BOARDMAN Athena panelists reflect on risk-taking
The participants shared some of the chances they took that led to success.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Diane Sauer's life changed the day she signed on the dotted line to buy a Chevrolet dealership in Warren.
Dee Crawford assumed the challenge of an executive post with a Mahoning County human-services agency soon after the death of her husband.
Life-altering and risk-taking moments, hard work and a little luck were common threads running through the stories Sauer, Crawford and two other female business leaders shared as panelists at an Athena Leadership Forum on Thursday.
Sponsored by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce, the event also featured Maureen Midgley, incoming plant manager at the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Plant, and Lynn Cavalier, regional president for Ohio Edison's eastern Ohio region.
Betty Jo Licata, dean of the Williamson School of Business Administration at Youngstown State University, served as moderator for the program, "Getting From Where You Are ... To Where You Want to Be!"
Dealership background: Sauer said she started out at Martin Chevrolet right out of college as a $2.25-an-hour clerk, then advanced through the ranks.
She and her husband remortgaged their home, "cashed in every dime" they had and borrowed more to buy the dealership, one of 200 that are female-owned among GM's 8,000 U.S. dealerships.
Since she took over seven years ago as dealer operator and president of Diane Sauer's Martin Chevrolet, she said, sales have increased more than 200 percent, employment numbers are up 15 percent and the dealership has a high customer-satisfaction rate.
"I think it takes doing 200 percent, even 250 percent of what's been asked of you," she told the mostly female audience, "especially if you're doing a job that's never been done by a woman before."
Crawford said she struggled with self-doubt when she decided to accept her position as director of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services the year she was widowed.
"I finally came to the conclusion that all the things I'd been through, personally and professionally, had prepared me for the job," she said, acknowledging that she might not have made the move if her husband had survived. "I was comfortable, and comfort can sometimes be a disadvantage," she said.
Finding the path: Midgley said she started her career in engineering determined to avoid the automotive industry. "I found myself running a kitty litter line for Ralston Purina," she said. "It was not very glamorous."
When she did join General Motors, she chose the manufacturing floor over the company's posh engineering offices, working in management positions in Missouri, Michigan and Tennessee before coming to Lordstown.
"Sometimes, the path of most resistance could be the path with the most opportunity," she said.
Assistant plant manager at the local plant since 1999, she officially takes over as manager Sunday when longtime manager Herman Maass retires.
Cavalier also took an unlikely route to success as a woman in the mostly male environment of electricity power plants, "crawling through boilers and changing turbine blades."
Part of her strength as a corporate leader, however, has come from showing what might be called her feminine side. "I care about the people I work with, and I'm not afraid to show that," she said.
Cavalier encouraged the audience to be willing and ready to change and take risks. "When the horse is dead, dismount," she quipped.
The Athena Committee's next project is the annual Athena Award Dinner, recognizing one outstanding local woman annually for professional achievements and community service. The event, set for May 23 at Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center, Boardman, is presented by The Vindicator and the Chamber.