Buzz: An Executive Women’s Think Tank
March 18, 2008

Roundtable Summary by Dante Pirouz and Kristen San Jose

PANEL #1: Changing the Face of the Middle Class

"How will the emerging global middle class affect our economies on the home front? What role are women playing in creating the new middle class? What are companies and institutions doing to create or re-position their wares to meet this burgeoning market and will entrepreneurship change the face of middle class over the next 25 years?"

What are we talking about when we say “middle class?” How do we define it? During the industrial era it meant: Education equals life long employment, your children do better than you, retirement, steadily rising job prospects and pay, and stable family relationships. This is not the correct definition today.

The nation with the fastest growing and largest middle class is India. In fact, India’s middle class will soon be larger than the entire U.S. population. Recently Colin Powell offered the following advice to the presidential candidates: “Take a step back and look at the new powerhouses – China, India and Russia.”

A study by Accenture asked “How ready do managers feel they are to participate in the global economy?” It found that in terms of skill readiness managers in Brazil, India, South Africa and China felt more ready than those in first world economies like the U.S. Does this mean that these countries, which have previously been considered third world economies, are surpassing us? Not necessarily. In these countries the middle class may be “growing” without human rights, women’s rights, transparent banking or the institutions that built the middle class in the U.S. such as unions.

The definition of the middle class may not be the same in China and India. The defining feature of the middle class is consumption. Middle class is technically defined as earning $7000 or more but there are examples where that isn’t enough to qualify as middle class in the traditional sense.

Faking the middle class means anyone can buy the accoutrement of the middle class. For example, everyone around the world has a cell phone even if they don’t have a roof over their heads.

“Today we do not have a Middle Class, but a Consumer Class.”  Products that were once considered luxuries are no longer commodities but needs.

A growing consumer class means that a growing number of people want more. For example, demand is growing in health care which was once governed by the elite, especially doctors. Today, more people look to the internet for healthcare information than physicians.

More than 1 billion people live in China and India and they are educating their children but are they educating them to be creative and with the ability to think? The middle class isn’t about higher education. A person could have a high school diploma and be in the middle class. But looking at the patterns in household formation in these emerging economies gives us an idea of what’s coming in the future:

1. In China, there are 14 million more men than women due to infanticide
2. Women can move into the middle class much more easily just by marrying well since they are in demand. They are a hot commodity.
3. In the Middle East, men can’t afford to marry.
4. In Japan, women aren’t getting married because they enjoy working and making money too much and they think Japanese men are dysfunctional.

Another example is education. The goal should be for every one of our children to fulfill their potential. Are we succeeding in the U.S.? No!! We have enormous inequities. There is trend toward resegregation in education which has resulted in apartheid schools in the U.S. The middle space has to be closed. No Child Left Behind is really leaving millions of children behind. It’s really more than smarts that are needed in the future. It will be not only about intelligence but about wisdom.

PANEL # 2: The “X” Leadership Factor

"With vast societal changes on the horizon, will we begin to see a devolution of power? How will leadership need to change to address challenges predicted for the new century? What will be the new model/s of effective leadership, and what untapped qualities will be required to address rapid-fire bursts of innovation? How do we prepare?"

The U.S. is on the brink of a generational change. 77 million will start to retire. The reign of the Baby Boomers is over.

The X Generation is different from other generations, and common characteristics of this group include:  Living the “killer life” based on balance, growing-up latch key kids, mistrust for institutions, and an ability to embrace diversity.

How can you create an environment where Gen Xers thrive? Women have an advantage because they have a leadership style that is inclusive, family friendly and follows a set of core values.

Younger generations are rebelling against the old definitions of business success. This new generation doesn’t care about the square footage of their office or the number of office chairs they have. When people from the Boomer generation lose their jobs, they also tend to lose their identity. But Gen Xers understand the need for a work-life balance.

People now have the need to feel that what they do matters, that their values align with the company’s values. Companies have to create organizations where people continue to grow and learn. It is important to give them the tools to do that or else they will walk out to find it.

What will happen during this generational switch? The numbers just don’t work! As Boomers retire, the people who have learned all of the facets of the business over 25 or 30 years will be leaving. There aren’t enough Gen Xers to fill the positions. So Boomers are coming back, working entrepreneurially within the organization to fill the gap.

What influence do media have on Gen X and Y? On one hand it helps that generation see themselves as leaders….showing kids how to do what you love. But on the other hand the imagery is sometimes conflicting. For example, the media shows the woman CEO as either a villain or a vixen. We need to show that with leadership and money, you can do more, you can make your money work.  

Gen Xers are looking to change every 3 years. They are continually looking at how to set themselves up for the next gig.

In order to change the old model to a new model, everything has to change. The old model was 4 or 5 levers controlled by a few. The new model breaks that into 10 to 20 levers controlled by many. Leadership is not top down. That doesn’t work. The new form of leadership is a group without 1 head.

“Learning how to listen and not course-correct at every turn.”

It’s the results that are important….(people) work different hours, work virtually. People are not always productive 9 to 5. Companies must understand the rhythm of productivity.

Gen Xers are more likely to “Think Globally, Act Globally.” Leadership for them comes in a different way -- from a bigger vision.

“Policy is the enemy of common sense.” The old way says “Let’s have a policy and follow it.” But you don’t need it. Just treat people with respect and let managers do what makes sense for their people.

The companies that will succeed are those that have “love marks” and have employees who are there because they love it. The big companies probably can’t do it and it’s hard for small companies because they don’t have the resources. The most innovative companies come out of nowhere because it’s easier to start from scratch.

“Reward failure because that’s were innovation is.”

PANEL #3: A Society Addicted

"Are we a society too addicted to “things”? How do men and women react differently to stimuli and withdrawal, from medication to Blackberrys? Will our addictions and desire for customization create a surge in micro-segmentation of the market, and how will consumers react to needs unserved? Could addiction to personal pleasure and convenience change the face of the workforce?"

Addiction means a devotion to something. But what does it mean to be addicted to things? The brain likes to get what it is used to getting. If it gets used to gratification it will seek it out. If it is used to high levels of stimuli, when given low levels of stimuli it will have a hard time functioning.

The primary addiction people once faced was cigarettes… when a flight would land you would see passengers race for the smoking areas. Today people are addicted to cell phones… as soon as a plane comes into the terminal people are now turning on their phones to call someone.

Technology has changed the way we multitask and the way our brain performs. This adaptation has altered our ability to maintain focused attention and task efficiency. We are training children to be less attentive. We’re changing how the brain functions. But maybe the evolving brain likes multitasking.

Email apnea:  the shallow breathing in anticipation of looking at email. As you hold your breath you go into a mental fight or flight mode.  Most people are doing breath holding which is related to stress-related diseases. Improper breathing leads to imbalances and blood pressure goes up. The body has to adjust to this new normal. Ultimately it is important to breathe. Techniques like yoga, meditation and exercise can help.

As Thomas Friedman said, “We are living in the Age of Distraction”. We’re not living in an age of interactions but an age of distractions. How do you sell advertising in an age of divided attention? We don’t know if people are paying attention or not. How do you quantify how much attention people are giving? Since we can’t guarantee the results, companies are putting money not in ads but into immersive environments to entertain and “entertrain.”

Children and adults lack “free play.” Kids who don’t have free play are more likely to hit a brick wall and go berserk. We have to bring free play back to kids and corporations. Even adults need free play…"space-out" time.

“Digital Attention Deficiency Disorder”

Stress is addictive as well. There is always the fear of missing out…the fear of being disconnected.

“Leisure time is the seed of humanity.” Emphasis on efficiency by firms has removed creativity. Firms are doing everything opposite of fostering creativity.

There’s a big difference between people who think they manage their time versus people who think they manage their attention.

1. Managing attention is about intention and emotion. Surgeons, artists, pilots tend to say they manage their attention.
2. Office workers say they manage time and tend to say “I can’t do it” and “I’m overworked.”

You have to make a choice to manage your attention.

PANEL #4: Thirst for Intimacy

"As technology breaks boundaries and diminishes "face time", how are we compensating for loss of intimacy and what are companies doing to imitate it in the workplace and at home? Will our thirst for personal connection cause us to innovate differently and will consumers demand products and services that have more meaning?"

Three to four years ago the people who attended BUZZ stayed in the room in order to establish intimacy and friendships. Today we rush to connect with technology. We run out to get on our cell phones and Blackberries and as a result we now thirst for, are parched for intimacy.

Ten years ago we were chasing success in a linear model. But now, for example, my number one priority is my marriage. In order for this, I have to put my marriage first. I schedule intimate time.

How do we bring intimacy to the workplace? Bring in scheduled intimate time like a cocktail hour or a retreat. Turn the Blackberry off!

Does technology create intimacy with clients or interrupt it? Of course, customers are always right so we interact how they want to. Invest in all the different ways of communication. But the buying decision is emotional. 80% of business is with face to face communications.

Intimacy is also driven by trust. 60-70% of intimacy is non-verbal communication. Nuance is important to communication as well as humor. Touching is also important. We must establish trust first then we can move to using more technology.

Whether we’ve met the customer or shaken the hand makes a difference when dealing with problems. Firms that only buy via the website don’t rebuy in the 3rd year. We need to know why someone in Wichita buys differently from someone in Omaha. We spend a lot of money on customer service.

For the family, heavy travel makes intimacy very difficult even with children. Building healthy relationships with children means building trust and being attentive to their needs.

Media has an obligation to do good news stories – we’re all hungry for good news stories. Network news is doing more touchy, feely stories. We want to feel connected. There’s room for creating stories on TV and the internet that bring people together. For example, groups on the internet can connect on issues of how to care for aging parents.

Some are making the decision not to travel in order to stay with family and kids. Using the internet helps to do that. Women are also starting their own business in order to stay at home. It’s not “opting out,” it’s “opting in.”

“It’s all about timing. You can have it all just not all at the same time.”

In order to be intimate it has to be an exchange. People have to feel their contribution is being used. Listening is not enough. In a high-tech society, we need to be high touch. We need to have more time being in touch with our feelings. Companies are now taking their CEO’s through training on spirituality and the soul.

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NOTES from the inaugural BUZZ summit
January 20, 2005
The Four Seasons Hotel
Newport Beach, California:

ROUNDTABLE: YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION?
Do we have to blow up corporate America in order to rebuild it? Should we completely re-design compensation? How should corporate leadership change to tap into the unmined talent and creativity of our human capital?

• “A revolution is marked by a sudden change – it’s dramatic versus an evolutionary process.”

• “Since the industrial revolution, productivity has increased fifty times. This is still increasing exponentially. Is this evolution or revolution?”

• “The question really is productivity versus humanity. We now have the problem of continuous partial attention. This type of not wanting to miss anything brings us to taking ourselves to imbalance. When was the last time you felt someone pay full attention to you? This is bankrupting to keeping talent in companies. This revolution in technology has increased productivity; but in and of itself we have to ask if that is a good thing.”

• We need to start looking at business from a horizontal perspective—looking to the why and how we do things. Good has become the enemy of the great. How do we use the revolutionary changes in technology and productivity to make the company more responsive? This is an evolutionary process.

• We also need to ask the question of how we become more responsive given the rate of information we receive. We need to give attention to wisdom. We need to pay more attention to making wise choices—those that represent the deeper, bigger picture—and here is where women can play a part. How are we as wise women? What is the result of revolutions in business, such as information technology and the influx of women?

• Women want different things structurally in corporations. Women want more flexibility. How do we use this to attract in talent, particularly when the majority of college and Master’s degree candidates are now women?

• Revolutions do not come out of nowhere. We are still seeing a revolution of women’s roles in the workforce. Revolution can happen both from within or from the top. We need to encourage that it happens both ways.

• There are significant differences in our daughters who are just a half-generation apart. Women who are 18 have an entirely different world view than those who are 35. Younger women are seeing that they can bring their whole selves to the workplace.

• We need to talk about changes in compensation. We need to ask people what they want and bundle compensation accordingly. Further, when you support families in a company, you support women. Not everyone wants money and we need to start offering packages that reflect choice. Many women will choose time over money. We need to talk about meaning over money. Compensation can change behavior. We also need to not be afraid to ask for what we are worth.

• Where are the new opportunities for women, post-revolutionary entrance to the workforce? Things are still moving slowly as women strive to enter into management. These are the same questions we were talking about twenty years ago. Women coming up need to feel the responsibility to continue to pave the way—making the structural changes and coalitions necessary to accomplish that. We need to think about ways to extend both maternity and paternity leave.

• Women CEOs vs. women as entrepreneurs—opting in or opting out—to do it our own way. Both are important. We need better models, beyond Desperate Housewives. We need to show women who are opting in.

• “It’s a balancing act, not an either/or. You must balance among customers, employees, and shareholders. The customer has to be first for sustainable and optimal growth.”

• “If you’re not focusing on human capital then it all gets lopsided. It all starts with how you treat your employees. If I had to choose between answering a phone call of a customer or an employee, I would choose my employee.”

• If your organization doesn’t share your values, then you have a problem and you know you have to leave. The person at the top is the best barometer of the company’s values and this will ultimately affect the bottom line. You are able to get great insight into a company’s values and culture by talking to current employees. It isn’t hard to get very valuable information this way.

• There is a difference between preventing a crisis and managing a crisis. In essence, this is the measurement of how well a problem is fixed versus how well a problem is prevented from ever occurring. It is much harder to find people who have been credited with preventing a problem from ever happening than those who are recognized for fixing a problem.

• Important consumer insights are not always acted upon. Sometimes the cost associated with change is just too high so it is never implemented. Other times people don’t want to believe that a certain change needs to take place.

• On average, a CEO’s lifespan is less than three years, so you aren’t given a lot of time to impact an organization. And there is not a lot of tolerance for a CEO’s mistakes either. If you make one, you are usually out.

• It seems that outsourcing of customer service illustrates a company not prioritizing their customers. At the end of the day, profit earnings is the king, not the customer, because you must meet your earnings forecast.

• A global company must attain geographic balance based on where their customers are located. Therefore, outsourcing is many times a function of needing global balance.

• Good leaders are able to unlock the value of their employees, and women tend to be more talented at accomplishing this.

• It takes one person thinking outside of the box and willing to break the rules to change the values of a company. The values of the new generation are different: price is not always first, they do tons of research themselves on both companies and products, they are walking contradictions, they know that they are valuable, and they know that they are being marketed to.”

• The key to success in business is identifying what you are good at and also what you are passionate about. Without these two elements, the job should be performed by someone else. This is especially important with the new wave of in-sourcing as opposed to outsourcing within companies.

• Many companies have a new mentality that not all customers are right, and therefore not all revenue is good revenue. Companies are seeking out customers that share their values.

• Customer feedback is the key to a business’s success, and this requires really listening to people. Personal contact goes a long way, especially with the younger generation.

ROUNDTABLE: THE MEDIA MATRIX
Does the media have its own agenda? What is appropriate to cover; what is not? Who are the decision makers?

Moderator: Nancy L. Snyderman, MD
Panel Members: Gail Berman, Christie Hefner, Patt Morrison, Mary Murphy, Narda Zacchino

SUMMARY:

• “I have lost many friendships because of stories I have written, it is just the nature of my job. I have been threatened with lawsuits and I have received multiple death threats. The editors are luckier because they stand above; reporters are in the trenches.”

• “I see a couple of problems. First, people are media illiterate in that they can’t distinguish between what is real news and what isn’t. Second, increasingly there has been a consolidation of media ownership which is the most dangerous trend occurring today.”

• Freedom of the press is under tremendous stress, and there is a gray line between government and getting a story. For example, if you are a White House reporter and ask a question that the administration doesn’t like, you will never be called on again. You become a sacrificial lamb when you ask the hard questions.

• A complete control of sources exists today. The story involving the first President Bush demonstrates this. He was accused of having an affair and a woman reporter from CNN asked him about this during a press conference. Consequently, she never worked again.

• The European press thinks that the American press is wimps. However, Americans find the press to be vicious and invasive of privacy.

• There is a different dynamic between reporting news and reporting entertainment. Revealing photographs can be a clear invasion of privacy and in that circumstance we choose not to publish them. This once was the case with Jackie Onassis and although the magazine could have made a ton of money, the photographs were never published because she had no idea that the photographs were being taken.

• The FCC is not providing clear enough guidelines for the entertainment industry to abide by. An example is that the FCC now considers pixilation to be the same as showing a naked body part entirely. We were not aware of this until we got in trouble for broadcasting an episode that contained pixilation.

• Howard Stern had many problems with the FCC and is now moving to satellite. This move allows him to pre-empt censorship and also build an enormous fan base.

• It is very expensive to conduct good journalism which is why bad stories are crowding out real news stories. Sound bites are shrinking. They used to be over 40 seconds on average, and now they are less than 10 seconds. Today, news isn’t an obligation, it is a money making machine.

• There is huge pressure among the networks to report the story first. This ended up being CBS’s downfall because a few years ago they started breaking the cardinal rule of having at least two sources to validate every story. This allowed them to get the story out faster, but it compromised reliability.

• Given current trends that are not going away, it is going to be difficult for print to capture the same share of market that it did before the Internet. We need to develop a business model based on truth and responsibility because right now news is rewarded for speed, not accuracy.

• Bloggers have changed the notion that freedom of the press is available to those who can afford it. Bloggers are completely unfiltered, unchecked, and have limited liability because they don’t have extensive assets for people to go after.

• There is a huge concern about propaganda coming out of the current administration and it being masked as “news”. It is actually against the law for the government to propagandize American citizens, but we must ask the attorney general to investigate and why would he help our cause?

• Our children are not getting information from reporters like us. Rather, they are turning to sources like Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.

• Entertainment companies call the news side of their company and tell them not to book competitors’ stars. This is such a problem that we cannot get American Idol stars to be interviewed on the Today Show or Good Morning America because they just aren’t allowed.

• There is a growing concern with the future of democracy if Americans aren’t getting accurate information to make decisions upon.

• The product isn’t news, it’s influence. This influence can be social and political or commercial. In response, the American public must seek out and support those sources that they find credible.

• People say that they are now scared of the news. Part of the problem may be that parents aren’t watching the news with their children, and therefore aren’t helping them to interpret what the news means.

• “The internet has changed the way we view the consumer. There has been a paradigm shift in the way a consumer shops. Consumers are not only using the internet to do research but they now compare prices, find promotions and shop online. The challenge is, how do we deliver our promise consistently across all marketing channels?”
  
  
• Consumers have more options than anytime in history, but they crave simplicity. “For access to communications for rural consumers there is a focus on providing it simply. For example, dial-up is still the biggest access to the Internet for rural consumers. There is a ‘so-what’ factor because technology moves faster than how consumers use it. So simplicity and value are extremely important.”
  
  
• The Internet is the dust bunny of the law because legislators feel safe passing laws about it.” An example of a Dust Bunny on the Internet are gas station pumps. Inside the gas station, it is legal to print a receipt with a consumer’s credit card number on it. But, when a consumer uses the pump outside, it is illegal for the station to print more than the last five digits of their credit card number.
  
  The Internet can be compared to an analogy of an Iceberg. Privacy and security lie above the line of the iceberg, but below the water is a whole new set of issues and legislation that people are not aware of. It is impossible to identify the iceberg because the rules are hidden and or too difficult to piece together. We need to stop the iceberg from getting bigger.
  
  “Regulation too early stifles all the innovation. There is still a lot of innovation still to come with the Internet that will make our lives more productive. If we regulate too early or willy nilly, things won’t happen.”
  
  
• A major issue on the Internet is protecting children from pornography while still allowing adults access to content. Intimate apparel companies conducting marketing and prospecting on the Internet must figure out how comply with federal regulation while self-regulating to not offend the majority of people on the site.
  
  
• “Legislation of what decisions get made and who makes them is a wild, wild west. It’s difficult to know what the laws are because the laws keep changing. With too many laws, adults can’t make decisions for themselves. Where do you draw the line?”
  
  
• It is difficult to apply rules for pornographic content universally on the Internet without blocking legitimate content from adult access. For example, filters stopped emails with the word “Cocktail” and restricted access to the Fredrick’s of Hollywood email system due to the computer recognizing indecent content. This happens because the current rules are written for the universal “computer eye” instead of the subjective “human eye”.
  
  
• Internet technology is leap-frogging traditional business models because it puts us in a position of constant customer contact. The challenge is getting through all of the clutter on the Internet to reach the right customers.
  The key is knowing where your customers are. Affiliation is the latest trend to combat the issue of breaking through the clutter on the Internet. Affiliations are a way of advertising using current customers as a way to reach out and advertise to other consumers through common websites and Blogs. Search engines can also be an effective way to reach customers.
  
  
• In a world of hyper-informed customers, there is a tendency to think that price is the key to creating customer loyalty. However, the best way to create loyalty is to align with what customers value and create a barrier to exit.
  
  
• Taxation on the internet is causing states to lose tax revenue and creating confusion due to the inconsistency between states’ tax laws.
  Items are taxed depending on where they are shipped from. This creates confusion among consumers and co-mingling issues for stores with distribution channels. Some states have attempted to get back some sales tax revenue by implementing a “use tax” which applies to items used in the state regardless of where they are purchased.
  
  The European Union has solved these issues through a VAT tax for digital purchases. In the United States, there has been an attempt to implement a uniform state sales tax but it has not happened yet. As consumer spending on the net increases even more, taxes on the internet will become a huge issue.
  
  
• Privacy on the Internet is also still a major issue. Spyware (i.e. cookies) has created huge trust issues among consumers because they have no knowledge about what happens with the data after it is collected.

There is a new legal landscape for consumer privacy. California requires privacy policies but not all states do. Also, some industries, like medical, banking, and travel, are heavily regulated. For those groups that are not covered by law, the FTC has Voluntary Fair Information practices that penalize companies that voluntarily post privacy policies and don’t followthem.

Privacy can also be violated through public records now available on the Internet. All real estate, property and bank accounts are public record. Before the net, people had to seek out records by doing work to get them. Now, records can be obtained at home on the couch. Due to this public access to information, the next wave of white collar crime will most likely be blackmail. “The biggest issue with the internet is that it’s anonymous!”

• If policy is set, there must be a way to enforce it. The biggest issue with the Internet is the unknown. We don’t know how to tame the beast of policy on the Internet because it comes from so many areas. Most likely, this will get worse before it gets better.