Black MBA - Winter 2007/2008 - (Page 5) Black MBA Magazine Winter 2007-2008 Passion, Purpose and Power Propel a Productive Career opened. We must recognize and appreciate the plain fact that these pioneers are the reason we are able to rap on the door and get an answer, rather than tearing it down with no guarantee of response. These people and their cohorts followed their passion to build a pipeline that would create opportunities for more African Americans to enter the C-suite. We at the National Black MBA Association® are dedicated to feeding this pipeline with young, talented individuals who, ideally, will one day study O’Neal and Parsons and Fudge, and the many CEOs of color who will follow them, in textbooks discussing the history of equal opportunity and racial parity in the United States. Please note that I say “equal opportunity,” not “affirmative action.” Both are valid and vitally necessary to our advancement. But when we eye the executive suite – well, as you’ll read in this issue, “these are not affirmative action jobs.” People at the top perform before they ascend and throughout their climb. And performance at the pinnacle is a given; when it falters, so does a career. The dawn of a new year is the right time to contemplate America’s earliest Black CEOs in mainstream American business. As we think of the passion that took these people so far, let’s also consider the clarity of purpose that illuminated their paths. It’s a blessing we bring upon ourselves to have this clarity of purpose in our own work and lives. So let’s ask ourselves this early and often this year: Do we have, and can we access, our own passion and purpose? Are we accumulating and using the power generated by this passion and purpose? Are we doing what Fudge and O’Neal and Parsons did by blessing those who come after us? Are we helping to feed the pipeline by spotting and promoting the most promising younger people? Are we mentoring as we must? Are we looking to the future – not just our own, but that of our people? These are important questions. As we work toward responsible, positive answers, let’s also know the joy that comes from blessing our people as Fudge, Parsons and O’Neal have done. We take their work, and their drive fueled by passion and purpose to achieve power, as a collective blessing for all African Americans. And we look toward a productive, purposeful and, above all, blessed 2008 for all. Barbara L. Thomas President & CEO National Black MBA Association® s the new year settles in, many of us pursue a fresh set of ambitious resolutions. I know it’s one of my own rituals to look back, look forward and try to stick to that list. And as you follow your own annual to-do list of bad break and empowerment, I urge you to honor your commitments and to follow your passion. It was passion that propelled Stanley O’Neal to the top at Merrill Lynch. Passion positioned Richard Parsons at the helm of Time Warner. And passion placed Ann Fudge in the CEO’s chair at the advertising giant Young & Rubicam. Talent and education helped these driven individuals go where they wanted to go – but it was their passion that pushed them to break through the glass ceilings and find their places at the top of the heap. They made it by channeling passion and using it to burn through every barricade. Today we know O’Neal as CEO of Merrill Lynch, and his recent resignation in no way diminishes his accomplishments there – not to speak of his accomplishment in getting there. Let us never forget that O’Neal started his career on a General Motors assembly line in Georgia. From there, he climbed the corporate ladder with skill, ambition and positive production. Parsons and Fudge, too, blazed trails through corporate America that none had traveled before them. For this we are all in their debt. These indispensable leaders have greatly blessed all of us who walk in their wake. The lessons we learn from the careers of O’Neal, Parsons and Fudge center on the clear perception that we as a people can and must take hold of their successes and claim them as our own. It is their passion, their purpose and their power that allow us to walk with our heads high, in full expectation of acceptance and respect, through the doors these three have A ©Stephen Chernin/Ho/epa/Corbis BlackMBA • Winter 2007/2008 5
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