Diversity MBA Magazine – Managing Diversity, Executive Leadership Development, Diversity Jobs & Hiring

From his modest executive office, the Stillwater, MN-based corporate headquarters of CUB Foods Inc., Keith Wyche oversees the $3 billion SUPERVALU Inc. division. He is responsible for 69 stores and more than 8,000 employees.

Since January 2010, Wyche has been president and CEO of CUB, bringing his track record of success in customer acquisition, satisfaction and retention, along with his change management skills to the retail grocery industry”. Skills honed in the previous thirty years, helping to sustain divisions of some the nation’s largest corporations – including AT&T, IBM and Pitney Bowes, duirng a series of industry booms and transformations.

Wyche’s title puts him in a lofty and fairly exclusive echelon of African-American corporate executives. He’s one of the highest ranking executives in the country. And, his business experience throughout his career makes him a leader with a menu of abilities that don’t pigeonhole him to a specific industry. He also includes mentor, author and motivational speaker in his portfolio of accomplishments

The Cleveland native began his career after receiving his undergraduate degree from Cleveland State University. After the dismantling of the Bell telecommunications giant in the 1980s, and as cellular technology went viral in the ’90s – before “viral” was all the rage — Wyche was becoming known not only as a can-do but a go-to guy for weathering storms of industry change.

Wyche furthered his education with an MBA in systems technology from Baldwin Wallace College. His penchant for leading change came by default and several lemons-to-lemonade challenges. “Early in my career, many of the opportunities I got were things that weren’t working,” he recalls. “I got the worst territories handed to me and I’ve been in the worst business units. And when you go through a number of years of being given broken things to fix, you kind of create a talent for it. I didn’t set out 30 years ago to be this change-management leader; it’s just that I was given things that were broken that needed fixing. As a result, I built a reputation and a process for handling change.”

At the time, it seemed logical that Wyche’s career path would take him to a leadership role within a technology firm, emerging dot-com, or any of the buffet of top communications corporations. Instead, a grocery-store chain sought him out.

It’s safe to say that Wyche had little knowledge of the grocery industry, but, he explains, SUPERVALU wasn’t looking for someone who did. Rather, it was after a leader to help the corporation deal with the burgeoning competition and the diversity of its competitors. As growth, technology, and economics would have it, change had arrived at the front door of the grocery industry with the rise of such things as open to-the-public wholesale clubs and supercenters where discount  and big-box retailers began to offer groceries in addition to their normal non-food merchandise, creating one-stop-shopping markets. Hit with this onslaught, Wyche says, “SUPERVALU needed someone who had a change-management, customer-focus point of view. It wasn’t looking for someone to be a grocer; it had all the grocery knowledge in the world. I was not hired because of a grocery background; I was hired for a change management background.”.

Today, CUB. captures one-third of the Minneapolis/St. Paul market share, with Target and Walmart as two of its main competitors. There are 58 CUB Foods stores in the market.

It didn’t matter whether the change was from mainframe to PC, traditional wires to fiber optics and cellular technology, or a leap to the grocery industry.Wyche found some commutable fundamentals. “Change management is the process whereby a company has to transform itself because of factors either inside or outside the industry,” he says. “It’s really the process of changing and transforming the company from what it was to what it needs to be to compete in this new reality.”

In many ways, his previous experience of focus on client retention became interchangeable with his customer retention duties at CUB. Taking the helm of a business in an industry he hadn’t previously worked in, Wyche said part of getting acclimated and establishing his leadership presence meant turning to any company’s most prized possession: its human capital. He realized that much of the success of doing that lay in connecting with the 8,000 employees he would lead and the customer base he was responsible for retaining and growing.

“At the end of the day, at my level, it was more about my ability as a leader, as opposed to having hands-on grocery experience.” he says. “I did roll up my sleeves. I worked in the bakery department, I worked in the produce department, and I’ve been a cashier, because I wanted to understand what they felt,”

For the man whose life lessons included his father telling him as a boy, “You have no excuse not to be successful,” Wyche found that to be successful as a leader meant helping to create new leaders. In fact, that process is how he defines leadership. “A corporate leader is someone who can take the resources of the company — the human capital and buildings – and bring it all together to get the most value out of that,” he notes. “I always say that the job of a leader, above all else, is to create other leaders and to get the best out of people.” In selecting the members of his team, he made sure he surrounded himself with “the best and the brightest.”

Wyche has heard the stories of racial and ethnic disparities in corporate leadership roles and has been fortunate enough to be on the positive side of the statistics. This, he says, inspires him to reach back and offer advice to others climbing the ladder, especially minorities.While he understands that some groups have one (sometimes two) up on other groups, he still adheres to the  “no excuses” philosophy. “From any level, the demands and qualities of leadership are the same,” he says, adding that, there can often be splinters and grease on the corporate and leadership ladder some minorities climb. And minority representation at the top is still an evolving event: in 1995 there were no African-American CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. Today, there are at least 11. “Many times, we didn’t have the role models growing up to help us navigate corporate America,” Wyche says. “As we’ve not been in leadership roles as long, the scrutiny can be a lot greater, the margin of error a lot slimmer. I feel an immense amount of pressure to be successful because we don’t have a lot of African-American leaders in the grocery industry. I’m measured on the same yardstick as my peers, but I think the reality of it is, when you’re a person of color, you do have the added challenge of making sure that you can’t fail.”

He gives thanks to his employer for adding to his success. “SUPERVALU has allowed me to be stretched in areas I’ve never been stretched in,” he says. “ It has given me an opportunity to learn a new industry, to reinvent myself, and that’s a big win for Keith Wyche.”

He also believes SUPERVALU scored a win, too: “It brought someone from the outside who has a unique view of the business, who looks at it from a customer-centric focus as opposed to a grocery-centric focus, someone who is not afraid to ask questions.”

Wyche says he learned early on that in managing your career, there are three things to keep a bird’s eye on: your performance, your exposure, and your perceptions. “Too often, people really only manage the performance piece and they don’t realize that the exposure and the perception are equally important because in this business, no one breaks through the glass ceiling by themselves,” he notes. “Someone on the other side has to see you, recognize you, and pull you through.”

Once he embraced that idea, Wyche says, “My career took off.” This was after

several frustrating career events in which he thought he should and would have been promoted, only to find that he wasn’t and wouldn’t be. A business associate showed him some of the errors of his professional ways; chief among them was not branding himself. “I had to have a brand so that people knew what to expect and what not to expect from me,” he says.

His brand is all over the pages of his book, Good Is Not Good Enough: And Other Unwritten Rules For Minority Professionals, and prominent on his speaking circuit. Most importantly, it has been a boon for his role at SUPERVALU. Even when he’s vacationing, Wyche says,  he’s thinking of ways to further lead his division.

“Good is the enemy of great,” he says. “If you focus on the good, you’ll miss out on the better. and you’ll never get to your best.”

Have you ever found yourself sitting in your office or cubicle wondering what your next career move will be, and if the path is clear to you? Your career has consisted of moves that someone else determined would be good for you and the company. Each time you took that promotion or moved your family to another part of the country, it was exciting; you felt accomplished and effective, but did you ever take the time to stop, reflect and ask yourself if it was right for you?

You’ve been with your organization or working with a group of clients for weeks, months, or years and you have had no issues. Everyone seems to respect your diversity and the skills you bring, but you have been in your same role for several years now. Have you assessed what’s next, or are you waiting for someone else to define that for you?

Work and life are wonderful and you’re feeling fantastic about your career. Senior leadership, based upon the most recent succession feedback, has selected you. Excitement abounds when it comes to your current assignment, which you know is high profile, as your sponsor has personally endorsed it. Above all, you have the knowledge, credentials, mentors, and support you need to move forward and up at a fast pace. Have you taken the time to assess what may be different and how it may impact you if your sponsor leaves or falls out of grace? Is your success making you too busy to nurture your network should the skills needed, direction of the organization, or your assignment unexpectedly change?

The company’s profits are down, leadership has changed, and the people  strategies are beginning to tighten, so you haven’t gotten that executive development you desire to hone your skills. You also find your total compensation hasn’t grown the way it has in the past, and, with the installation of relative ranking and the many other new requirements now in place, you’re feeling stagnant. The easy thing to do is to wait until it gets better, change happens, or someone taps you on the shoulder. Another option is to become proactive in assessing your situation to determine your next steps.

If you have found yourself in one of these scenarios, it’s time to get a life plan that puts you first, seizes the opportunity and freedom to make your own choices, and define your future for yourself.

When Your Organization’s Values Change and Yours Don’t

It’s time to change, but do you have a plan? The pace of change around us is great and often, the organizations we work with can become unfamiliar to us. We know that things around us have changed, but we aren’t willing or prepared to embrace the change or don’t know if it’s right for us. It’s time to take affirmative steps to do something different. Think about the pace of change within the White House during the past two years of President Obama’s administration. Not just the legislation and policy changes, but also the people changes. Today he is readying for his bid for re-election so he is mobilizing his network and re-allocating his resources to ensure success. This change has been thoughtfully orchestrated with each of the individuals accepting a presidential appointment knowing they need to come to work with a clear plan in mind, because when you accept a presidential appointment, you know it’s not permanent. Approaching your life’s work and career the same way, you will always be prepared for your next move. Executives who know that their values are no longer in alignment with their organization’s values should further evaluate their priorities. Coming to the realization they’re not being fulfilled within their current work placing them at a crossroads and place of decision. The first question to ask is, “Do you have a plan?”

Defining and Executing Your Plan

For years, people coming for mentoring or coaching would eventually get into a conversation about the length of their assignment; the fit or satisfaction. Reminding them that all assignments and employment are temporary was the first order. Make the best of where you are at the time, and build a plan to take all that you can away from your current role. A young woman asking for mentoring and support in getting through her yearly evaluation was unsure about her manager. She wanted to build a plan, but was concerned about how her manager would respond to this. If a manager doesn’t support one being proactive in controlling his or her career, he or she is working for someone who is insecure. A strong leader will appreciate that you are thinking about your skills and your next move whether that be up, inside, or outside of your organization.

Change Is Hard and Takes Courage

Not all change is good or bad for us individually, and not all should be embraced or thwarted. We need to know how to recognize impending change and evaluate its ultimate impact on us. Change is hard regardless of who or where you are, but is necessary to grow organizations, business, and people. Embracing change is inherent in diversity and inclusion. but more importantly, understanding, accepting, and leveraging difference. So how do you evaluate your current situation to ensure that you’re where you need to be? Have you asked yourself if your values are still aligned with where you are? Most companies espouse their commitment to diversity through their corporate values, but one must evaluate how those values show up within that organization through reputation, environment, and other implicit measures of success.

With the difficult economic challenges of organizations, many of us are being asked to do more than ever, and this leaves less time to plan. Don’t let this bog you down. Hasn’t your financial advisor told you to pay yourself first? This is no different. It’s time to be selfish by taking the time to assess your organization and your place in it to determine if its diversity values, based upon its actions and practices, are still aligned with yours. You can also use these steps to evaluate a new organization you’re considering joining, or validate the need to forge out on your own. Often, we just look at a great branded organization from the outside in because of its advertising or outward facing appeal to us. That’s not enough. You need to know what’s really going on within an organization so that you are not giving your talents to a firm is in conflict with your current goals and aspirations or, even worse, ultimately risking not being happy with your career change. The areas that are vital to address as they relate to you and your plan are:

• Performance Management and Feedback
• Recognition
• Diversity
• Inclusion
• WorkLife
• Succession Planning
• Talent Management and Development

What is the next chapter in your career, and are you ready to embrace it? You must be ready to take hold of your personal career and life plan, ensuring that you are in a place that respects who you are and the difference that you bring.

Image courtesy of White Painted Woman

This is the sixth post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Cynthia Hardy Young
President
Encompass Insurance

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

CY: I’ve developed organizational skills such as strategic agility, understanding of the marketplace and the competition, operational excellence, talent planning and employee development. I believe personal skills are equally important and provide balance. Listening to determine what are people really trying to say, analyzing, diagnosing, and problem solving, inspires leaders to lead and be well equipped to handle change.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

CY: Delivering greater insight into customer needs and buying behaviors, strong alignment between our business offering and our target market, and constant focus on innovation, improvement and operating efficiencies.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role? 

CY: In terms of international experience, I was an exchange student in Japan,  attended international law programs abroad, was part of industry delegation abroad to BRIC countries, and hired international companies to partner in providing business services as part of company operations. In terms of more general experience, the best preparation came from taking on roles in a variety of disciplines. This allowed me to work in various functional areas such as claims, product R&D, underwriting and pricing, and legal, and allowed me to handle various business challenges.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

CY: The biggest risk was moving from a legal career to a business career with emphasis on general management. This prepared me for the unexpected by helping me understand how to learn from the experts around me, setting a steep slope for learning and performing at the same time, building on active feedback mechanisms, and taking a flexible approach to challenges and issues.

This is the fifth post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Suri Surinder
Managing Vice President, Loss Mitigation, US Card Operations
Capital One

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

SS: Over the course of my career, and especially as a leader, I have found that there are three things I’ve relied on IQ (Intelligence Quotient), EQ (Emotional Quotient), and XQ (Execution Quotient). Developing IQ has enabled me to develop thought leadership by acquiring intellectual resources and expanding my competence. Leaders who are experts in their field or industry can bring that knowledge to bear in how they craft the vision and strategy for their teams. In each role I have had, I have taken the time to listen and learn, and build my body of knowledge in the industries I have worked. Leaders who command respect from their teams have built up breadth and depth of expertise, and they will always have an edge. Developing EQ has enabled me to build people leadership through cultivating relationships and demonstrating character. It is manifest in how you treat your employees, and results in the currency of trust. The way I have approached leadership has been to always be authentic, humble, balanced, and fair, and to stay true to who I am. Developing XQ leads to results leadership through the delivery of outstanding results and building capabilities such as motivating, inspiring, and executing. I have always believed that delivering results is a key part of who I am as a leader, and generates credibility. A good leader inspires his team to believe in the direction they are taking and motivates them to perform at high levels and to achieve great results.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

SS: On the thought leadership front, when times get tough, it’s very easy for leaders to become introspective. The right approach is to look outwards to your customers, competitors, and market. We must help our employees see the path and guide them using a clear vision, strategy, and communications. On many levels it’s also about leveraging good data and combining it with great leadership insight to see market opportunities others might miss On the people leadership front, it’s about attracting, retaining, and inspiring the best talent in a market that is very conducive to talent acquisition right now. You need to be able to create an environment that results in a great employee experience that enables employees to grow, flourish, and reach their full potential. On the results leadership front, companies need to deliver tangible and distinctive outcomes for customers and shareholders through superior customer experience and advocacy.  The companies that win are those that are able to truly connect with customers and deliver a differentiated product or service.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role?

SS: I’ve worked in telecommunications, consulting, healthcare, academia, and financial services. I’ve even worked as a cab driver in New York City. I think there are three distinct roles that have enhanced my career and made me a better leader. Strategy and analysis roles have required me to think through how to maximize value for the business, and identify hidden value pockets in the sea of market data, which has improved my thought leadership because of the market insight I’ve gained. Large-team management roles have required me to lead and interact with different people from different backgrounds, and influence them to act in a way that leverages their skills and talents the best and benefits the business. These types of roles have built my people leadership skills. P&L roles that come with accountability to deliver on clear revenue, expense, income, and customer satisfaction targets in a balanced, consistent fashion quarter after quarter have helped me develop results leadership skills.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

SS: I’ve had to develop and execute strategies that run counter to conventional wisdom, but exploit value pockets in the market based on rigorous analysis and judgment. You have to take a certain amount of calculated risk and go where no one has gone before. You may not know what you’ll find, but you’ll often be the first one to market. I have also taken people leadership risks.  I have had to step out of my comfort zone on a number of occasions and open up to my employees. I believe in being as authentic and genuine as possible and in general I think people really appreciate that. I’ve told stories of how I’ve failed and about what I’ve learned from the experience. Being vulnerable and open takes courage, but it pays dividends in your ability to connect with people and lead. I have also taken results leadership risks. I’ve stepped out into the unknown and signed up for seemingly unachievable goals. I love the challenge of doing what seems to be impossible. I’ve then had to dig deep and do everything I can to get my team to achieve the goals set. Getting your team energized in a positive way around audacious goals is what we’re paid to do as leaders.

This is the fourth post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Cedric D. Thurman
Senior Vice President
Jones Lang LaSalle

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

CT: I think the most important skills I have developed are my communications skills, the ability to create a vision people want to follow, and having a passion for what I do. My father used to tell me you have two ears and one mouth; listen twice as much as you talk. I think this taught me the importance of listening, which allows me to understand everyone’s perspective before making decisions. When people know they’re being heard, they feel they have a vested interest in the decision, which leads to the next skill I have developed. I believe as a leader your role is to get teams to work collaboratively to accomplish a goal. Creating a vision people want to follow can also mean influencing those you’re not responsible for to support the goal. If the vision isn’t clear or people feel it doesn’t address their interest, they won’t give 100% of their support. Listening to their needs, articulating what needs to be accomplished and why, as well as how it impacts everyone and meets their need,s allows one to be an effective leader. The final characteristic is being passionate about what you do. If you’re not, it can make it a challenge to get others to follow. When a person is passionate about anything, it draws others to them as the passion is admirable and people respect it.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

CT: The economic meltdown is creating pressure to create value for companies when it is getting harder to do so. I think as a leader you cannot cut corners or take short-cuts to create value; once you do that, your integrity gets called into question. And once your integrity is called into question, people will begin to lose respect for you and your effectiveness as a leader has been compromised. Integrity, sound judgment, and doing the right thing are the most important things regardless of economic conditions.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role?

CT: I don’t know if any one or two experiences have best positioned me for a global leadership role. I think it has more to do with the breadth of experiences.I say this because the experiences I have had have exposed me to people from various backgrounds, with diverse perspectives and a multitude of approaches to problem solving. Having an appreciation and respect for these diverse backgrounds and perspectives allows me to interact with anyone, and partner with them to accomplish our goals.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

CT: I have taken several risks in my career, primarily related to taking unconventional roles. I began my career in commercial banking and could have followed traditional career paths in lending, but opted for roles in international trade finance, community development lending, retail branch development, and community banking. Upon transitioning to commercial real estate, I could have followed peers into office brokerage, but opted instead to help build a retail tenant representation team focused on the financial services client. I became the first CDO at Jones Lang LaSalle and built a strategy that linked diversity and inclusion to business. I also  joined a recently-acquired business unit focused on transaction management for multi-site retailers. All of these were considered risky, but I saw them as opportunities to work in environments filled with uncertainty while proving I could still succeed. In my opinion, it’s more rewarding when you succeed when there is uncertainty in each step toward your goal.

This is the third post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Clara Wong
Senior Vice President, People, Administration & Asset Protection
Wal-Mart China

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

CW: There are many leadership skills that I developed over the years. The most important, I believe, include taking and giving feedback, prioritizing, communication, and recognizing people.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

CW: Among many other leadership challenges, managing change is probably the most important challenge that we are facing. As leaders, we are leading the changes, driving the changes and modeling the right behavior in the face of the changes.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role?

CW: Any experiences that improved my global perspective were most helpful, as they enabled me to strategize and lead in both developing and developed markets.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

CW: Yes, I have been constantly challenged to take on unexpected assignments in my career. I was frequently challenged to take on responsbilities that I was not familiar with. Such assignments made me improve my listening capability, communication skills, and the capability to lead strategically.

This is the 2nd post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Sami Miettinen
Executive Director
Royal Bank of Scotland

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

SM: I’m intensely interested in the best practices across many disciplines, and have a strong habit of constantly sharing and learning them globally. That gives me a slight informational edge which is useful to my colleagues, when I am engaging in this habit locally. I am curious and fairly fearless socially. Weak leaders hoard information, and destroy this edge for themselves and their colleagues.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

SM: Shrinking markets cause uneven pain. Some sub-segments of financial markets are hit very hard right now, sometimes deservedly, sometimes unfairly. Managing the excess capacity by allowing personnel to refocus, often temporarily as the markets do come back eventually, in markets which continue to be strong is one of the key task for leaders everywhere. This is especially challenging if emerging markets generate the most growth and the personnel is located in the old world. The leaders need to train and motivate refocusing and sometimes relocation, all at the same time. This includes the leaders themselves.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role?

SM: I have intentionally spent most of my career outside my home country, Finland, ever since I did my MBA at Tulane University in New Orleans. I have coupled this with working with clients and colleagues who have mostly not been Finns. Now that I do work in Helsinki with Finnish clients, I maintain the global relationships and understanding which is vital in delivering and sourcing the global service for their complex needs. Another critical experience was writing a negotiation handbook in 2008. It allowed me to interview international negotiation experts such as Dr. Robert Cialdini, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari. These and other intellectual giants I met have inspired me in my career. The negotiation skills I achieved through the experience were a bonus.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

SM: I have changed countries from Finland to the USA to the UK and back to Finland.  Uprooting oneself is risky both professionally and socially, especially since I have four daughters. I have prepared for the changes by developing a local network well in advance in the target countries. An efficient implementation of this was to have lunches and other informal introductions with future clients and key contacts before I was officially assigned to them. I have also maintained my old contacts after the moves, so reversal of my tracks would be fairly straightforward as well. Constantly build global bridges; never burn them.

This is the first post in a series focused on bringing you insights from experienced and successful professionals about what they’ve learned and how they are adapting to the current business climate.

Mariano Legaz, MBA
Vice President, Supply Chain Services
Verizon Communications Inc

V Porfano: What characteristics, skills or abilities have you developed that help make you successful as a leader?

ML: Throughout my career, I have focused not only on developing and acquiring the right level of technical expertise relevant to my job and industry, but also concentrated on evolving leadership, communication skills and learning operational aspects of what makes large organizations successful. In addition, I get out in the field and directly interact with our team, having the opportunity to engage with front-line employees to better understand the realities and challenges of our operation. Through these actions, I’ve improved my communications skills and leadership ability to influence change and results. I’ve also acquired visibility into best-in-class organizations, and a deeper understanding of financial and operational opportunities.

V Porfano: Given that many corporations are now recovering from the economic meltdown, what leadership challenges are taking center stage today?

ML: I believe the most common themes are transformation, innovation, and leadership to drive value. It is critical for leaders to find and manage the talent in their organizations to gain competitive advantage, achieve solid and rapid execution and for flexibility to adapt.

V Porfano: What experiences in your career best positioned or prepared you for a global leadership role?

ML: Early in my career I was fortunate to be exposed to large responsibilities and worked directly with the head of our engineering and planning organization. This gave me insight into a mature, energetic, successful leader who also acted as a coach. Later when I joined Verizon, we were supporting numerous international operations with a diversity of issues and different market realities. It was a great place to see the different variables and scenarios at play. I learned to effectively work across different cultures and within each unique organization; at the same time I was blessed with the opportunity to work with some of the most talented professionals these markets had to offer. Finally, during my career, I had roles in many different organizations such as network planning, operations, customer service, finance, procurement and supply chain, both domestic and international, which provided a broad view about our company and industry.

V Porfano: Did you take risks in your career? If so, what type of risks and how did they prepare you for the unexpected?

ML: I’ve taken many calculated risks, including a move to telecom international operations with almost no previous experience in that field, a move to corporate finance after 10 years in different network roles, and assuming a procurement lead role without previous formal tenure in that group. All of these moves allowed and forced me to stretch and learn, and gave me the ability to quickly adapt. Overall the experiences made it pretty clear that growing involves changing, and that we need to be able to step out of our comfort zones.