Women Make History Every Day

Although last month was national women’s history month, women are making history in remarkable ways.

For the first time, we have a viable female presidential candidate, a female secretary of state, and a female speaker of the house — all three formerly exclusive domains of their male counterparts. There are more than 200,000 women on active duty in the military. All of these would have been impossible less than a generation ago.

The wonderful world of business has also made progress, albeit slower than many would like to see. Women still earn, on average, 77 cents to each dollar that men make.

On the upside, revenue for businesses owned by women exceeds $950 billion, and there are about 117,000 women-owned businesses with sales of $1 million or more. Nearly one-third of women-owned businesses operate in health care and social assistance.

I’d like to introduce you to another woman who is also changing history. Marilyn Carlson Nelson and her husband, Dr. Glen Nelson, are close friends of the Mackay family. Marilyn is chairman and just stepped down as chief executive officer of Carlson, a group of companies founded by her late father, Curt Carlson, 70 years ago in Minneapolis. For the record, Carlson is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, and had the distinction of being the largest with a female CEO. System-wide sales in 2007 were nearly $40 billion, almost double what they were when Marilyn took over as CEO a decade earlier.

Proving Herself

Lest you think this job just landed in Marilyn’s lap, you should know that Curt Carlson was a tough and demanding entrepreneur. With $55, Curt started the Gold Bond Stamp Co., and grew it into a global group of companies that provide travel, hotel, cruise, restaurant and marketing services, including Carlson Wagonlit Travel, the world’s leading business travel management company. Carlson brands and services system-wide employ about 190,000 people in more than 150 countries.

Marilyn had to work hard to prove herself. Her dad wasn’t sure she was up to the task, and she admits that she wasn’t sure she would succeed him as CEO until the day he announced it — after she had been courted to run for governor of the state of Minnesota.

She continued to work hard after her appointment. Change was clearly in the air when she made her grand entrance at a large Carlson divisional meeting on rollerblades! She promised to transform the corporate culture, and now 40 percent of Carlson’s executives are women. Part of the transformation included a company-wide initiative that provides much greater flexibility for employees: on-site daycare, adoption benefits for employees, and more opportunities for employees to work from home. She insists that her policies benefit all employees, not just women.

At Carlson’s 70th anniversary in Las Vegas in late February, with 4,000 people in attendance, Marilyn turned over the CEO reigns and retained the title of chairman.

Trademark Humor

These little stories cover topics ranging from the summer her children brought home classroom gerbils to entertaining the KGB agents who accompanied Mikhail Gorbachev on a Minnesota visit. She writes about heading up the committee that brought the Super Bowl to Minnesota in 1992. I was on that committee with Marilyn. She was masterful. (Have you ever visited Minnesota in January? Would you bring the world press here to show off our “best” season? That had to be one of the most magnificent sales jobs of all time!)

The following best sums up her philosophy: “I am convinced that organizations and nations with the greatest advantage will be those which worry less about gender and more about talent.”

Mackay’s Moral: What else can I say? This woman is making history every day.

Harvey Mackay is president of Mackay Envelope Corp. and a nationally syndicated columnist.