From Clerk to CEO with Sara Mathew

The Sydcast

Episode Summary

Sara Mathew would describe herself as an accidental CEO, someone more lucky than good, but luck isn’t what propelled Sara from clerk to vice president at Procter and Gamble, it was because Sara gets things done. But to become CEO and Chair of Dun & Bradstreet, Sara had to overcome a singular challenge, herself. In this episode of The Sydcast, Syd and Sara talk about the benefits of feedback and failure, discomfort and self-awareness, and how everyone has the potential to make their own luck.

Syd Finkelstein

Syd Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published 25 books and 90 articles, including the bestsellers Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age.” He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Management, a consultant and speaker to leading companies around the world, and a top 25 on the Global Thinkers 50 list of top management gurus. Professor Finkelstein’s research and consulting work often relies on in-depth and personal interviews with hundreds of people, an experience that led him to create and host his own podcast, The Sydcast, to uncover and share the stories of all sorts of fascinating people in business, sports, entertainment, politics, academia, and everyday life.

Sara Mathew

Ms. Mathew is the Former Chairman and CEO of D&B. She joined D&B in August 2001 as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), after 18 years at Procter and Gamble. At D&B she was appointed CFO and SVP of International in 2005, CFO and President of the U.S. business in 2006, and President and Chief Operating Officer in 2007. She was named Chief Executive Officer in January 2010 and assumed the role of Chairman of the Board

in July of that year, a position she held until her retirement in 2013. Ms. Mathew was a member of D&B’s Board of Directors from 2008 to 2013.

During her tenure at D&B, Ms. Mathew was instrumental in transforming D&B from a data company to a more innovative, digital enterprise, leveraging technological advances to expand its reach to new customers and structural changes to transform the underperforming international business. She led the re-build of D&B’s core technology platform and data assets, introducing Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) to access new customers and accelerating Big Data Analytics to create new insights for its existing customer base.

Ms. Mathew has received numerous accolades during her tenure at D&B. In 2012, she was named to FT’s 50 Women at the top; in 2013, Top Value Creator in the S&P 500 by Chief Executive magazine; in 2015 NACD’s Directorship 100 list; in 2017, FWA’s Woman of the Year; in 2018 Ascend/Deloitte’s Pan Asian Director of the year. In 2019, Sara was awarded NACD Director of the Year for the New Jersey Chapter in 2019 and is the recipient of P&G’s John G Smale Award for outstanding alumni in 2020. Prior to D&B, Ms. Mathew spent 18 years at Procter of & Gamble.

Ms. Mathew currently Chairs the Board of Freddie Mac and serves on the Boards of State Street (Chair of the Comp), Reckitt Benckiser, and NextGen SPAC. She has previously served on the Boards of Campbell Soup, Avon, and Shire and has about 35 years of cumulative Board service. Sara holds a bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry and mathematics from the Women's Christian College in Madras, India, and a master’s degree in business administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Insights from this episode:

• Details on why Sara needed to change her leadership style and how she solved the problem by adjusting her negative behaviors.
• How to incorporate and deliver negative feedback to make the experience beneficial to all parties.
• Reasons why Sara’s competitive nature powered her success when she had plans to be a trophy wife.
• Benefits that can be gained when you lean into discomfort by taking risks, failing at something, apologizing, and growing through those uncomfortable experiences.
• Difficulties associated with being a woman and a CEO, why there are so few women in higher positions in businesses, and what can be done to improve those conditions.
• How to make your own luck by loving what you do.

Quotes from the show:

• “That’s my drive for getting things done. That is who I am. That’s actually so innate in my wiring that if I make a commitment, I’m going to make it happen.” — Sara Mathew
• “To me, today, leadership is about behavior. It’s that simple. It is how other people perceive what you do.” — Sara Mathew
• “The role of a leader is to extract the best out of people.” — Sara Mathew
• “Self-awareness is almost like the secret elixir for great leaders.” — Syd Finkelstein
• On becoming a good leader: “Don’t say, ‘How did I do,’ say, ‘What could I have done better?” — Syd Finkelstein
• On her ambition: “Whatever I do I want to do exceptionally well and the bar is me. It’s not somebody else, it’s usually me.” — Sara Mathew
• “I think failure is the most important part of life … and when you fail you have to learn to pick yourself up and move forward. Focus on the solution, don’t obsess about the problem.” — Sara Mathew
• “It’s those times that I’ve been hit the hardest that I learned the most. That’s what I mean by leaning in.” — Sara Mathew
• On advancing your career: “People really have to, not just aspire, but you have to produce, you’ve got to be a performer.” — Syd Finkelstein
• “If you don’t love what you do, go find something else that you really love because if you love what you do, you’re really good at it, that’s where the magic begins then other people see that and want to help you just that little bit farther.”” — Sara Mathew

Resources:

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

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Syd Finkelstein

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Sara Mathew

LinkedIn: Sara Mathew

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