most complex type of business she has ever dealt with. She pointed out that Office Depot has a $25B business presence in Europe, and that she, personally, oversees the work of 800 people. She has a huge asset base of resources at her disposal. It has been an absolute pleasure for her to see the far greater commitment by Office Depot to women, including shorter floor displays, where women can actually see the tops of them. She commented that she spends as much time as possible managing time and building her team.
Ms. Morrison spoke about enterprise risk management, stressing that it is an issue which demands the attention of not just the audit committee, but the entire board.
She spoke about capital investment and appropriating priorities—how employees’ needs must be addressed carefully, assessing needs that are not only genuine, but which can feasibly be furnished on a global (company-wide) basis. In her speech, she pointed out that accountability is extremely important, and that it must be aligned with the objectives of the company. Ms. Morrison also spoke about privacy laws, referring to how strict they’ve become—one such law states that, if a hard copy of a client’s information has been left out, Office Depot must then inform the customer that their private information has been compromised. She couldn’t stress enough how the way a business handles its clients’ personal information is crucial to that company’s reputation. She also spoke on a number of issues like piracy and licensing.
The next speaker was Pat Drago, who spoke about leadership values and practices that improve profit by growing grass roots participation and contribution. Ms. Drago is the founder of Drago Consulting, which she founded to capitalize on her 2 decades of Insurance Industry Leadership experience, including her experience as CEO of Broadspire Services, CEO of NATLSCO, Executive Vice President of Kemper Se4rvices, and Presxident of Crum & Forster Insurance. Drago Consulting is an advisory and consulting practice, focusing on operational effectiveness, education and training and insurance claim executive coaching and development.
Other respected businesswomen and executives that were on hand included Maria Hernandez, Founder and President of Madrinas; Nancy Ploeger, President of Manhattan Chamber of Commerce; Betty Spence, Ph.,D, President of National Association of Female Executives; Jennifer Armstrong, President of New York Women’s Agenda; Joyce Freeling, Founder of Trendsetters Network; Ina Green, Executive Director of Women’s American ORT; Carolyn Leighton, CEO, Chairman and Founder of Women in Technology, International; and Ed Bungart, Vice President of World-Wide Business Centres. This was a great event. Anyone who would like more information regarding EmployeeROI may visit their website, at www.EmployeeROI.com.
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