About the lecture
It’s long past time for true leaders to take the helm in corporate America. It is time to get back to business with a focus on product excellence, financial discipline and actual inclusion.
Without courageous corporate leadership, American business ingenuity and creativity will wither. Without leaders who create the conditions for open debate and dissent to flourish in service of breakthrough innovation, businesses will stagnate and, eventually, fail. Or, even worse, corruption will hollow them out until they collapse.
Delivering business results is why companies exist. Treating all employees fairly is one way that corporations demonstrate social responsibility.
Dividing consumers with polarizing marketing and browbeating employees with divisiveness and distracting them from the business at hand, is thus a dereliction of duty to shareholders, employees and consumers.
I saw this play out at Levi’s where I worked for 23 years. I was the Chief Marketing Officer for 8 of them. I did everything with a laser focus on the consumer - reinventing brand perception with newness and unifying marketing. This was achieved by making it clear to employees: I need to hear from you. Great ideas can come from anywhere.
But I was ousted for my advocacy outside of work because it was deemed beyond the bounds of acceptability. I refused to conform when threatened with job loss. And my ouster is a reflection of the failures happening within corporate America.
But it isn’t too late to get back to business. We’ll discuss what needs to happen for American business to flourish.
About the speaker
Jennifer Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive and retired artistic gymnast. She was the 1986 USA Gymnastics National Champion, and a 7-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. Sey’s first memoir, "Chalked Up," was released in 2008 and detailed the coaching cruelty inflicted on children in the sport of gymnastics. She also produced the 2020 Emmy award-winning documentary film, "Athlete A," which connected the crimes of Larry Nassar to broader abuses in the Olympic movement.
Sey began working at Levi Strauss & Co. in 1999, rising to Chief Marketing Officer and then Global Brand President. In January 2022, she was asked to resign because of her public opposition to the extended closure of San Francisco’s public schools. Her most recent memoir, “Levi’s Unbuttoned,” tells the inspirational story of her corporate career, search for authenticity, and ultimate refusal to bow to the woke mob. She is a mother of four, and now resides in Denver with her family.