Andrea Jung,
"A Wonder Woman"
In the global economy, women make up 40% of the world's workforce according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Moreover, women are paid only 76% of what men get paid for. Coalition of Labor Union Women highlights that this gap adds up to more than $300 000 for the average woman's career translating into a difference between "owning a home or renting, sending [the] kids to college vs. sending them to flip burgers, and a decent retirement vs. penury in old age". Another striking fact is that women employed in professional and related occupations accounted for 24.7% of all working women in 2005 relating to the Development for Professional Employees' Fact Sheet.
Andrea Jung is one of those women employed in a professional occupation that made a difference in an organization's performance and gave an example that women are as competent and
competitive as men. She worked for retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's, and in 1994, she joined Avon Products Inc., a leading international skin - care and beauty products company. Her original task at Avon was to create a global brand. Jung integrated and standardized the company's logo, packaging, and ads to create a uniform image, and she pushed for the current corporate slogan, "The company for women". Based on her success in improving Avon's marketing focus, the company's board appointed her chairman and CEO in 1999. Since Jung took over as CEO, "sales have jumped 45 percent". Andrea Jung demonstrated that if women are given the power to make decisions they can fully transform any company into a profitable business.
Since Andrea Jung is an individual who has "distinguished [herself] through extraordinary achievements in [her] profession", she is a great candidate for the University of Southern California's Doctor of Science Honorary degree. This is the highest award that the University of Southern California confers which is awarded annually at the spring commencement ceremony. The honorary degree is given "to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary
achievements in scholarship, the professions, or other creative activities, whether or not they are widely known by the general public", "to honor alumni and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the welfare and development of USC or the communities of which they are a part", "to recognize exceptional acts of philanthropy to the university and/or on the national or world scene" and "to elevate the university in the eyes of the world by honoring individuals who are widely known and highly regarded for achievements in their respective fields of endeavor". Ms. Jung is sitting on top of a unique Fortune 500 company with more women in management positions than any other company worldwide. In fact, "half of Avon's board of directors are women". Although women make up not even half of America's labor force, Andrea Jung has transformed not only the company but also its "men and good ol' boys first" mentality common at most companies.
Andrea Jung has showed that regardless of the obstacles she was confronted with such as being a woman in a world dominated by men and a minority, a Chinese-American, she got a position that not a lot of women have ever held. The publishers John Gettings, David Johnson, Borgna Brunner, and Chris Frantz underline in their article Wonder Women that Andrea Jung is a "wonder woman" and one of only two women CEOs. These authors even underline this fact by mentioning that "90 of Fortune 500 companies don't have any women corporate officers". Thanks to Ms. Jung' s creativity and persistence, Avon was "ranked #312 on the Fo
+rtune 500 list" and its beauty products were sold in 135 countries worldwide with sales of $5.2 billion a year . In 2001, Andrea Jung was elected chairman of Avon's board of directors and from 2001–2005 she served as the first woman elected chair of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the General Electric Company and is a member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital Board of Trustees and the Catalyst Board of Directors. In 2005, being such a powerful figure in the business world, Ms. Jung was ranked #5 on Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list and has been on that list since its inception. Also in 2005, The Wall Street Journal ranked Andrea Jung #3 on its "50 Women to Watch in Business” list. In late 2004, she was named one of "10 Prominent People to Watch in 2005" by Newsweek magazine. In January 2003, she was featured in BusinessWeek as one of the "Best Managers of the Year". Andrea Jung has demonstrated that she is an outstanding professional and the University of Southern California can only accentuate its distinctiveness by giving a Honorary degree to such a fulfilled person in the professional field who has managed to become a CEO of one the Fortune 5oo companies.
"In bestowing an honorary degree, a university makes an explicit statement to its students and the world about the qualities of character and attainment it admires most"(Freedman, 117).
USC' s role and mission is "[to develop] human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit". Moreover, its Marshall School which ranks in the "Top 25" business institutions in the world strives "to provide guidance to students with their academic and personal development". Awarding Andrea Jung the honorary degree will demonstrate the University of Southern California's recognition and appreciation of exceptional professional achievements. In addition, the university will prove that it appreciates women' s accomplishments as well as men's which is not obvious if we consider its past nominees since just one of the past ten awarded individuals is a woman. Looking at USC' s past recipients such as Antonio Villaraigosa, "a mayor of Los Angeles, former city councilmember and speaker of the California State Assembly" and Neil Armstrong, "the first person to walk on the moon, a dedicated citizen, educator, and war veteran", an individual can acknowledge that the university emphasizes intellectual distinction as well as public service, dedication, and innovation.
James Freedman, president emeritus of the University of Iowa and Dartmouth College, finishes his chapter "Conferring Honorary Degrees" from his book Liberal Education and the Public Cost by writing that "in conferring honorary degrees, [he] hoped to persuade [the] students and commencement guests that each honorand' s character and attainment [are] worthy of emulation and admiration"(Freedman, 123). Going over Ms. Jung's biographical websites, every reader will notice that each website contains different and as much significant and important information on her outstanding achievements as the previous one. Starting from her childhood, "she was raised for a solid career in a well-paying profession". In addition, the "executive sweet" took piano lessons, classes in Mandarin language, and graduated from Princeton where she could "cultivate her
character and refine her cranium". Ms. Jung's list of responsibilities are enough to impress even the "snootiest" individuals. She oversees marketing, advertising and product development of Avon product for entire United States, while supervising more than 45 000 employees. The Golden Sea website mentions that "on her slender shoulders now rests the responsibility of not only maintaining but growing the [Avon's] $2 billion in annual sales". Those facts are more than enough to make every student and faculty completely sure that Andrea Jung deserves an Honorary degree and that there is no risk that "the recipient will turn out in retrospect to have been ill-chosen"(Freedman, 130).
USC strives constantly "for excellence in teaching knowledge and skills to [its] students, while at the same time helping them to acquire wisdom and insight, love of truth and beauty, moral discernment, understanding of self, and respect and appreciation for others". Andrea Jung is an individual who also strives for excellence in everything she does. She is not only a distinguished professional but also a responsible mother and wife and she takes this responsibility very seriously. She takes her five - year - old daughter to the bus stop every morning and she returns by 7.30 p.m. for dinner at home with her husband and daughter. Even overwhelmed with task, she finds time to participate on the Board of Trustees of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Board of Directors of the American Management Association. The secret to her success is "passion, commitment, and knowing what [a person] wants". In an interview, Ms. Jung says "[she] knew that [marketing] was what she wanted" and "it got into [her] blood".
Ms. Jung has a great expert power after working for exclusive retailers like Neiman Marcus and
I Magnin. However, her incessant desire to explore new areas of her professional field, made her decide to try her hand in the less glamorous but far larger mass market segment. She expanded the number of products offered to long - time customers by introducing a line of lingerie and casual wear. In addition, "[Avon] was the first one to come out with an alpha hydroxide acid product", she says while explaining the need to constantly be on the lookout for new products. " You have to combine instinct with a good business acumen", Jung says. "You just can't be creative, and you just can't be analytical".
Her desire to invent new and improved products and her creativity to find out ways to make more money from her current customers are indicators that she is really passionate in what she is doing mentioning it multiple times in her interview Glass Ceiling with Stephen Adler. She admits it by stating: " I have a love for this business. I have an enormous amount of passion for it. Since I'm a mother and a wife, I have to have passion or the frustration would win out." In the commencement speech that Ms. Jung has to deliver, she can talk about how to be successful not only in the business field but also in the personal life. She can give insights about the globalization and how it continues to present new and diverse markets to the company and how it changed the way Avon does business by making it more efficient. In her speech, Andrea Jung can mention about the path that she undertook to become such a prosperous individual and how young people can take control of their time and become economically independent by enrolling in Avon's leadership program and how this program teaches them to be entrepreneurs. Moreover, she can address Avon's operational efficiency with such a large workforce of around 5 million employees in order to highlight how big companies stay competitive in what they do.
Mike W. Martin, a professor of philosophy and the author of the book Meaningful Work, tries to give the reader guidelines about how to measure the life of a professional. "In addition to earning money to pursue interests outside work, [professionals] seek activities and relationships at the workplace that are inherently meaningful in terms of our fundamental values...linked to i
deals of religion, aesthetics, intellectual achievement, physical excellence, and technical merit"(11). Andrea Jung is a professional that achieves a "meaningful work" because she finds its work " rich in intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions" such as power, advanced expertise, and social reputation. She admits that "Once you fall in love with what Avon can be - not only what it is, but what it can be - [an individual] see it as one of the biggest strategic and corporate opportunities for, not a turnaround, but a makeover, in the history of companies. That's a professional turn-on to [her]". The University of Southern California should not only provide "professional learning" but also insights in how a student can choose the appropriate major that will be extrinsically and intrinsically satisfying in order to get an education that corresponds to his or her personality, values, and morals.
According to Mike Martin, these professionals' sources of motivation can be grouped in three broad categories: "craft, compensation, and moral concern"(21). The craft motive is found in Ms. Jung's desire to manifest her abilities, expertise, and creativity. Since she joined Avon, she has revamped the company, updating the product line, launching new advertising, and creating a new image. Her compensation
motivation is based on her social rewards, such as the money she gets for being Avon's CEO and her recognition as the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business", "50 Women to Watch in Business", and "Best Managers of the Year". Andrea Jung' s moral motives, "[providing] opportunities to make ongoing contributions to the well - being of others" and "[meeting] ethical standards governing a profession" are also brought up in her interview Glass Ceiling. An extraordinary closeness and willingness to help one another are also evident among USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff. USC stresses that "the Trojan Family is a genuinely supportive community. Alumni, trustees, volunteers and friends of USC are essential to this family tradition, providing generous financial support, participating in university governance, and assisting students at every turn". All the personal motives that Ms. Jung possesses have contributed to her professional outstanding and all of those motives are also incorporated in USC' s values. Clearly, Andrea Jung is an example of what USC stands for.
Honorary degrees have been awarded to distinguished individuals "to elevate the university in the eyes of the world by honoring individuals who are widely known and highly regarded for achievements in their respective fields of endeavor". In thirteen years, Andrea Jung " moved a tired brand, [Avon],
upmarket and created a global powerhouse" demonstrating her leadership skills and her values as being an ethical CEO concerned for the wellbeing of every single individual that Avon deals with. She is a person who stands on the top of the business world trough successfully grasping the prospectives that globalization offers to organizations by transforming a non - profitable company into a billion dollar business. Since University of California's mission is to develop "human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit" awarding Andrea Jung with Doctor of Science degree will make "an explicit statement about the qualities of character and attainment it admires the most"(Freedman, 117).
In the global economy, women make up 40% of the world's workforce according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Moreover, women are paid only 76% of what men get paid for. Coalition of Labor Union Women highlights that this gap adds up to more than $300 000 for the average woman's career translating into a difference between "owning a home or renting, sending [the] kids to college vs. sending them to flip burgers, and a decent retirement vs. penury in old age". Another striking fact is that women employed in professional and related occupations accounted for 24.7% of all working women in 2005 relating to the Development for Professional Employees' Fact Sheet.Andrea Jung is one of those women employed in a professional occupation that made a difference in an organization's performance and gave an example that women are as competent and
competitive as men. She worked for retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale's, and in 1994, she joined Avon Products Inc., a leading international skin - care and beauty products company. Her original task at Avon was to create a global brand. Jung integrated and standardized the company's logo, packaging, and ads to create a uniform image, and she pushed for the current corporate slogan, "The company for women". Based on her success in improving Avon's marketing focus, the company's board appointed her chairman and CEO in 1999. Since Jung took over as CEO, "sales have jumped 45 percent". Andrea Jung demonstrated that if women are given the power to make decisions they can fully transform any company into a profitable business.Since Andrea Jung is an individual who has "distinguished [herself] through extraordinary achievements in [her] profession", she is a great candidate for the University of Southern California's Doctor of Science Honorary degree. This is the highest award that the University of Southern California confers which is awarded annually at the spring commencement ceremony. The honorary degree is given "to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary
achievements in scholarship, the professions, or other creative activities, whether or not they are widely known by the general public", "to honor alumni and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the welfare and development of USC or the communities of which they are a part", "to recognize exceptional acts of philanthropy to the university and/or on the national or world scene" and "to elevate the university in the eyes of the world by honoring individuals who are widely known and highly regarded for achievements in their respective fields of endeavor". Ms. Jung is sitting on top of a unique Fortune 500 company with more women in management positions than any other company worldwide. In fact, "half of Avon's board of directors are women". Although women make up not even half of America's labor force, Andrea Jung has transformed not only the company but also its "men and good ol' boys first" mentality common at most companies.Andrea Jung has showed that regardless of the obstacles she was confronted with such as being a woman in a world dominated by men and a minority, a Chinese-American, she got a position that not a lot of women have ever held. The publishers John Gettings, David Johnson, Borgna Brunner, and Chris Frantz underline in their article Wonder Women that Andrea Jung is a "wonder woman" and one of only two women CEOs. These authors even underline this fact by mentioning that "90 of Fortune 500 companies don't have any women corporate officers". Thanks to Ms. Jung' s creativity and persistence, Avon was "ranked #312 on the Fo
+rtune 500 list" and its beauty products were sold in 135 countries worldwide with sales of $5.2 billion a year . In 2001, Andrea Jung was elected chairman of Avon's board of directors and from 2001–2005 she served as the first woman elected chair of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the General Electric Company and is a member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital Board of Trustees and the Catalyst Board of Directors. In 2005, being such a powerful figure in the business world, Ms. Jung was ranked #5 on Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list and has been on that list since its inception. Also in 2005, The Wall Street Journal ranked Andrea Jung #3 on its "50 Women to Watch in Business” list. In late 2004, she was named one of "10 Prominent People to Watch in 2005" by Newsweek magazine. In January 2003, she was featured in BusinessWeek as one of the "Best Managers of the Year". Andrea Jung has demonstrated that she is an outstanding professional and the University of Southern California can only accentuate its distinctiveness by giving a Honorary degree to such a fulfilled person in the professional field who has managed to become a CEO of one the Fortune 5oo companies."In bestowing an honorary degree, a university makes an explicit statement to its students and the world about the qualities of character and attainment it admires most"(Freedman, 117).
USC' s role and mission is "[to develop] human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit". Moreover, its Marshall School which ranks in the "Top 25" business institutions in the world strives "to provide guidance to students with their academic and personal development". Awarding Andrea Jung the honorary degree will demonstrate the University of Southern California's recognition and appreciation of exceptional professional achievements. In addition, the university will prove that it appreciates women' s accomplishments as well as men's which is not obvious if we consider its past nominees since just one of the past ten awarded individuals is a woman. Looking at USC' s past recipients such as Antonio Villaraigosa, "a mayor of Los Angeles, former city councilmember and speaker of the California State Assembly" and Neil Armstrong, "the first person to walk on the moon, a dedicated citizen, educator, and war veteran", an individual can acknowledge that the university emphasizes intellectual distinction as well as public service, dedication, and innovation.James Freedman, president emeritus of the University of Iowa and Dartmouth College, finishes his chapter "Conferring Honorary Degrees" from his book Liberal Education and the Public Cost by writing that "in conferring honorary degrees, [he] hoped to persuade [the] students and commencement guests that each honorand' s character and attainment [are] worthy of emulation and admiration"(Freedman, 123). Going over Ms. Jung's biographical websites, every reader will notice that each website contains different and as much significant and important information on her outstanding achievements as the previous one. Starting from her childhood, "she was raised for a solid career in a well-paying profession". In addition, the "executive sweet" took piano lessons, classes in Mandarin language, and graduated from Princeton where she could "cultivate her
character and refine her cranium". Ms. Jung's list of responsibilities are enough to impress even the "snootiest" individuals. She oversees marketing, advertising and product development of Avon product for entire United States, while supervising more than 45 000 employees. The Golden Sea website mentions that "on her slender shoulders now rests the responsibility of not only maintaining but growing the [Avon's] $2 billion in annual sales". Those facts are more than enough to make every student and faculty completely sure that Andrea Jung deserves an Honorary degree and that there is no risk that "the recipient will turn out in retrospect to have been ill-chosen"(Freedman, 130).USC strives constantly "for excellence in teaching knowledge and skills to [its] students, while at the same time helping them to acquire wisdom and insight, love of truth and beauty, moral discernment, understanding of self, and respect and appreciation for others". Andrea Jung is an individual who also strives for excellence in everything she does. She is not only a distinguished professional but also a responsible mother and wife and she takes this responsibility very seriously. She takes her five - year - old daughter to the bus stop every morning and she returns by 7.30 p.m. for dinner at home with her husband and daughter. Even overwhelmed with task, she finds time to participate on the Board of Trustees of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Board of Directors of the American Management Association. The secret to her success is "passion, commitment, and knowing what [a person] wants". In an interview, Ms. Jung says "[she] knew that [marketing] was what she wanted" and "it got into [her] blood".
Ms. Jung has a great expert power after working for exclusive retailers like Neiman Marcus and
I Magnin. However, her incessant desire to explore new areas of her professional field, made her decide to try her hand in the less glamorous but far larger mass market segment. She expanded the number of products offered to long - time customers by introducing a line of lingerie and casual wear. In addition, "[Avon] was the first one to come out with an alpha hydroxide acid product", she says while explaining the need to constantly be on the lookout for new products. " You have to combine instinct with a good business acumen", Jung says. "You just can't be creative, and you just can't be analytical".Her desire to invent new and improved products and her creativity to find out ways to make more money from her current customers are indicators that she is really passionate in what she is doing mentioning it multiple times in her interview Glass Ceiling with Stephen Adler. She admits it by stating: " I have a love for this business. I have an enormous amount of passion for it. Since I'm a mother and a wife, I have to have passion or the frustration would win out." In the commencement speech that Ms. Jung has to deliver, she can talk about how to be successful not only in the business field but also in the personal life. She can give insights about the globalization and how it continues to present new and diverse markets to the company and how it changed the way Avon does business by making it more efficient. In her speech, Andrea Jung can mention about the path that she undertook to become such a prosperous individual and how young people can take control of their time and become economically independent by enrolling in Avon's leadership program and how this program teaches them to be entrepreneurs. Moreover, she can address Avon's operational efficiency with such a large workforce of around 5 million employees in order to highlight how big companies stay competitive in what they do.
Mike W. Martin, a professor of philosophy and the author of the book Meaningful Work, tries to give the reader guidelines about how to measure the life of a professional. "In addition to earning money to pursue interests outside work, [professionals] seek activities and relationships at the workplace that are inherently meaningful in terms of our fundamental values...linked to i
deals of religion, aesthetics, intellectual achievement, physical excellence, and technical merit"(11). Andrea Jung is a professional that achieves a "meaningful work" because she finds its work " rich in intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions" such as power, advanced expertise, and social reputation. She admits that "Once you fall in love with what Avon can be - not only what it is, but what it can be - [an individual] see it as one of the biggest strategic and corporate opportunities for, not a turnaround, but a makeover, in the history of companies. That's a professional turn-on to [her]". The University of Southern California should not only provide "professional learning" but also insights in how a student can choose the appropriate major that will be extrinsically and intrinsically satisfying in order to get an education that corresponds to his or her personality, values, and morals.According to Mike Martin, these professionals' sources of motivation can be grouped in three broad categories: "craft, compensation, and moral concern"(21). The craft motive is found in Ms. Jung's desire to manifest her abilities, expertise, and creativity. Since she joined Avon, she has revamped the company, updating the product line, launching new advertising, and creating a new image. Her compensation
motivation is based on her social rewards, such as the money she gets for being Avon's CEO and her recognition as the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business", "50 Women to Watch in Business", and "Best Managers of the Year". Andrea Jung' s moral motives, "[providing] opportunities to make ongoing contributions to the well - being of others" and "[meeting] ethical standards governing a profession" are also brought up in her interview Glass Ceiling. An extraordinary closeness and willingness to help one another are also evident among USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff. USC stresses that "the Trojan Family is a genuinely supportive community. Alumni, trustees, volunteers and friends of USC are essential to this family tradition, providing generous financial support, participating in university governance, and assisting students at every turn". All the personal motives that Ms. Jung possesses have contributed to her professional outstanding and all of those motives are also incorporated in USC' s values. Clearly, Andrea Jung is an example of what USC stands for.Honorary degrees have been awarded to distinguished individuals "to elevate the university in the eyes of the world by honoring individuals who are widely known and highly regarded for achievements in their respective fields of endeavor". In thirteen years, Andrea Jung " moved a tired brand, [Avon],
upmarket and created a global powerhouse" demonstrating her leadership skills and her values as being an ethical CEO concerned for the wellbeing of every single individual that Avon deals with. She is a person who stands on the top of the business world trough successfully grasping the prospectives that globalization offers to organizations by transforming a non - profitable company into a billion dollar business. Since University of California's mission is to develop "human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit" awarding Andrea Jung with Doctor of Science degree will make "an explicit statement about the qualities of character and attainment it admires the most"(Freedman, 117).
posted by DK @ 4:09 PM
0 comments
