Postcards

Buffett spotlights assistant, tosses papers with Bill Gates

I had planned to be in Omaha  for Warren Buffett's big weekend. But I'm in Pennsylvania with my very sick dad. Trading emails this morning with CNN's Poppy Harlow, I asked her if she would do a Guest Post for Postcards. Thank you, Poppy, for this terrific report on the Berkshire Hathaway annual festivities.

by Poppy Harlow, CNN Correspondent

This morning in Omaha, Warren Buffett welcomed some 35,000 Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) shareholders MORE

British women need to be more "American"

Today, International Women's Day, brings news that progress in the boardroom remains feeble: 10% of directors' seats worldwide are held by women, according to a new report. Meanwhile, as the U.K. contemplates quotas for corporate boards, a British businesswoman exhorts her countrywomen to assert themselves.-Pattie Sellers

By Domini Pettifar, joint managing director, dnx marketing

Do British businesswomen need more swagger? It is a question I raise, in all seriousness, as the MORE

Starbucks' ex-CEO leads a new team

It's a rare case when a Fortune 500 CEO gets ousted, and then the guy wearing the boot divvies out praise. But this is what happened after Howard Schultz fired Jim Donald as CEO of Starbucks (SBUX) and replaced him with himself. "You cannot meet a kinder human being," says Schultz about Donald in his book, Onward, about Starbucks' turnaround. "A natural talent for building relationships at every level of MORE

Startup advice: Find the shortest distance from A to B

The best entrepreneurs see a gap in the market and fill it. Today, the start of Fashion Week in New York, is a good time to share  lessons from Mona Bijoor, who spotted inefficiency in the fashion industry and created a company to fix it. With $2.25 million from Battery Ventures and angel investors, Bijoor, 34, is building an online marketplace for boutiques and brands to buy and sell contemporary women's MORE

How Indianapolis won the Super Bowl: a lesson in persuasion

When I read in the New York Times last Sunday that Indianapolis won the opportunity to host the Super Bowl by sending a bunch of eighth graders to appeal to NFL team owners across the U.S., I wanted to know more about this tale of masterful persuasion. So I called Allison Melangton. the president and CEO of the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee, and asked her if she would elaborate. I MORE

Social media success Rx: "Be a little crazy"

Clara Shih is an early achiever. At age five, she arrived in the U.S., from Hong Kong, with her parents. With no access to bilingual education, she was initially placed in special classes for kids with speech impediments and advanced so rapidly that she scored a 1420 on her SATs -- in eighth grade. She started her company, Hearsay Social, at age 27, made Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women MORE

Streep's Iron Lady shows us how to win a crowd

Last we heard from media and presentation coach Mary Civiello, she weighed in on lessons from the Oscar-winning The King's Speech. She's back in the movie theater studying another icon of British history: Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep in Iron Lady. Civiello knows of what she speaks: She works with executives at such companies as Morgan Stanley (MS), American Express (AXP), DreamWorks Animation (DWA), Merck (MRK) and Fortune's parent, MORE

How to do a successful IPO

I knew Lise Buyer when she was a hotshot technology analyst at Credit Suisse (CS) in the late 1990s, during the first Internet bubble. Since quitting Wall Street in 2000 to become a venture capitalist, Buyer has been low-profile--but she's active in the world of startups. She now runs Class V Group, guiding IPO-bound companies. I asked Buyer if she'd share her advice on Postcards. Today, the eve of Groupon's MORE

Tough love: Behind Pat Summitt's leadership success

Besides her 1,071 wins, 18 Final Fours, and eight national championships--the stuff that makes Pat Summitt the winningest coach, male or female, in NCAA basketball history--there is the stuff of her leadership. Measured against anyone else in sports or anywhere, Summitt stands as one of the most formidable and focused leaders you will ever meet.

Last night, after the University of Tennessee Lady Vols coach made the stunning announcement that she MORE

Why I left my medical practice to treat the Taliban

Postcards is about people in transition and folks who do things beyond their job description. Gary Brickner is one of those. In this Guest Post, the third in a series about executives and professionals who serve in the war, Brickner, a New Jersey surgeon and Lt. Colonel in the National Guard, shares his boots-on-the-ground experience treating Taliban detainees in Afghanistan. Brickner didn't have to do this. He has a great MORE