ROSALIND BREWER: FORBES 43RD MOST POWERFUL WOMAN 1

ROSALIND BREWER: FORBES 43RD MOST POWERFUL WOMAN

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Rosalind Brewer: Forbes' 43rd Most Powerful Woman 2019 Old Dominion University Christopher Spellman

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Reason For Researching Rosalind Brewer Rosalind Brewer is ranked as the 43rd most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women 2019 Ranking List. While scrolling through the first 50 names on this list, I recognized that there were only two individuals who hold the same racial identity as me. Oprah Winfrey and Rosalind Brewer were the only two African-Americans listed within the first 50 most powerful women in the world (Forbes, 2019). Although this initially grabbed my attention, I continued to assess the success of the other 98 individuals on this list. After a comprehensive review of all the women on the list, my heart was still fixed on exploring more of Rosalind Brewer's journey. In my research I found that in 2012, Brewer was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Sam's Club, a retail warehouse club division owned and operated by Walmart Inc. (Wahba, 2017). Rosalind made history as the company's first woman and first African American to lead a Walmart Division at this level. After serving five years in this role and leading approximately 107,000 associates, Rosalind changed paths and became the Chief Operating Officer of Starbucks (Kowitt, 2017). As COO, Brewer oversees Starbucks' operating business in Canada, the U.S., and Latin American global supply chain, product innovation, and store development organizations. While also serving as the first woman and first African American in this capacity, Rosalind consistently exercises a number of leadership skills and traits that contributes to the company's success (Laursen, 2019).

Leadership Traits / Skills Highlighting Brewer's Leadership Traits

After intensive research and evaluation of Rosalind Brewer's interviews and speeches, there are three leadership traits that continue to resurface over time: perseverance, confidence,

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competitive, and innovative. Throughout her career, she has been able to persevere through the intersectional identity barriers of race and gender in the highest levels of leadership.

What is unique about Rosalind's journey is that her highest level of education is only a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Spelman College (Arthur, 2018). Brewer's perseverance has allowed her to become the first African American female representative to serve in top executive positions (i.e. COO of Starbucks, Board of Directors representative for Amazon, former CEO of Starbucks, etc.), without a Masters or Doctorate degree (Arthur, 2018). This leadership trait has also made room for her to speak on her experiences of perseverance and inspire others to do the same. In Brewer's 2018 commencement speech to Spelman University's graduates, she informed the +8,000 attendees that she's a part of `Generation P,' stating, "P is for perseverance - we've had the job of keeping the fires that our grandmothers and mothers fought for, lived for, died for - alive," (Shaw, 2018). She continued her speech by reciting times where she had to perservere through the incompetent perspectives of others by stating, "When you're a Black woman, you get mistaken a lot. You get mistaken as someone who could actually not have the top job. Sometimes you're mistaken for kitchen help or people assume you're in the wrong place," (Shaw, 2018). While persevering through these insulting comments and those a like, Rosalind's confident leadership trait has shown up in arenas where it would have been intimidating to other individuals.

In a `Goldman Sachs Talk' interview with Amanda Hindlian, Rosalind shared a time when she was invited to a private CEO Summit in New York while serving as the CEO of Sam's Club. In this meeting of twenty-five high executive officials, Rosalind was the only black woman present and was approached by a gentleman who asked, "So what do you do, Marketing? Or

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maybe Merchandise?" She humbly responded to both questions by indicating that he was partially correct. This troubled Rosalind and she had to remind herself to remain calm and remember that she was invited and belonged. By the time she was fully settled, it was time for Rosalind to walk to the podium and give her speech as the Opening Keynote Speaker. She looked at the gentlemen's face as she introduced herself to the crowd and saw that the gentleman was in awe at the fact that she was in a position that was much higher than he initially perceived. Instead of allowing the man's questions to intimidate her, she was able to persevere through this challenging moment and confidently give an inspirational speech to the group of leaders. The leadership traits that Rosalind has displayed throughout her career have equipped her to successfully lead in uncomfortable positions. Effects of Brewer's Leadership Traits

Failures There hasn't been a clear trail of failures in Rosalind Brewer's leadership history. There was one time where the media negatively portrayed Rosalind's character. Rosalind interviewed with CNN's Poppy Harlow in 2015 and the conversation shifted from wages to diversity in the workplace. Rosalind clearly articulated her commitment to diversity as CEO of Sam's Club by indicating, "I demand it [diversity] of my team and within the structure," (O'Brien, 2015). When Harlow asked Brewer if she demands it in hiring for top spots, Brewer affirmed that she did and indicated that she talks to her suppliers about it. She shared a time where she encountered a group of suppliers who were all caucasion males. Rosalind recited her initial thoughts to Harlow by stating, "That was interesting. I decided not to talk about it directly with his [head supplier]

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folks in the room because there were no females levels down, so I'm going to place a call to him," (O'Brien, 2015).

Many negatively reacted to this statement by calling Rosalind "racist" and challenging others to Boycott Sam's Club and Walmart. Hundreds of people on social media reacted to this interview within twenty-four hours with a hashtag that stated, #BoycottRacistSamsClub. Doug McMillon, Walmart President and CEO at the time, educated angry customers by stating, "For years, we've asked our suppliers to prioritize the talent and diversity of their sales teams calling on our company. Roz was simply trying to reiterate that we believe diverse and inclusive teams make for a stronger business. That's all there is to it and I support that important ideal," (O'Brien, 2015). For this reason, instead of classifying this incident as a failure, this was an unfortunate misinterpretation of wording that was negatively portrayed on social media. Despite the negative comments and incompetent reactions displayed from people around the world, Rosalind Brewer continued to perservere through the negativity and confidently championed a competitive organization and successful career.

Achievements Rosalind's perseverance and confidence has enabled her to be a competitor. When she was appointed the CEO of Sam's Club, she was able to shift the competitiveness of the company by innovatively bringing modern day services; such as, initiating the advancement of online ordering and doubling the amount of organic products offered at Sam's Club to improve the health and wellness of customers (Connley, 2017). In addition to being the only person of color to sit on Amazon's Board of Directors, Rosalind has demonstrated success as the Chief Operating Officer of Starbucks (Laursen, 2019). In this role, Rosalind has been able to help

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