As I mentioned in an earlier post, I attended and spoke at a Global Business Summit recently in Dallas, sponsored by the local chapter of the American Marketing Association. I was the last speaker, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad; this time it was good. The theme of the conference was focused on doing business in a tough economy, and all day long I listened to folks who were sharing their concerns about the current state of business and sharing stories of challenging times for their companies. As the day went on, my head became filled with thoughts of how well prepared Mary Kay was, unlike many other companies, for any sort of challenge that came our way. I wondered, why are we are in such a different place? What is it that Mary Kay has done differently that has us in such a strong place? I continued to think about that most of the afternoon, so much so that I was often distracted from the program. When it came my turn to speak, I shared the story of Mary Kay's global growth...

Today is the day that we celebrate Mother Earth. I'm thankful that we've decided to set aside a day to honor our planet and to reflect on sustainability in the environment, however, every day should be Earth Day. After all, it is the only Earth that we have. Many people will be out doing special things today to help the planet in their local communities, but I wonder how many of them will go right back to their normal routines tomorrow without having made any long-term changes in their behavior that could make a difference. Each of us, doing small things, can collectively add up to big changes that will improve our sustainability for generations to come. At Mary Kay, we take our accountability as a good steward of the environment very seriously. Are we perfect? No, not yet. Are we working harder every day to make continuous improvements? Yes, we are. This last year I've witnessed first-hand how, by working together, we've made a tremendous difference. Thanks to the efforts...

I was asked to give the closing keynote speech at a Global Business Summit yesterday, conducted by the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the American Marketing Assocation. On Tuesday evening, there was a reception at a local university for the speakers, several marketing industry professionals and faculty from the university. One of my staff members from Mary Kay's market research team is the President-Elect of the local AMA chapter, so she also attended the reception. I don't get many opportunities to socialize with my team, and I was glad to have the chance to visit with her outside the normal work day environment. As we were talking, she shared with me her dream of continuing her education and pursuing a PhD, and then the conversation somehow turned to getting out of school and trying to figure out where you fit in the business world, and all the things that they don't teach you in college that you wish they would. She said they didn't teach her in college how to find the...

The Mary Kay women are really a creative bunch! We've had well over 500 suggestions for the Reflections blog tagline. We'll close down the contest and gather all the entries tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM Dallas time. Then we'll narrow it down and put several of the best back out there for you to vote on. The tagline that receives the most votes will be declared our winner, and the author will be the owner of a fabulous new Michael Kors designer handbag. I've noticed that many of you have left duplicate comments because you didn't see it post immediately. Comments made to this site are moderated, which means that I review them before they are posted to the site. I review the comments several times each day, but there are times when I eat, sleep, do my other Mary Kay work, and spend some time with my family. Also, for you "night owls", I'm an "early to bed, early to rise" person, so I rarely review comments after 9 PM, and often review them prior...

Welcome to the inaugural post of “Reflections” -- I’m delighted that you’ve come to visit! Perhaps we’ve had a chance to meet already; if so, it’s good to connect with you again. If we don’t yet know each other, I’m looking forward to learning about you. (If you’re curious about me, you can click on the “About the authors” button at the top right.) It is so exciting for me to have this opportunity to share with you a bit about what’s going on at Mary Kay and my perspective on issues that interest us as women. I’d also like to hear from you about what’s on your mind. I wish Mary Kay Ash were still here, so she could see us utilizing these new avenues of communication. In my early days at the company, I remember Mary Kay referring to “the three forms of communication – telegraph, telephone and tell-a-woman”. She would be so surprised at how far we’ve come as a society and as a company...