Confusing times demand clear thinking. Two heavy-hitters explain the most crucial item on their leadership agenda.

CHARLES E. PHILLIPS
Managing Director, Enterprise and Internet Software
Morgan Stanley, New York, New York

The glamour days of B2B commerce may be over, but b2b is alive and ready for the next stage: a multiyear build-out. The question now is whether companies are building the requisite infrastructure to go from concept to reality. That transition isn’t going to be easy or quick — but I’m still bullish on b2b. Companies are not going to shelve their initiatives just because the economy slows down. When the downturn started, Jack Welch said that IT spending was the one thing that General Electric wouldn’t cut. Not every ceo thinks like Welch, but enough of them do. The b2b sector has a critical mass of early adopters. And even in hard times, I don’t think that a single big company is prepared to say, “Paper is fine. Let’s just keep doing it the old way.”

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Charles E. Phillips (charles.phillips@msdw.com) joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 as an equity-research analyst. Previously, he was an analyst for Kidder, Peabody & Co., SoundView Financial Group Inc., and the Bank of New York.

SUSAN ESTRICH
Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Here we are in 2001, and just two Fortune 500 companies are led by female ceos. Women in business may have achieved equality at both the entry and the middle-management levels, but when it comes to finding a place at the top, it’s still a man’s world.

Corporate America is required to report financials each quarter, and it’s judged by those numbers. Why can’t we apply the same kind of rigor to the inclusion of women? Let’s get every company to report on its “leading gender indicators.” Get your company to form a task force to find out what happens to the women in its workforce. How many women are there at each level and division? What about promotions? Track those numbers, and expect the company to make real progress. Women must use their power to hold company leaders’ feet to the fire. One woman alone may not have the power to change the rules, but every company has three women who have made it far enough to make that happen.

— Pamela Kruger

Susan Estrich (estrich@aol.com) pictured here with her son, james, was the First woman to run a presidential campaign. (She was manager of the Dukakis campaign in 1988.) She is a nationally syndicated columnist and has written Five books.