Mentoring - Anne Mulcahy and Ursula Burns

It's got to be a focus on growth. 60 million? How many people? 600? That's a lot. I think that's what it's about and this is a huge opportunity for us. Four times nine, 36.

The best thing about my relationship with Anne is that it started way before Anne was in [the role]. Our relationship started purely from the fact that I had kids and she had kids and we would just talk about stuff. How do you actually spend your time with your family? Like, how do you fit it all in? You know, how you're doing. And she said, 'You got to keep an eye on this thing. You got to keep an eye on this, you know, how you approach this part of your life because it could quickly get out of control.'

Your mailbox is more than 90% full. I was calling just to say congratulations to you. I just heard last week that you got a big promotion and you're now president of just about everything over there. My name is Ursula Burns and I am currently the president of the Document Solutions and Systems Group.

I was born and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My mother was an amazing woman. We were four people kind of in this little world of our own in a big world that was not necessarily safe or good or positive. And so her approach to everything was, 'You know where you are is not who you are.' And kind of, where you are is like a circumstance of that moment in time and that you can actually change that. Who you are is more important than where you are.

Okay, my upbringing is one of the very fortunate aspects of my life. I lived in a house where equality was so much a part of the way I was raised, it came somewhat as a shock to me that it wasn't [everywhere]. Things were not quite as equal outside the house as they were inside the house. But also I was very fortunate to have four brothers who turned out to be not just as kids but as adults great supporters. I ran into an excellent set of circumstances in high school, an all-girl high school. One teacher in particular realized that I was talented and hard-headed enough in a certain number of areas and told me, 'You can actually be just about anything you wanted at that point. Anything you want.' From the schools that I went to, [the options] were either a nurse, a nun, or teacher. The thing that even to this day that I actually bring different than most people to a situation is that I came from a different place, and that different place is positive not negative. That different place gives me a different way to look at things, a different way to attack a problem.

I think back on it and I remember being a chief staff officer for the company, and for the first time I was part of the most senior team of the company and the only woman and much younger than anybody else on the team. And this was a very tenured, capable, and certainly a lot of egos and personality that dominated conversations. I remember going to the first two or three sets of meetings and they were focused on company strategy and certainly new space for me. And I sat back and didn't contribute very much, and just kind of felt, you know, I was building this feeling of 'big mistake, I'm out of my league, I shouldn't be here.' And I was at the point where I needed to let Paul know that he had made a mistake. I said, 'Best intentions, you know how much I appreciate your support, and it's not working out.' And he kind of looked at me and said—and I'm pissed about it—he said, 'You've got everything you know to offer, to make a contribution in those sessions. And the only thing that's standing in your way is you. And you need to step back and realize that you're there because of your perspective and your experiences, and they're not the same as everybody else's in the room. And that's the value.' It was a turning point for me because I did just that. I stepped back and thought about it, and figured out that I was entitled to make that contribution and I was up for it.