Postcards

Guest Post: The value of volunteerism

Train your People and Do Good
by Barry Salzburg, CEO, Deloitte
Recently, I was sitting with several dozen inner-city teens, talking with them about college and careers. It was a free-wheeling conversation. I was peppered with questions—including, "How can I get your job?"
I left absolutely convinced that as a result of that session, at least one kid who otherwise would have missed going to college will, in fact, be going. Let me MORE

Guest Post: Bridging college to career...to CEO?

You never know who your summer intern will turn out to be. In 1980, Ursula Burns was a summer intern in mechanical engineering at Xerox (XRX). Last month, she became CEO there. In 1985, Sallie Krawcheck was a summer intern at Fortune. She later climbed to the top tier of Citigroup (C), where she served as CFO and ran a $13 billion wealth management unit. Last week, Krawcheck moved to MORE

New power in Africa...and beyond

Leadership, essentially, is about inspiring others to carry on a mission. The leadership opportunity compounds in a connected, viral, global community.

Here's how leadership can spread: In 2006, Fortune and the U.S. State Department launched the Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Every year since then, we've selected two dozen or more of the best and brightest young women leaders in developing countries and invited them to the U.S. to shadow women MORE

Filling the tech talent pipeline

I had breakfast today with some extraordinary college students -- all women, all majoring in the sciences. That alone makes them extraordinary. After all, women constitute 46% of the U.S. workforce today. But women hold only 26% of the jobs in engineering science and technology. Fewer than 10% of American engineers are women.

The young women whom I met this morning are trying to change that, and we're cheering them on. MORE

Power Point: Be agile in uncertain times

"Right now, nothing is more important than a nimble, agile leader, who is comfortable with ambiguity and figuring it out as they go along."

--Avon (AVP) President Liz Smith, in a discussion led by Pattie Sellers at NYU today. The panel, which also included Cece Sutton, Morgan Stanley's (MS) new retail banking president, was hosted by Forte Foundation. (To view video of the dialogue, click here.)

Smith and Sutton, both on Fortune's MORE

Lessons from a digital startup

by Jessica Shambora

Raises may be up in smoke, and those perks we loved too. But talk is cheap--which may be why Time Inc. (TWX), my employer, has started doing in-house training seminars, taught by its own senior execs and veteran editors.

I've been trying out Time Inc. University's "Learn from a Leader" classes. People Managing Editor Larry Hackett has led "The Cover Selection." Vivek Shah, who used to oversee Fortune and MORE

Power Point: Celebrate and give thanks

"Every time you celebrate an achievement, be thankful to those who made it possible."

--Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, in his address to Harvard grads Thursday. Chu encouraged students to give a shout out to parents, friends and inspirational professors. "Especially thank the other professors whose less-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. Going forward, the ability to teach yourself is the hallmark of a great liberal arts education and MORE

Freston: Pack a well worn passport and a curious spirit

Here's the third and final segment of Tom Freston's 2007 commencement speech at Emerson College. In earlier posts, Viacom's (VIAB) former CEO shared career lessons and detailed the first two "things you're going to want to be able to say you've done if ever you are called upon to impart wisdom upon the young." Here are Nos. 3 and 4 on that list, along with Freston's warning about what could MORE

Freston: Follow your bliss, but leave room for U-turns

Here's part two of Tom Freston's 2007 commencement speech at Emerson College. In yesterday's post, the former Viacom (VIAB) CEO shared the story of the sudden turn in his storied media career. Here Freston explains the first two things "you're going to want to be able to say you've done if ever you are called upon to impart wisdom upon the young."

One. First and foremost: You're going to want to MORE

Tom Freston's commencement speech at Emerson College

It's that time of year, so we're sharing one of our favorite commencement speeches with you: Tom Freston's 2007  address at Emerson College.

Pattie Sellers' exclusive profile of Freston, "The Most Wanted Man on the Planet," tells the story of a man who had built MTV and Viacom's (VIAB) vast cable empire, got fired by chairman Sumner Redstone, walked away with $60 million in severance --  and actually knew what MORE