46. Shaz Kahng - changing the stereotype of women in business

Shaz Kahng is a serial CEO and Board Director and with a wealth of experience running companies and businesses and is also an award-winning author of two novels, with a third underway. In this episode she talks about the power of diverse perspectives on management teams and boards, and the tremendous impact it can have.

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Links

Shaz's website

https://www.ceilingsmashers.com/

Amazon for The Closer

https://www.amazon.com/Closer-Ceiling-Smashers-Book/dp/0998656607/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1663614201&sr=8-1

Google Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foKW0H9v4V0

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shazkahng/

Quotes

The Closer [First Novel]

I noticed in reading a lot of fiction novels was that if there was a male character who was a business leader, he was allowed to be attractive and smart and successful and athletic and had lots of friends.

But whenever there was a female business leader, she was allowed to be competent at her job, but the rest of her life was really negative: for example, she was trying to quash the careers of other women, or she had 13 cats or she was desperate to get married.

I thought that these fiction books were not reflecting reality. I've worked with and know so many incredible women who are leading businesses, leading companies who are very inspirational, very positive, who are really focused on helping other women, like Lisa Shalett [co-founder of EWOB]

I thought there was just a void in the fiction marketplace. I wanted to address that and write a fresh novel that had a more modern and accurate take on women in business.

Some publishers were a little concerned about the theme of the book.

I was really surprised [at the reaction by some publishers] because I thought I was offering a very distinct and unique product and one that women would want to read, and I was surprised when I heard from some publishers that they didn't think women wanted to read about other smart women. They didn't want to read about successful women. They didn't want to read about women helping other women, and I just thought they were wrong.

I pushed ahead and published the book, and it's gotten a great reception from women leaders and male leaders as well. I've heard some men who are CEOs say, "When I'm faced with a challenge, I think what would the main character Vivien Lee do in this situation," and then they make a decision that way. So, that's been very gratifying to hear.

Big Ideas/Thoughts

Extraordinary Women on Boards

EWOB is really focused on educating current board members. In order to be on EWOB, you have to be currently on a board or previously on a board so it's for people who really are experienced board directors, but the focus is on continuing education, discussing topics that are top of mind for boards and just really expanding board members' capabilities and understanding of different issues.

It is a really helpful resource to have such qualified women who are experienced on different boards to be able to share their experiences, share their perspectives, network, and also let each other know of opportunities.

Strategic war games [at OMSignal, a biometric apparel startup]

I suggested to the board and to the founders that we do a strategic war game, which is type of simulation game that you play, that helps you build a very forward-looking strategy.

It helps you figure out what the holes are in your business strategy, what the opportunities are, where the industry sector is going. As a result of that strategic war game, we ended up focusing a little bit more on women and I had been asking the founders, "Why are you just focused on men's compression and introducing a smart sports shirt? Why not women's compression?" And they said, "Well, what product would that be?" And I said, "Well, women wear a compression product every day, which is a bra, so why don't we do a smart sports bra?"

I think that's why populating your board with people of different backgrounds, different ways of thinking, differentexperiences are so critical to ensuring a successful future for your company.

Onboarding: Private vs Public Boards

It was a vastly different experience. With the private company boards, basically on my first day they said, "Okay, can you help us figure out our revenue projections? Do we do it the right way? We need help with marketing. What do you think about this copy? Or should we be spending more money doing these different things with our marketing budget?" it was very hands on, very deep.

With the public company board, it was much more of a formal process. There were certain pieces of information that I needed to review, SEC documents that I had to fill out, and then I also had interviews with, I think, three or four members of the board before I was nominated, and I also asked to meet with all of the board members individually before I actually joined the board

Science Background

I think a science background was a great foundation for a business career, and one of the reasons is that it helps you really approach problems from a holistic point of view. I think it gives you an ability to develop hypotheses on how to solve problems, to experiment with different results that might work and to ultimately pick the right solution.

LiveGirl

LiveGirl was started by Sheri West. She was a former GE executive and she noticed that there weren't enough opportunities careerwise for women from diverse backgrounds and she wanted to do something about it and she's doing a terrific job with it.

LiveGirl helps to provide girls, middle school and up, with the skills that they need to be able to succeed in the workplace, like better communication skills, negotiation skills, interviewing skills and things like that. They also help set up girls in the program with summer internships with different companies.