What was really tough for me was that Lars Magnus Ericsson founded Ericsson in 1876; we've always had a consumer product. And I'm the 16th CEO of Ericsson, and I decided that we don't have any consumer products anymore.
At News Corporation, we have a history of challenging media orthodoxies.
The great corporations of this country were not founded by ordinary people. They were founded by people with extraordinary intelligence, ambition, and aggressiveness.
I've got deep roots in Kalamazoo, with a grandfather, Harold Allen, who was a big part of Upjohn Co. for many years as the corporate secretary and friends with W. E. Upjohn.
When I was deciding whether or not to take the job at Celine, I didn't really look at the history of the house. I had other offers to come back, but they weren't right, or they wouldn't let me stay in London, which was non-negotiable.
Corporations did not achieve the scale we normally associate with them until the 1880s; but it's still hard to imagine that Abraham Lincoln would offered much in the way of determined opposition. William Herndon said that they always thanked the Lord when a corporation came knocking at their office door to hire them.
21 years as CEO is a long time. I was and probably still am the longest serving CEO in America. Certainly I am in the media industry, bar none.
My mother was the fourth generation of women to have worked with the Walker company. As a little girl, I would go to her office while she worked. She was a very capable woman.
I'm the last senior executive who was hired by Roy Vagelos. It's an honor, but it also imposes upon me an obligation not only to think about his legacy but also about this company's legacy.
I've never commented much about my experience at Enron except to say, when I was there, it was a much more pipeline and asset-oriented company.
We often say that the M&M Group's destiny is inextricably linked with India's. Both were born around the same time: India in 1947, M&M in 1945. The group has experienced the same vicissitudes that the Indian economy has.
[My mother] worked in the Seagram's Building; it's kind of an iconic '60s skyscraper on a floor so high that your ears popped. And all the women - the whole thing was so very Mad Men, very glamorous.
Companies such as Microsoft, Cisco and Intel were just starting at their 10-year anniversary.
Infosys was founded and run by professionals.
