Leaders in 70 Industries : Top Women Executives Form Own Idea Network
The days of the “ol’ boy” network in the business world have been numbered since some of the nation’s most powerful women were brought together four years ago by an entrepreneur for a little “networking” of their own.
Adrienne Hall, vice chairwoman of the board of the Eisaman, Johns & Laws advertising agency, and 20 other women founded the Committee of 200 in 1982 to create a network for top-level businesswomen to exchange ideas and share experiences.
“Because there are a lot of men in top management, they naturally have built-in networks,” Hall said. “There are only a few women in top management, so this group provides a meeting ground for businesswomen.”
Sales Criterion
The committee, or C200, is a national members-only club for women who own businesses with annual sales of at least $5 million or run a corporate division with more than $20 million in yearly sales and have titles like president, chairman or chief executive officer on their business cards.
“But our members are much more powerful than those figures represent,” Hall said. “I think those requirements are going up soon. Most women who run businesses go way beyond that.”
About 80% of the 230 members are entrepreneurs and the remaining 20% are executives of major corporations who have substantial profit and loss responsibility.
Hall, an entrepreneur herself, founded the first U.S. advertising agency to be headed by a woman.
70 Industries Represented
The national members include the leading women in more than 70 industries, including fashion and beauty, real estate, construction, banking, manufacturing and communications.
“Membership in C200 has given each of us special access to people and opportunities that are not normally available,” said C200 President Susan W. Bird, who is also president of her own real estate investment and financial services firm, S. W. Bird & Co., in Connecticut and New York.
“We can freely turn to one another for advice and support on particular business issues,” she said. “Since each of the women is at the very top of her field, this shared expertise is truly valuable.”
C200 claims Christie Hefner, president and chief operating officer of Playboy enterprises, Judi Sheppard Missett, president of Jazzercise Inc., and Julia Thomas, chairwoman of the board of the Los Angeles-based Bobrow/Thomas and Associates architectural firm.
By Invitation Only
However, although there is no plethora of women in the United States already at the top rung of the corporate management ladder, the C200 is a selective group that adds members to its ranks by invitation only after a selection subcommittee gives its approval.
“It’s a selective group of women with power,” Hall said. “But that’s OK because we can make things happen for all women.”
The origin of the committee grew out of a fund-raising project initiated by the National Assn. of Women Business Owners to identify leading women entrepreneurs who could afford to contribute to the organization. To the researchers’ surprise, they found almost 2,000 women who fit the business owner profile making $5 million or more in sales.
Almost 3 Million Owners
Today, there are nearly 3 million women who own their own businesses, and their companies add $40 billion to the nation’s gross national product, according to C200 statistics.
No men have been asked to join the group, Hall said.
“We do not exclude men,” she said. “The by-laws of the organization do not exclude men. Right now, having women members serves the purposes of the group.”
The C200 holds national conferences biannually that focus on business issues and strategies. Past topics for conference programs have been “Risk Taking,” “The Productive Use of Capital,” and “Balancing Professional and Personal Priorities.”
The group’s next national conference will be this month in Atlanta.
“Everybody turns out for our conferences . . . the governor, the mayor,” Hall said. “Even Coca-Cola (a multinational corporation headquartered in Atlanta) is hosting a party for us.”
