Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58060
Business schools are structured to make you think through an equation. "If X and Y, then C." A philosophy education teaches you to ask, "Well, why X in the first place?" precedents and how important they can be when you're making decisions. Philosophy also is very good at making you challenge the inputs of any situation. Business schools are structured to make you think through an equation. "If X and Y, then C." A philoso- phy education teaches you to ask, "Well, why X in the first place?" It was helpful for me to acquire this background that encouraged me to be a deeper thinker. I gained tremendous experience and enjoyed living in a differ- ent country. Attending Oxford certainly made me a much more well-rounded international businessperson. Peluso meets with business students at the Tandy Executive Speaker Series sponsored by the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. You've also mentioned that you like to fill your organi- zation with people who are smarter than you are. How do you find those people? To begin with, you have to be ruthlessly honest with yourself about what you are and are not good at. I'm not a native tech- nologist, so it's critical to the organization that I have people on staff who are much more capable in technology than I am. Our COO, Tracey Weber, is extremely smart operationally. She can take almost any complex problem and break it down into how to solve it and how to execute the solution. I look for smart people when I'm hiring for any position. You've said you enjoy being a female entrepreneur who acts as a mentor to other women. What kinds of lessons do you try to impart to those you mentor? I make sure the people I mentor, men and women, are very thoughtful about their careers and willing to take risks. If I'm mentoring someone who's been a marketing executive for a long time and her ultimate aspiration is to run a com- pany, I will push her really hard. If she's faced with different opportunities, I'll say, "Turn down that marketing promo- tion and go for the operations role. If you really want to be a general manager, broaden your experience, even if it means less money or a lesser title." I push people to take risks and accept critical jobs that no one else wants. When I meet with the people I mentor, I ask them to bring case studies from their lives, examples of times they either wit- nessed a situation or were in charge of a situation that didn't go very well. We'll dissect it together. I'll ask, "What else could you have done? What could your boss have done?" I try to arm them with different approaches to problems. Also, when I mentor people, I work hard to broaden their stylistic range. All of us have a natural style. Maybe you're someone who's very agreeable and reliable. That's great—you don't want to lose the fact that people can count on you. But when you're a business leader, you may have to lay somebody off or give someone a bad performance review. If you're going to evolve, you need to learn how to speak up, how to be tough, how to slam your hand down on the table and shock everybody when you're in the middle of a difficult negotiation. 20 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2007 What skills and characteristics do you look for when you're inteviewing new MBAs? I want people who demonstrate a passion for the industry, who seem really motivated, and who can demonstrate that they've successfully managed their way through tough challenges. I look for people who are emotionally steady, because we work in a dynamic environment with constant change. I also want people with integrity. Finally, I look for people who I think will be great man- agers of other people. Even when I'm considering them for entry-level jobs, I ask myself, "Is this the kind of person I can see managing a team?" If the answer is "no," I probably wouldn't hire the candidate, even if I thought he'd be good at this particular job. Three years ago, Wall Street Journal ranked you No. 4 on its "Women to Watch" list. If people are watching you in the next three years, what will they see? I hope they'll see that, with my leadership, Travelocity has become the best place for people to work. I hope it will be staffed by a team of passionate superstars who love to come to work every day. I also hope Travelocity will be powering the world's best travel experiences. I define my success in part by my professional goals, but I hope I also have success in my personal goals. I'm very involved in a couple of nonprofits, and I'd like to continue to make meaningful contributions to them outside of the day job. That's what I hope people will see. ■ z CHRISTINA HEUNERMUND