Susan Lyne
Of all the super-achieving women we saw at this past week's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit—CEOs like DuPont's (DD) Ellen Kullman and Hewlett Packard's (HPQ) Meg Whitman, Billie Jean King, and Rosie O'Donnell—Susan Lyne, the chairman of online retailer Gilt Groupe, has crafted one of the most interesting careers of all.
"I always go toward the heat," Lyne said onstage here at the Summit, explaining why she long ago created Premiere magazine for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS)...moved to Walt Disney (DIS), where she co-headed primetime entertainment...and in 2004, stepped into the CEO job at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) while Martha was otherwise preoccupied during five months in prison.
"I never had a game plan," says Lyne, who explained in an on-stage Summit interview that her internal compass prods her to ask herself: "Where are the really interesting people?"
In most cases, it was her own choice to move on. Except when she got fired from Disney, right after developing a show called Desperate Housewives. Of course, that program, along with others created under her watch, helped lift ABC out of the ratings basement.
"It's not the worst thing in the world" to get fired, Lyne says. "And it forces you to look at what you do well and you don't do well."
My colleague Jennifer Reingold's profile in the current issue of Fortune offers more career guidelines and is a poignant portrait of an executive who has led many lives. And here's Lyne, in an interview with me, talking about lessons she learned working with Martha Stewart:
The just released Fortune Most Powerful Women list includes more Fortune 500 CEOs than ever. And next week's Most Powerful Women Summit includes plenty of them--Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo (PEP), Ellen Kullman of DuPont (DD), Pat Woertz of ADM (ADM), Denise Morrison of Campbell Soup (CPB)...plus one guy who manages to secure an invitation to the Summit every year. Warren Buffett. Fortune senior editor at large Carol Loomis will interview MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 30, 2011 2:40 PM ET
L. to R.: OWN honchos Christina Norman, David Zaslav, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Freston, Lisa Erspamer
I was on stage with Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the producer and director of Miss Representation, on Friday just after the news broke that Christina Norman was out as CEO of Oprah Winfrey's new TV network, OWN.
What an odd coincidence, since Newsom's documentary explores the dearth of women in "clout positions" in the mainstream media. Newsom says MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 9, 2011 2:54 PM ET
By Patricia Sellers
Building a startup can be a 24/7 assignment. Building a high-flying startup can be, well, more consuming than that.
Which is why Susan Lyne, the CEO of fast-growing online retailer Gilt Groupe, is switching jobs with Chairman Kevin Ryan.
Gilt announced the new set-up yesterday, and by the time Lyne called me at 6 p.m. to explain, she had finished a full day in her new role. "We were talking MORE
Patricia Sellers - Sep 28, 2010 2:30 PM ET
Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne has joined the board of AOL--soon to be spun off from Time Warner (TWX).
Does Lyne love trouble, or what? Five years ago, after Martha Stewart began her five-month prison stint in West Virginia, Lyne stepped up from the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) board to be CEO of the company--and worked, eventually hand in hand with Martha, to rebuild the crippled company.
That was a slog MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 6, 2009 11:32 AM ET
by Jessica Shambora
Who's hiring? Hardly anybody, yet. But as you dream about recovery, you'd better be thinking about how to upgrade your talent. You'll be hiring again someday. Really.
We talked about hiring at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, where this year's theme was "Betting on the Future." A session called "Building a Standout Start-up" was led by two CEOs who are in major hiring mode. We thought we'd MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Oct 7, 2009 1:55 AM ET
Shoppers may have fewer dollars these days, but they still want to make the most of them. That's the idea behind Gilt Groupe, the members-only shopping site featuring daily deals, or "flash-sales," on limited quantities of designer goods. (Click here for a post about Gilt CEO Susan Lyne, formerly head of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia).
Now Gilt is bringing the same formula to the luxury travel sphere with a new site MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Sep 30, 2009 4:19 PM ET
Time Warner Cable's DVR "upgrade" is a downgrade.
If you're a customer of America's second-largest cable company, as I am, you came home one day recently to find that the new "Navigator" DVR system has taken over your TV--and taken your TV viewing hostage.
You used to be able to watch a show live and--let's say, you dashed to the kitchen and missed that touchdown pass--rewind and watch it in repeat.
Now MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 31, 2009 4:17 PM ET
New York City is second fiddle to Silicon Valley when it comes to tech start-ups. But one intriguing new Internet company is about to launch here in Manhattan in two weeks.
Have you heard about Hunch? This morning at a Women in Media breakfast, I ran into Caterina Fake, the entrepreneur best known for co-founding Flickr and selling it to Yahoo (YHOO). Last time I saw her was at the home MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jun 2, 2009 3:05 PM ET
"One plus one equals three." That's what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) chairman Charles Koppelman said last July after the company appointed Wenda Millard and Robin Marino co-CEOs.
I -- and many investors -- expressed skepticism. Co-CEO set-ups are so unusual that during the past decade, among Fortune 500 companies, only 15 such arrangements have existed. Koppelman literally wagered that the co-CEO set-up at his company would flourish. "I'll bet you MORE
Patricia Sellers - Apr 21, 2009 12:21 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
.
Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
