Nine Business Insights from Time CEO Ann Moore, Plus the Mix-and-Match Women

Ann Moore, chairman and CEO of Time, Inc., is "worried about the future of business in America. Our daughters have read too much Dilbert, and have become convinced that what [business women] are doing is not creative, that we work in these little cubicles, that it is a terrible life. We have not communicated that [careers] can be rich and wonderful…. Business is going to be in trouble if this generation is determined not to follow in our footsteps."

Moore, who oversees the company’s publishing division, was a keynote speaker at the 7th Annual Wharton Women in Business Conference held November 3. Her talk was followed by a panel discussion on the challenges of the new retail environment in the leisure and style industry.

Moore knew her audience. "I go out of my way to talk to smart women," she said, "because I think it is important for us to get together and figure out how to change the world." Moore herself is a convincing example. She joined Time, Inc., in 1978, straight out of Harvard Business School, and in 2002 was named chairman and CEO. She hadn’t aspired to that position, Moore said, and in fact had been content with a career path that included running Time’s People division, clocking 10 years at Sports Illustrated and launching a dozen new magazines. "I didn’t need to be chairman — running 156 magazines read 300 million times every month — to feel fulfilled."

Full Discussion: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1320.cfm