Seducing the Boys Club by Nina DiSesa

Author:Nina DiSesa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780345504555
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

7

Clout Is Great. Get It. Use It.

Clout is a powerful weapon in our arsenal. If only we were better at wielding it! In the dictionary it’s defined as “influence or power,” but it’s really both. Clout is a richly deserved byproduct of talent, good judgment, and hard work. It’s also the most misunderstood and misused weapon. Women in business don’t readily understand the power of clout. We are not shrewd, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. Are we too fair-minded? Does our rigid sense of fair play get in our way when we play in boys clubs? We are smart, talented, driven, and exceptional in many ways, but if we want to keep climbing that corporate ladder, we need clout and we need to know how to bop people over the head with it from time to time, just so they know that we’re around.

In March 2007, three of the most senior McCann women were stranded in São Paulo, Brazil, during an air traffic controllers’ strike. They were Carol Smith, worldwide account director for Johnson & Johnson; Devika Bulchandani, New York’s director of strategic planning; and me, chairman of New York. We had gone to the airport for a Friday night red-eye back to JFK only to be told thirty minutes before boarding that all flights had been canceled. All of the air traffic controllers were on strike. The airline assured the hundreds of people who were now stuck in the airport that we would be able to retrieve our luggage and that they would help us all find hotel rooms.

The first thing to remember when you are stranded anywhere is never leave your fate to the officials. While I was sleeping in the cab on the way to the airport and Carol was on her phone, Devika was looking out the window and had noticed a Marriott Hotel in Guarulhos. When our flight was canceled, she immediately called her husband, Ash, in Manhattan and asked him to call the Marriott directly and get us three rooms before hundreds of stranded people got the same idea. We collected our luggage and checked into the Marriott one hour after our flight was canceled. We also confirmed our seats for the same flight home the next night. Then we drank some wine, toasted our resourcefulness and grace under pressure, and got a great night’s sleep.

The next day we started hearing rumors that the air traffic controllers’ strike would extend through Saturday night and maybe even beyond that. We collectively agreed that now was the correct time to panic. Devika had a new business pitch scheduled for Monday and needed to be in the office on Sunday. And Carol and I didn’t relish staying at the Guarulhos Marriott—as nice as it was—indefinitely.

“Let’s send Michael Roth an e-mail,” I suggested. Michael Roth is the CEO of IPG, the giant holding company that owns McCann and hundreds of other communication companies around the world. He is probably one of the five most powerful men in the advertising and communications business.

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