September 17, 2012

FORTUNE/State Department Global Women's Mentoring Partnership

video

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: You are here because you are among the best and that means you have a responsibility to yourself and others to be part of this movement, so that is my charge to you. OK?

Josephine Mudenge Kairaba: Well, I have a small business. It's small now, but it's growing. The first thing that really struck me when I got here is I started really thinking global.

Elizabeth Hackenson: She has come in full of energy. I've been so impressed by her intelligence and ability to understand our company. We've had her interact with not only people from my organization in IT, but also the finance organization, with Victoria Harker, who is the CFO on her team, as well as people in construction, business development.

Josephine: I'm thinking much more global in terms of finance, because at the end of the day, that's what business is all about. Everything else just fits in.

Victoria Harker: And I think we had great conversations about planning and forecasting. That's critical to really any business. With Josephine talking to how it would fit into her model versus how we do it. There were less differences than we originally thought, even though we're very different types of companies.

Elizabeth: We really got to know about each other's personal backgrounds and families and the struggles that we both have. It doesn't matter what country you come from. And again, the value to me is just understanding each other's cultures.

Josephine: I'm not just looking at the now, I'm looking at the future. I have this obligation to pay it forward.