Making It in the Corporation

Abstract

To know how to get ahead is always easier in hindsight, but it still can provide both encouragement and insight for those in midstream who want to reflect on their own career progress or for those who are just beginning. The following contains a series of autobiographical statements from successful minority managers, including both male and female blacks, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans. Each of the people included in this chapter have attained a level of achievement that most of those around them—both minority and nonminority—would consider successful, and they discuss here what they think are the factors most important to their success and the success of future minority managers. Of the statements included here, those by Scott, Edwards, Stubblefield, Jackson, and Mariel were prepared for presentation at the conference. All contributors were asked to answer three questions: What helped them most in their career success, what hurt the most, and what would have helped had it been available? Each contributor chose to answer these questions more or less directly and in his or her own way. In this introduction, we provide an overview of the concerns and issues expressed in the autobiographical statements that follow.