Our Trip To Monaco - Part Two
As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I was recently in Monaco to be a keynote speaker at the Ernst and Young (EY) World Entrepreneur of the Year Conference held in Monte Carlo. I traveled with my makeup artist, Daisy Schwartzberg and MSLO food experts, Lucinda Scala Quinn and Jennifer Aaronson. As promised, here are some more photos from the trip and also, here's an EY session recap from what I spoke about at the conference:
Stewart shares her ingredients for success
According to Martha Stewart, risk-taking is a good thing. She has been an entrepreneur and risk-taker since the age of 10, when she realized she could make more money organizing birthday parties for her schoolmates than by babysitting. From that point on it was full speed ahead to her current position as the Founder and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), a diversified media and merchandising company that encompasses publishing, internet, broadcast media platforms and branded product lines. In a conversation with EY Global COO John Ferraro, Stewart traced her early entrepreneurial spirit to her father’s encouragement. His message was simple: you’re smart and you can do anything. But it has not been an easy rise to the top. She took an enormous risk in the early 1990s when she decided to end her popular magazine’s association with Time Warner after the publishing giant did not see the value of media tie-ins. While she considers going public her greatest success, Stewart cautions fellow entrepreneurs to get the best advice possible before pursuing an IPO. Her initial advisors thought it was an unusual experience to find themselves working with a woman, which she finds odd because she considers herself a person in business, not a woman in business. Stewart is an avid follower of technological advances, but she admits that the computer takes up much more time than she had anticipated in 1982. An early investor in Twitter, she appreciates social media’s instant outreach to customers. And she is fascinated by the development of the driverless car, which she believes has enormous potential. Innovation has a home within Stewart’s company as well. She noticed that aluminum foil, a wonderful cooking aid for meats and poultry, was not as good as parchment for vegetables. The result: Martha Wrap, one side of which is foil, the other parchment. Stewart says she would like to be remembered as a purveyor of knowledge that lasts and is used on a daily basis. At MSLO, everyone is always learning — they are all students, and they are all teachers. And if the response at EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ is any indication, she will succeed at this ambition as well.
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