Women Presidents’ Educational Organization

Written by Jan Jaben-Eilon Thursday, January 20 2011

Snapshot: Marsha Firestone
Marsha Firestone is founder and president of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), which began in 1997 as a peer advisory organization for women who own multimillion-dollar businesses. She is also founder and president of the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization, dedicated to increasing access to business opportunities for women’s business enterprises. Firestone previously served as vice president of Women Incorporated and as vice president of training and counseling at the American Woman’s Economic Development Corp. (AWED). Her career also includes positions as president of a for-profit educational institution; national executive director of Women’s American ORT, a volunteer organization; and a faculty member at the American Management Association competency-based management development program at City University of New York and at Adelphi University.

In 1998, Firestone was executive director of The Women’s Economic Summit. She led the development of a master plan for accelerating the growth of women’s businesses, which was presented to Congress and the public in March 1999. In 2003, she was appointed to a term on the National Women's Business Council representing WPO.

She is author of The Busy Woman’s Guide to Successful Self-Employment and has published research in business and educational journals on adult learning theory, nonverbal communication, and managerial competency. Firestone earned her Ph.D. in communication from Columbia University in New York, where she lives with her husband.

Womenetics: A third of your members earn a salary of more than $300,000. They collectively generate $14.5 billion in annual revenue. This is quite a high-powered group. How did you happen to found this organization?
Marsha Firestone: In the early ’90s, while working at AWED I saw a need that was unfilled by any other existing organization. I saw that there were many organizations for startups but nothing for women who had achieved a certain level of success. My goal was and still is to provide women presidents of million and multimillion-dollar companies with the best possible resource – each other’s experience and expertise – to drive their businesses to the next highest level.

Womenetics: If these women who are your members are so successful in what they do, why do they need an organization like this?
Firestone: There are new and different operational issues in any business on a daily basis. These issues require new and creative approaches. The WPO provides the opportunity to get the input of others as well as to think strategically and creatively about business. Success doesn’t mean you will never have a problem. No matter how successful you are, CEOs are always looking for new and better ways and need a time and place to think creatively.

Womenetics: I understand that you recently started on your 50 Fastest Growing Women Owned/Led Companies in North America list – for the fourth year running. Why and how do you compile this list?
Firestone: We started this listing because there is not enough recognition given to the fact that women do grow large companies. There is a perception that women own small companies that are mom and pop type operations and are bakers or cookie makers when this is certainly not the case. This list gives visibility to those successful entrepreneurs and the successful enterprises they have created.

We collect applications beginning in January and then compile the 50 Fastest Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies according to revenues by using a growth formula. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the WPO conference on April 28 in Vancouver.

Womenetics: In last year’s list, the companies on average grew by more than $30 million in revenue between 2005 and 2009. With the recent global recession, do you expect that kind of growth out of this year’s list?
Firestone: Yes and more. 2009 was a very economically difficult year, and I think there were great strides made in 2010 that we will see reflected in this year’s list.

Womenetics: One of WPO’s goals is to help your members accelerate their businesses. How do you do that?
Firestone: Primarily by sharing expertise, experience, and business education in small peer groups where members are able to learn from other members and experts that are occasionally invited to meetings. Research on adult learning theory tells us that adults prefer to define for themselves what and when to learn. In this most effective type of learning, the adult decides for herself what she needs to learn, when to learn it, and how to learn it.

Womenetics: I see that famed cultural anthropologist and author Margaret Mead sat on your dissertation committee. What was that like?
Firestone: It was one of the great experiences of my life. She was extremely helpful in both the design of my research and the evaluation of the outcome. She came to my dissertation defense wearing her usual cape and carrying a trident. She threw them both down and said “This is one of the best dissertations I have read in many years. Are there any questions?” There were no questions.

Womenetics: You’ve had a long career as a top executive in many organizations, mostly focused around women. Why is that?
Firestone: I am particularly interested in leveling the playing field and providing equal opportunities to women in business. Women make up 51 percent of the population yet are paid only 77 cents for every $1 men make. I want women to have an opportunity to get a bigger piece of the pie.

Womenetics: Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Firestone: No.

Womenetics: Do you think the next generation of women will have an easier time succeeding in business?
Firestone: Yes. We have made progress but are still not where we need to be. Entrepreneurship is the great equalizer and where women have more power, influence, and control of their time. I don’t think that the next generation will achieve equal footing, but it will be an improvement.

Womenetics: When you were growing up, young women aspired to motherhood or maybe to be a teacher. Why do you think you took a different path?
Firestone: I didn’t really. I started as a college teacher, but then got involved in women’s business development at AWED. That opened my eyes to a whole set of experiences I knew nothing about. That was the turning point in my career.

Jan Jaben-Eilon was a founding staff writer of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Since then, she has been the international editor of Advertising Age magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Journalism Review, and Consumer Reports. She is the author of soon-to-be-published (There is) Life After Cancer. Jan and her husband have homes in Atlanta and Jerusalem.