Lessons from the top Harriet Green

Harriet Green, chief executive of Premier Farnell, says: “One of the first people who ever worked for me left, saying ‘Harriet it’s burning me out. You’re too much.’ I learnt that I needed to adapt and that people go at the pace that is comfortable for them.

“I became a managing director at 29 and have run businesses on four different continents. As an ice hockey coach once said, ‘100 per cent of the shots that you don’t take won’t go in’. Women can lack the esteem to take stretch assignments. You have to step up to lead when you can see that you might be the best person to do it.

“If you're offered an overseas assignment, take it. Different experiences are a good way to climb the ladder. For me, learning has always been an inspiration.

Chance to reach for the stars

Women are seeking choice, challenge and change, says Glenda Stone

Background

• Cast the net far and wide

• Work and play in harmony

• Even top jobs can be flexible for everyone

• Guided path to a higher rank

Background

• Reaching out to the world

• A foot in every continent

• More than one of the boys

• A powerhouse of enthusiasm

“When you stop learning you stop the progression of your career. For a very long time the biggest obstacle was my age. People were always saying ‘you need more experience’. Now I’m reaching the age where I’d love people to say ‘you’re too young’.

“I want to be surrounded by the best people, regardless of age, sex, colour. Forty per cent of employees are women, 50 per cent of my direct reports are women. That approach to diversity has manifested itself in every business I’ve run.”

Career Snapshot Indra Nooyi

What were your ambitions when you were a child? I grew up with my parents telling me that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. This encouragement has shaped my approach in all I've done.

How did you set about achieving them? With determination and an eye to the future. At 23, I asked my parents if I could apply to American universities. They did not want me to go but said, “If you get in with a 100 per cent scholarship, we can talk about it”. So I applied to Yale, which gave me a very good support package, so I had something to negotiate with my parents.

What are you most proud of? The privilege of leading a company that is a force for good. I am very proud of what we have achieved in bringing together what is good for business and good for society. What was the most significant event in your career? Becoming chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.

Who had the biggest influence on you? No one person. My mother taught me to be my whole self, whether at work or at home. My father taught me to always assume positive intent in others. And my life would be vastly different, for the worse, but for the support and encouragement of my husband.

What has been your biggest challenge? Running a $40 billion global company is a privilege and a responsibility. Balancing the competing priorities of work and home is always a challenge.

What are the secrets of your success? I don't look at it as success for me, but rather what I strive to do as CEO for the company, which is to bring a combination of an “outside in” approach to the business, experiential learning, bold moves, bold decisions, framing it for the organisation and sticking to it.

What advice would you give to women in the work place? Focus wholeheartedly on what is at hand. When at work, I focus 100 per cent on being a CEO; when at home, I focus 100 per cent on my family.

What makes PepsiCo a place where women want to work? Diversity and inclusion is woven into the fabric of our company. This focus comes from our drive to create a culture that not only provides incentives such as flexible work but an environment where people can combine a wonderful can-do spirit with a must-do sense of responsibility.

Opinion Lynda Gratton

Outspoken feminists do not figure large these days, so it is no surprise perhaps that many of the young women I speak to imagine the glass ceiling has been shattered.

Such perceptions are understandable. They are surrounded by women when they join companies – in many sectors women represent more than half the graduate intake. But perhaps what they do not see so clearly is what happens at more senior levels.

Women represent about 30 per cent of managers, and less than 15 per cent of senior executives in most companies. This represents an astonishing loss of talent at a time when companies are crying out for new ideas. It also means that powerful women's voices are not heard in corporate life.

What is to be done? Women must understand that the escalator they are on will take them to a junior position – but may not take them any further. So they need to be really savvy about demanding leadership development. Men get to the top by seeking out powerful mentors, demanding overseas assignments, attending executive programmes of top business schools and making sure they are in business critical roles. Women need to do the same.

Yet we all know incredibly powerful and potentially successful women who still fail to make it. So it is not just about women being savvy. It is also about what companies are prepared to do. If they continue to do little, then I believe the 15 per cent senior executive figure will be as true for today's bright women graduates as it was for their mothers.

Companies must be courageous about taking action. If it means creating targets for the proportion of women in senior positions, then do it. If it means becoming transparent about bonus payments, then do it. If it means forcing executives to nominate women for half the top development programmes, then do it. Unless executives act, then women will continue to hold 15 per cent of senior positions, will still be paid 20 per cent less and receive an astonishing 10 per cent of the bonuses paid to male colleagues. They will also continue to make up less than 20 per cent of the senior programmes at Harvard or London Business School.

And the role of government? Clearly to follow the lead of Norway and Spain in setting a target for women to represent 50 per cent of nonexecutives.

Professor Lynda Gratton is the director of the Centre for Women in Business at London Business School

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