Almost 40 years ago, I stepped into my first role as a CEO with a national auto parts chain that was facing bankruptcy. Thanks to my reputation as a problem-solver, the board of directors decided to bring me on — an unusual choice at a time when women were often relegated to making coffee and typing up notes. There was a great deal of pressure to perform, but my strategy of hiring local talent from the neighborhood and training them on auto parts quickly slowed the volume of products being stolen from the shelves. Within a year, the financial outlook for the chain was reversed.
My first major challenge as a CEO provided me with invaluable lessons. Over the years, we all build up a hard-won library of problems/solutions and learnings that we’ve worked through whether it’s as a CEO, a salesperson or a caregiver. While technology has changed the face of business in many ways, there are still the same basic factors and levers that come into play again and again.
