Ginni Rometty is the next CEO of IBM. In part, perhaps, because she is full of charm and charisma, theorizes Judith Samuelson's in her post on the Huff Post. (bolds mine)
"In 2002, when IBM purchased the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company turned to Rometty to massage the egos and assure a successful transition. At the time, the $3.5 billion purchase was viewed as a big risk...CEO Palmisano..."She did the deal and she made it work" ... George Colony, chairman of Forrester Research, called it a "massive charm campaign" and cited Ginni's "performance and charisma."
Really? The next CEO of IBM is charming? We have promoted a woman to lead the single largest company ever led by a female in the history of the country, because of her charisma? For a Boomer feminist like me, those words should make my skin crawl.
Instead, I say bring it on. A few years back, it was the women who had the courage to speak out on the need for internal business protocols and compensation systems that favor long-term investment over short-termism. Anne Mulcahy at Xerox, Indra Nooyi at Pepsi, Peggy Foran at Pfizer, and Sarah Teslik at Apache Corporation were among the first to lead or persuade their companies to sign on to the Aspen Principles, an unprecedented agreement among companies, investors, and corporate governance professionals who have vowed to dedicate themselves to long-term value creation over short-term profits. I am quite sure that smarts and charm were needed."
So maybe we're getting closer to the day when we'll get to see what the world would look like if women were in charge...