By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Graduating from law school at the University of California, Davis in 2001, Dana Kromm found herself at the “tail end of the tech boom.” But the rising M&A star at global law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP in San Francisco has more than made up for her late arrival.
Recently named one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the legal publication The Daily Journal, Kromm, a partner in the firm’s M&A group, has established a solid reputation in Bay Area transactions and within the private equity community, advising the likes of Twitter, Visa and Sybase, as well as Francisco Partners and a number of other major technology-focused private equity firms.
“The great part about M&A is that it’s a field where you’re constantly learning new things – there’s always something in a deal that’s new, a new problem or a new issue,” she explained. “Your job as an M&A lawyer is to be a master of all the issues – which means you have the opportunity to be constantly learning.”
The same goes for working in the technology space, she continued. “Technology issues keep you on your toes in the same way, whether you’re working with IP issues, regulatory issues, or something else. It makes for a vibrant and ever-changing practice.”
Kromm says she established her reputation in the technology M&A field by getting a keen understanding of the business objectives of her clients. “Particularly on the private equity side, it’s understanding the investment motives, why they’re interested in the particular business, where they see the growth coming from. And second to that, particularly with the technology companies themselves, it’s making an effort to understand their business as well and why they’re doing the transaction.”
She added, “Technology has its own set of individual issues and I make it a priority to understand what those are.”
Recently Kromm has worked on several deals in the healthcare information technology field, and she said she is interested in how pending changes to healthcare law, including the US Supreme Court’s expected decision this summer on The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will impact her clients.
“I’m interested in seeing how those changes impact the business model of the healthcare IT companies I’m working with,” she says.
Leadership Lessons You Learned on the Playground
Expert AnswersI have reached the stage of my life where my friends are becoming parents daily. We often discuss how they plan to raise their kids and the lessons and values that they hope to instill in their children. After these discussions, I cannot help but reflect why some of those lessons from early childhood are so important throughout your life. Life is a journey, and the best lessons learned on how to be successful along that journey come from the lessons on the playground.
When I reflect upon my childhood, often my mother was so protective of me. When she heard of a fight at school or someone making fun of me, she sought to protect her cub. She never hesitated to reach out to the opposing parent and negotiate an apology or solution to the brawl. She acted instinctively on guard because her child was at risk. However, she failed to let me learn how to defend myself appropriately, work out my own issues, and stand up for my beliefs.
As the only boy and youngest cousin, often my brother was coddled to the point where he strutted along like the little prince. In his eye he could do no wrong. But occasionally he made a mistake or two and deflected with, “Well, I am the boy.” He did not have the ability to recognize a mistake, apologize, and rectify the situation. Learning how to make amends and maintain your composure is a skill of a winner.
I remember joining a soccer team and fearing that if passed the ball onto another team member, they might not receive the ball. This fear of trusting my teammates drove me to excel as a singles tennis player. But it did not solve the main issue – I needed to learn how to work well with others. As a professional, trust is the key element of teamwork. Sometimes we may not agree with the style of play of our teammate; but because that person is on our team, we need to put forth the effort and let them know that we have their back and respect them even when our opinion is different.
My parents so wanted me to succeed in my elementary school days that I now believe that they guarded the path with bumpers as a precaution in case I should fall. This path was so strictly guided that there was little room to be misguided, to accidentally get lost, or to test out different routes. It was sufficiently cushioned that I did not have to learn how pick myself up and keep moving because it was always moving for me. I suppose that it would have helped me develop a thicker skin to handle rejection and alternative choices sooner. Life will not always go according to plan. Sometime I need to redirect energy focused on what went wrong towards the direction of getting back up, dusting myself off, and moving forward to accomplish my goal even if it takes longer.
Often on family vacations we would play card games like “go fish” or “old maid” on rainy days. In these games I played to win and occasionally I lost. Instead of viewing those instances like a setback, I stormed off in a huff looking for excuses to blame my loss and hide my embarrassment. Instead of retreating, I lacked the self-confidence to enter a competition with the knowledge that sometime winning is not always possible and with an ability to shake the competitor’s hand when in defeat. Sometimes what matters is having a winning attitude and doing everything possible to work towards that goal. Establishing self-confidence early in life is so important in order for one to head into any situation with the appropriate attitude in order to move on regardless of the situation’s outcome.
I recognize that being a parent is one of the toughest roles that a woman can fulfill in her life. I often wonder what kind of mother I will be. I hope that when the opportunity comes that I remember these lessons above as a guidebook to raise a strong and confident child.
Addressing Work-Life Challenges in Asia
Work-LifeAccording to the latest report by Catalyst, work-life fit is a key issue in Asia – for women and men. In fact, the research – which polled almost 2,000 high potential employees of US or European multinationals working in Asia – revealed that 89% of women and 91% of men said work-life fit was “very important” to them.
On the other hand, only about half of respondents said work-life fit was “easy.”
As companies become more global, Catalyst says, they need to begin devising work-life strategies that work in the context of local cultures. The authors, Laura Sabattini and Nancy M. Carter, explain, “As with other workplace strategies, implementing work-life programs requires the thoughtful integration of a global approach and local customs to ensure the strategies make sense in employees’ day-to-day lives.”
While men and women reported similar views toward work-life fit in the research, the authors believe that the issue is more salient for those companies looking to get the competitive edge by attracting and retaining more women. They write, “Hiring skilled women can provide a competitive advantage for global companies, especially in countries such as India and China, where women’s economic and workforce participation is on the rise.”
They add, “Global enterprises have the potential to influence employment practices–across both borders and continents, creating work environments that foster greater consideration of employees’ unique work-life challenges and that are more inclusive of women.”
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Women Abroad – How to Get the Most from an International Assignment
Managing ChangeRosalie L. Tung is all too familiar with the challenges that women face when it comes to international assignments. As the Professor of International Business at Simon Fraser University in Canada, Tung has devoted countless hours to researching and writing about these challenges, but they may not be what you think. In her groundbreaking work Female Expatriates: The Model Global Manager?, Tung asserts that women are actually ideal candidates for overseas assignments and the challenges they face have little to do with the difficulties of being in a new country, but rather in the difficulty they experience actually getting the opportunity to work abroad.
The percentage of women in international assignments increased from 3 percent to 16 percent in the late 1990s. Throughout the 2000s, the percentage increased, though very slowly. Most recent studies have either put the percentage of women in international assignments at or slightly below 20 percent. Tung sites three factors outlined by Nancy J. Adler that are commonly provided by companies for the low deployment of women in international assignments: women don’t want overseas assignments (due to family considerations), other countries don’t want female expatriates in business dealings, and women lack the skills or competencies to succeed. These are “misconceptions” and as Tung wrote in Female Expatriates, “As long as women remain under-represented in international assignments, they will continue to lack the opportunity to acquire one of the critical competencies required of global leaders.”
This is more than just being denied one job opportunity; it’s more like being denied vital experience that can drastically change the course of your career. As Tung points out, the continued globalization of industries has led to a quest by organizations worldwide for global leaders who can help their companies survive in highly competitive work environments. In a global economy, people with global experience are pivotal to an organization’s competitive edge and women have often been excluded from promotions and leadership positions because they appear to lack one of the critical competencies identified for such key roles: a global mindset.
Once again, women find themselves in a Catch-22: they can’t move forward unless they have experience working internationally, but they’re not given the opportunity because of unfair assumptions about their competence and willingness to work abroad.
Fortunately, some women are chipping away at these misconceptions – and providing key strategic advice on navigating the challenges of taking an international post.
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Challenging Stereotypes at This Year’s NCWIT Summit
Managing ChangeUnderstanding and breaking stereotypes was a hot topic at the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Summit last week in Chicago. The NCWIT was established in 2004 with support from the National Science Foundation to increase the amount of women in computing and technology. NCWIT does not consider themselves a women’s network rather a change leader bringing men and women together to recruit, develop, and retain women in information technology.
One of the speakers at the Summit was Dr. Shelley Correll, a professor at Stanford University who studies how gendered expectations shape the everyday experiences of men and women in achievement-oriented settings. She spoke on the value of understanding biases and stereotypes within the hiring process.
Dr. Correll began her presentation referring to a study about the number of female musicians performing in orchestras. A study co-authored by Cecilia Rouse, an associate professor at Princeton University, and Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University, confirmed the existence of sex-biased hiring by major symphony orchestras and illustrated the value of blind auditions.
According to Correll, females only represented 5% of the musicians that played in symphony orchestras in the 1970’s. When blind auditions were introduced, musicians played behind a screen so the sex of the musician was hidden, 50 percent of the musicians that moved on to the second round of auditions were females. Today, females make up 25 percent of the musicians in symphony orchestras.
“This study points out two things,” said Correll. “The first is that gender stereotypes bias the evaluations of individuals in ways that are often male advantaging. The second is that these biases can be reduced or eliminated.”
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How Telling Your Story Can Make You A Better Leader
Ask A Career CoachOne of my clients is taking on a new CEO role. The company has gone through some tough challenges and changes and she wants to find a way to connect with the people that she will be leading in a way that is authentic. She wants to lower the collective high blood pressure in the room that typically results when new Management comes in. Most new CEO introductions are about the challenges the company faces, the new CEO’s strategy for success (i.e. let me save you from the mess you’ve created) and what the new CEO needs from the employees (your jobs may be safe if you all just do what I say). When people are anxious or wondering whether they will have a job on Monday, how well do you think that goes over?
My client decided to take a different tact. Her goal is to really connect with the employees in the company, to learn from them what works and doesn’t and to enroll them in helping her find the solutions. And there is no better way to connect with people than by telling your leadership story. Here are five steps you can take today to articulate that story and start sharing it to more powerfully connect and engage with others.
Those of us who experienced story telling in our families, or around a camp-fire as children, understand the impact stories have on our experiences and the very formation of who we are and our values. There is new research from neuroscience about the power of story-telling to shape our brains as reported in this New York Times article.
So, here are the five steps.
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Women of Vision Share Successes – and Failures – with Tech’s Up-and-Comers
Industry Leaders, Leadership“By the end of the speeches, you’re going to feel like you haven’t done anything in your career!” This was a statement overheard several times in passing from attendees earlier this month at the seventh annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet in Santa Clara, California, held by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). The sentiment referred to the continuously high caliber of award winners who have the distinction of receiving an ABI award for leadership, innovation, or social impact.
Yet by the time the speeches were through, the packed ballroom of 800 attendees— which included more than 100 students with attendance sponsored by tech companies and local universities—was clearly inspired, not discouraged. This was due not only to the impressive video bios that recounted the winning women’s achievements, but to the “anti-bios” that each winner bravely shared, directing their advice in particular to the younger women in the audience.
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Movers and Shakers: Susan Bulkeley Butler, Founder and CEO of SBB Institute for the Development of Women Leaders
Movers and Shakers“Be responsible for who you are and what you want to be and make it happen,” advised Susan Bulkeley Butler, founder and CEO of the SSB institute for the Development of Women Leaders.
This is advice Butler herself has lived – after being the first woman professional hired at Arthur Anderson (now Accenture) in 1965, she found herself passed over for promotion time and time again – until she realized she needed to take control of her career, that is. Butler turned her professional path around, eventually being named the first female partner at the firm. Now retired from the company, Butler is also a published author and leadership speaker, enthusiastically working toward the goal of getting more women into top jobs.
“We have one life and I’m not sure we all make things happen for us, rather than let things happen to us. If we’re not taking responsibility for who we are and where we want to be, then who are we outsourcing this to? Who is making this happen?”
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Intrepid Woman: Theresa Payton, President and CEO, Fortalice
Intrepid Women SeriesAccording to Theresa Payton, President and CEO of Fortalice and co-author of Protecting Your Internet Identity: Are You Naked Online, one of the most important things she has learned throughout her career sounds simple, but it’s something many women find challenging. “Saying no sometimes is actually okay. It’s not a sign of not being a team player. “
Payton, who spent 16 years in technology in the banking industry before becoming the first female Chief Information Officer at the White House, continued, “Early in my career, I felt I needed to rush in, grab the ball, and do it all. I quickly became overloaded. There’s a difference between not letting a ball drop and feeling as if I needed to take on everything myself.”
“Fortunately, I had mentors say to me that it’s okay to say no and recommend someone else,” she added.
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Voice of Experience: Dana Kromm, Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions Group, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of ExperienceGraduating from law school at the University of California, Davis in 2001, Dana Kromm found herself at the “tail end of the tech boom.” But the rising M&A star at global law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP in San Francisco has more than made up for her late arrival.
Recently named one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the legal publication The Daily Journal, Kromm, a partner in the firm’s M&A group, has established a solid reputation in Bay Area transactions and within the private equity community, advising the likes of Twitter, Visa and Sybase, as well as Francisco Partners and a number of other major technology-focused private equity firms.
“The great part about M&A is that it’s a field where you’re constantly learning new things – there’s always something in a deal that’s new, a new problem or a new issue,” she explained. “Your job as an M&A lawyer is to be a master of all the issues – which means you have the opportunity to be constantly learning.”
The same goes for working in the technology space, she continued. “Technology issues keep you on your toes in the same way, whether you’re working with IP issues, regulatory issues, or something else. It makes for a vibrant and ever-changing practice.”
Kromm says she established her reputation in the technology M&A field by getting a keen understanding of the business objectives of her clients. “Particularly on the private equity side, it’s understanding the investment motives, why they’re interested in the particular business, where they see the growth coming from. And second to that, particularly with the technology companies themselves, it’s making an effort to understand their business as well and why they’re doing the transaction.”
She added, “Technology has its own set of individual issues and I make it a priority to understand what those are.”
Recently Kromm has worked on several deals in the healthcare information technology field, and she said she is interested in how pending changes to healthcare law, including the US Supreme Court’s expected decision this summer on The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will impact her clients.
“I’m interested in seeing how those changes impact the business model of the healthcare IT companies I’m working with,” she says.
Read more
Voice of Experience: Minerva Tantoco, Executive Director, Client Facing Technology, UBS
Voices of Experience“My path could not have been predicted early in my career,” said Minerva Tantoco, Executive Director of Client Facing Technology at UBS. “If I’d known it was just following your interests and passions and just doing them well, I think I’d have had a lot less stress.”
“Just be yourself, and have a sense of humor. Your path is you and what you find interesting.”
Through a career spanning three decades and covering multiple industries, Tantoco has worked on the cutting edge of online advertising, e-commerce, mobile technology, and shifting workflows.
“To be part of generating change and really revolutionizing how we do business every two years, and to be part of the changes that have occurred over the past 30 years – I feel like I’m a part of the history of computing,” she said.
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