Launch Event

We held the first-ever Whale Hunting Women conference/seminar on June 3 in Indianapolis. 175 people there to launch this program! [Mostly women, but some great men as well]

Five women spoke about their personal "whale hunts" -- Big Deals in their lives and work. Brooke Green, host of The Utimate Sales Chick podcast. Lyn St. James, pioneer Indy car driver and mentor to women in racing. Lin Dunn, phenomenal head coach of the Indiana Fever WNBA team, and winningest coach ever for women's basketball at Purdue University. Becky Skillman, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. And yours truly.

We promised an event full of inspiration--motivation--and direction. By all accounts, that's what happened. I'll be posting photos and video soon and hope you will join us for the next events.

Do women wimp out?

There's been keen coverage of an event in college women's softball--probably you've heard the story, coverage here. Last inning home run hit puts losing team ahead, but hitter/baserunner injures her knee and is unable to make the rounds of the bases. Members of the opposing team carry her around the bases, ensuring that her home run counts, ensuring that their own team will lose and that they are eliminated from payoffs. The incident sparked a firestorm of controversial commentary (see WSJ Independent Street blog)--what began as a tug-at-your-heartstrings sportsmanship story was often condemned as a reason women do not attain the highest levels of business leadership--a misplaced and dangerous sense of "fairness" that undermines our ability to compete and actually teaches us bad lessons in sportsmanship.

Wow--I've really taken that to heart. When I first heard the story I thought it was an extraordinary lesson in selfless generosity, but what if it was just stupid? And how could I learn from the dialog?

I'd like to think that the women who spontaneously performed an act of kindness will reap rewards in the future. I mean if it were just up to me, I would hire them. I would trust them. I would put them in charge of a sticky joint venture. I would believe in their ability to take daily conflicts to a higher level of meaning where they can be resolved gracefully.

But what do you think? Is the economy hungering for more generosity, or are women just wimping out?

Influential Business Thinkers NOT Women?

Wendy Bounds blogged on the WSJ's Top 20 Influential Business Thinkers, none of whom are women. [Ayn Rand, Where Are You? May 5]

Does the problem lie with how we define "influential?" Is it more about "thinkers?" Or is it just about differences between women and men in business?

Lots of commentators on that blog have their ideas, from profound to ridiculous, but its worth thinking about.

If women are great whale hunters--and I believe we are-- we have to be more aggressive in calling attention to our acomplishments.

Men are still more rewarded and respected for 20th-century economy strengths--win/lose competition focused on eliminating enemies, top-down management or employees, American xenophobia. That economy is dead, and women will prove to be the winners in a new economy that demands joint ventures, embracing partners in the emerging economies, inspiring employee loyalty.

What do you think? Do men not want to listen to women? Do women prefer listening to men? There's money on the table here!

A Troubling Story

Cover story in New York magazine, May 5 2008 issue: THEY FIRED THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN ON WALL STREET. [http://nymag.com/news/business/46476/]

It's a gripping and troubling account of Zoe Cruz, who on the eve of becoming CEO of Morgan Stanley, was summarily fired by the retiring CEO who had been her mentor.

Reporter Joe Hagan's story is pretty even-handed and instructive. Zoe Cruz is clearly a whale hunter -- doing the biggest deals she could imagine, doing them successfully, and parlaying that success into the likelihood of becoming the first women to head a major Wall Street firm. Then a series of events take her from heir apparent to scapegoat. And make no mistake--it's very relevant to her being a women. Friends and foes alike argue about whether she was too strident or too soft!

Title of the article is Only the Men Survive. We have to change that. Please read this article and then post your comments here--every business woman and our mothers, daughters, and partners need to try to make sense of this one.

Danica's Big Deal

Danica Patrick made racing history and big-deal history when she won her first Indy car race after 50 starts. She's been on a whale hunt since she was a little girl. Learning to drive race cars was only the beginning. In order to compete, to run every race on her circuit to stay competitive, Danica has to make big deals with sponsors--those are the whales! Indy car trendsetter Lyn St. James teaches girls and young women how to sell their promise to sponsors and how to retain a great sponsorship relationship.

Danica is a GoDaddy Girl -- sponsored by the web services provider GoDaddy.com. She's been a great asset to them, not only because she's a great race car driver and a beautiful woman, but because she treats them well and is generous with her time and good nature. Here's a fantastic video blog by Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy. Click on Danica Wins! It'll make your day

I'm collecting Big Deal stories about women. I hope you'll post some!

Founding Mothers were Whale Hunters

Cokie Roberts was a featured speaker at the Christamore House event described in my last entry. She's written two books about the women "behind the men" known as the "founding fathers." The first is Founding Mothers and the more recent is Ladies of Liberty. [Order them both from amazon.com]

It was exhilarating to hear Cokie talk about her research, her discoveries, and the rich and lyrical voices of the women that she invokes. Her passionate message is this: the women were so political! I would say they were whale hunters. They invented and then worked their social power base in order to capture the big deals for their families--

Cokie talked about her mother, Lindy Boggs, who wielded power as the wife of a senator, then a senator in her own right, and then the US ambassador to the Vatican. Lindy Boggs was a whale hunter in all of her roles--whether orchestrating from "behind" the scenes to taiing the stage herself. An interesting aside--when she was an elected senator, Lindy Boggs had to vote and thereby commit her opinions to the record. In her former role, she never had to tip her hand politically.

Do you like to work behind the scenes, out in front, or a combination of both? We would love to hear your experiences.

A Whale Hunt for Charity

Yesterday in Indianapolis I attended the Book and Author luncheon, a big annual benefit hosted by the Christamore House, which was founded in 1905 as a settlement house and is still serving families and helping kids get a education.

This event is a perfect example of the philanthropic whale hunt that women do so often and so well. Here's why I call it a whale hunt:

• Their "whale" is a big fundraising goal, focused on one event with multiple streams of revenue.
• They have very specific, measurable objectives—including a strict timeline and numbers—of contacts, of attendees, of ticket sales, of sponsor contributions.
• The staff and volunteers work all year in preparation.
• The Indiana Roof Ballroom will seat 950 people at tables of 10, so they launched a boat of 75 table captains to ensure a sell-out event. In fact, 250 wannabes will have to wait until next year.
• They use Subject Matter Experts in their unique areas of expertise--seeking sponsors, doing PR, overseeing the program, reviewing books and inviting authors, coordinating event logistics, and more and more.
• They mentor the volunteers who will lead next year’s hunt, and they keep track of what works and how to do things to ensure efficiency and success.

Some charitable whale hunts are hugely successful, like this one, but others fall short of the mark. The key difference is design and management of a rigorous whle hunting process.

What charitable whale hunts have you helped to orchestrate? What are the process ideas that work best for you?

What's the Big Deal?

Women do big deals in multiple arenas. In business, the Big Deal may be a sale, or a strategic alliance, or an acquisition. But in our community roles, women do Big and Bigger Deals in philanthropy and human services.

Are you raising money for the local symphony? Supporting a children's hospital? Sheltering the homeless? Feeding the hungry?

Then you need to do Big Deals. The nonprofit sector often lives in what I call a "culture of scarcity." You are focused on the need and overwhelmed by your incapacity to meet it. For a change in perspective, try living in a "culture of abundance." I have always found that the bigger the problem, the more resources are available to address it. More people care, more money is invested, more solutions are invented. Your job is to go whale hunting for those resources--the people, the money, the solutions.

Let me know what Big Deal you are doing. Whale Hunting Women can help you build a team and launch a boat to hunt that whale!

Women's Talents

OK. I said women have "special" talents for whale hunting--doing big deals. I say that because often we don't think of our special talents as being relevant to "the big deal." What are those talents? Here are a few:

• a gift for listening and learning
• a preference for collaboration and alignment
• an instinct for mentoring and guiding

Are we born with these talents or socialized to them? Who cares! Do some men have these gifts as well? (Yes) Do all women display them? (No). But you and I both know that a lot of highly successful women have become successful and stayed there because of their special talents.

I look forward to exploring with you how we as women can leverage our most precious assets and how this 21st century economy cries out for us to do that!

Introduction from a Whale Hunter

This blog is for and about women who want to accomplish big ideas and big plans--that is, hunt whales! It's for women who are entrepreneurs, executives, community leaders, thought leaders--and for all of the women who want to become whale hunters!

I'm saying that a whale is a goal that is 10 times or 20 times bigger than your average goal. Your goal might be a big business sale, or a phenomenal new alliance or community action, or a run for office. It might be acquiring significant funds to support your favorite charity, or it might be a new life decision that you want to accomplish--a new job, a new direction, a really major change in who you are and what you do. Your whale is whatever you want to do or need to do that is much bigger than you, much bigger than the ordinary things you do, complex and scary. You know you can't do it alone, and you know that you need a process.

I'm a founder of The Whale Hunters. We're a sales process development and training company, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN, USA. In January 2008 we published Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company.

It's a book that applies lessons learned from the Inuit whale hunters to modern business, and our business includes consulting with companies that want to implement the process that we've designed. What I've learned is that women business owners, sales managers, and key executives are exceptionally good at whale hunting! In this blog I hope to talk with you about why this is so and how we can leverage our special talents and preferences in doing big deals.

So how about it -- what kind of big deals are you doing or hoping to do? What kind of help will you need?