WFF conference: balancing career and family

Nation's Restaurant News, April 22, 1996 by Suzanne Kapner

ATLANTA -- After years of chipping away at the proverbial "glass ceiling," often at the expense of their personal lives, today's women executives are striving for better balance between their business and personal lives.

Achieving that sought-after balance and making diversity part of an enduring cultural fabric were among the top issues at the Fifth Annual Women's Foodservice Forum conference, a group dedicated to furthering the advancement of women and minorities in foodservice and hospitality.

More than 500 attendees, mostly women executives and managers from leading food-service chains and suppliers, converged on the Hyatt Hotel here to attend the three-day WFF symposium.

Several conference speakers agreed that it's possible for women to achieve balance between career and family -- although some admitted they themselves had sacrificed personal and family life to rise up the executive ranks.

"I celebrate the people who are better at achieving balance than I am," said Deidra Wager, senior vice president of operations for specialty coffee retailer starbucks Corp. "We bring it on ourselves."

"We overprepare and overposition ourselves," said Debra Smithart, chief financial officer of casual-theme operator Brinker International, adding that 25 percent of Brinker management consists of women. Several speakers maintained that the long-standing notion that women must work twice as hard as men to succeed often is perpetuated by women and should be re-examined.

Longtime female pioneer, role model and mentor Jackie Trujillo, chairman of Harman Management, was honored with the first WFF Trailblazer Award. As a wife, mother and grandmother, she insisted that balance is attainable.

Nonetheless, business women who have families are under more stress than ever before, largely because most of them are responsible for the majority of tasks in the home, said Dr. J. Walker Smith, managing partner of Yankelovich Partners Inc., a market research firm. He added that women today are saying they are more overwhelmed than in the past. The stress places them in closer alignment with today's consumers, he continued.

"Consumers also are more overwhelmed than ever," he said. "So women have a better sense of what consumers want: Consumption that doesn't stress you out."

Despite the many challenges, the composition of the audience and speakers was a testament to the big strides women have made in rising to the top ranks of their companies. Debbie Passmore, president of the Applebee's division of Apple South Inc., the largest franchisee of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar, said her organization is no longer a "Good Ol' Boys Club." She mentioned that vice presidents of real estate, recruiting and operations at Apple South are all women.

Edna Morris, executive vice president of diversified family operator Flagstar Cos. Inc., noted that of the 10 people who report directly to chairman and chief executive James Adamson, three are women and two are minorities.

Taco Bell chairman and chief executive John Martin told attendees that some progress has been made toward shattering the glass ceiling. He pointed out the number of women chief executives and presidents has risen from less than 6 percent in 1985 to more than 8 percent today.

A prime example of such progress is Hala Moddelmog, president of 900-unit Churchs Chicken, a division of Atlanta-based AFC. She was honored with the WFF's prestigious Emerging Leader award during the gathering.

However, Martin warned, "the glass ceiling is fading, but there are still miles to go." He urged companies to double their efforts and put their money behind their rhetoric.

"My vision is for the Women's Foodservice Forum to be obsolete," said outgoing WFF president and Taco Bell region vice president Julia Stewart.

Carla Cooper, vice president of national chain accounts for Coca Cola's fountain division, was sworn in during the conference as Stewart's successor as WFF president.

"Diversity must be imbedded in our culture so that it is no longer an issue," Stewart said.

Several companies well-represented at the conference, including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Flagstar, have placed themselves at the forefront of the issue of diversity by developing internal and external programs, such as seminars, empowerment programs and female mentoring.

Martin emphasized that one out of five top executives at the 5,000-unit Taco Bell chain is a woman. The Irvine, Calif.-based company has initiated a diversity advisory council and offers diversity-awareness training for managers. He also noted that the next phase of diversity training would involve helping white males understand their roles in the changing workplace.

Indeed, McDonald's already has taken a stand on that point by introducing a "White Male Forum" this year. The chain's home office director of diversity development, Pat Harris, observed that when she first broached the idea to senior executives, most of whom are white men, they were unenthusiastic. But, she continued, after holding several sessions, she received 200 requests for seminars dealing with the subject.