FORTUNE -- Last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner in Manhattan convened established stars, like Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters, with rising stars, like Chelsea Clinton and Barbara Bush. Two daughters of political dynasties converging in the same orbit.
And then there were 26 rising-star women from across the developing world--each a participant in the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring program. These young women were in the U.S. shadowing American women leaders--and hearing, at the dinner, how to succeed.
Google (GOOG) VP Marissa Mayer, No. 42 on the Fortune MPW list, advised taking career risks--as she did in 1999 when, fresh out of Stanford University, she chose Google, then a brand new startup, over a slew of big-name companies. Google was barely ready for its first female engineer, who was Mayer, and she was barely ready for Google. But, she explained, "I wanted to work for smart people, and I wanted to do things I wasnt't ready to do."
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Photo credits: Asa MathatWhile Diane Sawyer bowed out of the MPW dinner last minute to fly to Joplin, Mo., to cover the tornado disaster, Walmart (WMT) EVP Susan Chambers paid homage to Missouri's heroes. At a Walmart in Joplin that got flattened by the twister, Chambers told us, a store manager had taken it upon himself to figure out which wall inside the store was the sturdiest. One wall of the Walmart stood through the storm; by gathering 200 people behind it, he may have saved 200 lives.
Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns, whom I interviewed on stage, dished out essential career advice: "Do what you love." With her daughter Melissa Bean, a student at NYU, in the audience, Burns talked about a key career moment, over a decade ago, when she lost faith in Xerox and took a job at Dell (DELL)--and then she reversed her decision. Burns stayed at Xerox. And over her career there, she rose from summer intern to CEO, the first Black female CEO in the Fortune 500.
More power to Burns and all those she inspires. Here's the Xerox chief with me on stage at the MPW dinner, telling her story.
"I guess I've stolen--I actually prefer the word 'borrowed'-- as many ideas from Sol Price as from anybody else in the business."
--Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton about Sol Price, who started Fed-Mart and Price Club and launched a whole new style of U.S. retailing--club stores. Price, who sold Price Club to Costco (COST) in 1993, died this week at age 93.
Made in America, Sam Walton's memoir, sits here on my MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 16, 2009 6:37 PM ET
I've been reading Credit Suisse (CS) analyst Gary Balter's reports on hardline retailers since the mid-'90s, when I wrote about companies like Home Depot (HD) and Sears (SHLD). Balter is not only a savvy analyst. He's also a very good writer. This morning at 7:17, Balter emailed this note to clients about Black Friday shopping, which he titled "Bring Back the Good Old Days." I'm on his email list, so MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 25, 2009 12:28 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
The best stories of personal success defy the odds and the career rulebooks.
Paula Deen takes the cake.
The silver-haired, Southern-cookin' star of the Food Network, has sold more than 8 million books. She's got licensing deals with Wal-Mart (WMT) and other major companies. She has a magazine, Cooking with Paula Deen. And at 62, she has more fans on Facebook than Bill Clinton. And more followers on MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 12, 2009 1:29 PM ET
by Jessica Shambora
Yesterday we told you that Google (GOOG) tops the list of heavyweight stocks in terms of "market capitalization per employee." There's $8.6 million in stock-market value riding on every Googler who works for the company.
It's an odd metric, yes. The post generated some amusing comments. David Emery in Reston, Virginia wrote, "This seems to be a good justification for Google's well-known investment in/pampering of their employees. Happy MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Oct 23, 2009 3:20 PM ET
There comes a fork in every career. Should I do this or do that?
Charting a successful career was the topic on Tuesday at Wal-Mart (WMT), where the company's female officers staged a "Fortune Most Powerful Women" event and I interviewed two stars of the 2009 MPWomen rankings: Wal-Mart EVP of People Susan Chambers and Xerox (XRX) CEO Ursula Burns.
Their bios tell the paths they chose. More inspiring and instructive, as MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 15, 2009 2:40 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
"Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage."
That was said, simply enough, by Wal-Mart (WMT) founder Sam Walton. And though today it's widely known that Wal-Mart is the world's most efficient retailer, a little-known fact is that for 25 years--long before Wal-Mart became America's largest retailer--it ranked No. 1 in its industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.
Efficiency runs in the water here MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 14, 2009 12:03 PM ET
Last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit was teeming with experts. They offered points and opinions on so many topics, with data to back it all up. Here, some of our favorite stats:
1. The No. 1 quality that successful business leaders have in common is that they started a business at a young age. --Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) (Click for video of Summit interview with Buffett.)
2. MORE
Jessica Shambora, Writer-Reporter - Sep 25, 2009 1:01 PM ET
Do you have a particular article of clothing that's great for carrying tech gear?
Let us know.
My friend Kathleen Waterbury Reilly, who lives in Pennsylvania, swears by Wal-Mart's cargo shorts. There are a few different types on walmart.com, but Faded Glory Women's Plus Cinched Cargo Bermuda Shorts, with six pockets, are the ones she loves. She has three pairs—at $14 a pop!
She uses the side leg pocket for her BlackBerry (RIMM), and MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jul 17, 2009 2:37 PM ET
The ouster of Bank of America's (BAC) chief risk officer, Amy Brinkley, was inevitable, as I wrote in "Behind the shakeup at BofA" on Friday.
And as I mentioned in that piece, two years ago, Fortune featured Brinkley and five other execs in "One Step Away," about rising-star Most Powerful Women on track to be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies someday. So what's happened to the other five?
One woman made it MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jun 8, 2009 12:31 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.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
