The Stern Opportunity

With the SWIB Conference right around the corner, and as we women make up approximately 40% of our beloved Stern community, I venture to write an article that may raise more questions than it does provide answers: How do today's women use change to propel them into success in various facets of life: career, personal life, romantic ventures, and beyond?

I speak partly from personal experience (the tidbits of wisdom gained throughout my wise years as a twenty-something year old) and partly from being a psychoanalyzing, media-consuming, pop-culture enthusiast, fused with the astute knowledge gleaned from last semester's final exam. I offer you three muses to illustrate three principles women can adopt to gain success today and beyond.

Madonna: A woman with a true understanding and command of power, essentially synonymous with the word Change. Her name provides intrigue and highlights the juxtaposition that women have to be: innocent, yet commanding; pure and impressionable, yet fertile with ideas; a mother, yet at the same time a powerhouse breadwinner. To remain relevant to her audience and to continue to rise above the competitive landscape, she adapts to convey both what she should, and could never have expected to be.

Martha Stewart: Financial Crisis, step aside. If only you adopted the foresight, chameleon-like capabilities that Martha employed to overcome her quite illegal mishap of, oh, insider trading, you would come out on top, even capturing the hearts and future spending potential of a vastly untapped target market --those currently behind bars.

Angelina Jolie: Who says you can't have it all? Beautiful family: check. Proliferous career: check. Social advocate: check. Eye candy for a husband: how about a six-pack of checks. As Angelina grew through distinct phases of development, she remained unafraid of change and challenging status quo. What do these three women share in common?

First, they clearly define their business model. Madonna: Exhibit sex appeal at every stage of life. In the 80's become the taboo topic, the 90's master the art of hip hop dancing, in 00's get ripped and join the rave scene. Martha: Brand everything to be Martha. Own Home. Own Home-made. Become every stay at home mom's dream for what to do with their husband's disposable income. Become every working woman's bible to the domestic side of being a woman. Angelina: Stay true, do you. Capitalize on sex appeal, strategically. Don't be afraid to be multi-dimensional, instead use power and influence to champion social causes. Second, these women capture the market opportunity, and do so in a controlled way that takes accurate inventory of their resources. Madonna: Maintained her brand equity, and did not develop unnecessary brand endorsements. As she grew older her music evolved accordingly, thus she adapted into various music genres and made strategic collaborations. Martha: Expanding the Martha brand from product branding, to store partnerships, to magazines, TV show and beyond, this growth maintained consistency in high quality and a coherent brand. Angelina: Through different films, despite raving or disappointing reviews, Angelina plays up her (quite visual) strengths. With enough star-power, she champions her own social beliefs, gearing her films towards this, as well as spearheading efforts in Darfur and her role as a UN Ambassador.

Last, but not least, as they move into a new phase of their lives, these women did not fall into the trap of using the same success factors from initial expansion of their lives/business, into the next phase. Why? Because the scope and scale of their lives/business has changed, the metrics for analyzing success have changed. Thus resources must be redirected appropriately. Madonna: Losing sex appeal, and possibly the title as Queen of Pop, she capitalizes on this change by kissing Britney Spears. She accurately leverages her current resources. Martha: Despite the damaged brand image, she comes on stronger by thriving in her "new environment" (aka jailhouse) and even capitalizing/monetizing it. Angelina: After milking her hot, scandalous self for all that she can, she's ready for the family stage of her life-why not turn this into an opportunity to focus on advocating social causes? Throughout their lives, these women clearly defined their goals, captured the market opportunity in a controlled way (accounting for resources at hand), and most importantly, understood that a change in circumstance/environment requires a change in strategic factors for success. Yes, this advice seems easy enough in context of these prototypical women. But how do we make it relevant to our own lives as the twenty and thirty something gender minority, entering our budding career? Ladies, welcome to 2010. Take stock of your own resources, your newly gained knowledge and network from Stern, and embrace change. Take in the changing industry landscapes, changing norms of women in the workforce, changing roles and expectations of how to begin a family (and to date for that matter). Along the way, write me with your success stories! As for me, I'm still trying to write my own story, aiming for a happy ending, enduring a number of plot changes in between.

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