Secrets of Their Success

Across the globe, few women make it to top executive positions. Even as universities in many parts of the world are turning out more female than male graduates, there is still a troubling gender gap among those in positions of power. According to a 2009 study by the Harvard Business Review, only 1.5 percent of the chief executive officers of the world’s top performing companies that year were women.Â

It’s all the more interesting, then, to take a closer look at the few who have managed to beat the odds. F&D spoke with five women leaders to see what they consider the crucial ingredients of their success.Â

Some credit their parents with instilling sound values in them and serving as their inspiration. Others cite diligence, intellectual curiosity, and a tendency to question conventional wisdom as traits that set them apart. And unlike most people, these women rarely let obstacles deter them from achieving their goals. On the contrary, as one pointed out, adversity can be a source of motivation and strength.Â

Here are their stories.Â

MARIA DAS GRAÇAS SILVA FOSTER

CEO of Petrobras, Brazil

Looking out the window of her school bus on the way to high school, Maria das Graças Silva Foster gazed curiously at the Petrobras oil refinery and research center—one of many factories along an industrial corridor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—and felt the first spark of interest in a career in oil. After high school, she continued to pass the corridor on her way to engineering college, that initial seed having taken root in her choice of career.

She got her foot in the door at Petrobras by interning as an engineering student in that very research center, along the way earning degrees in chemical engineering and nuclear engineering as well as an MBA, all from Brazil’s leading universities. She has stayed on for some 33 years, becoming its first female chief executive officer in February 2012. Graça Foster is one of only nine female CEOs among the heads of Latin America’s top 500 companies.

Petrobras is an oil and energy giant. The company, Brazil’s largest, has been in existence for more than 58 years. It is expected to double its 2012 production of more than 2 million barrels of oil and gas a day to about 4.2 million in 2020. Graça Foster is certain that this leap in production will also help fuel growth in the Brazilian economy, and she sees her role as CEO as helping to shape the country’s development. Prior to serving as CEO, Graça Foster became the first female on Petrobras’s executive board when she was appointed director of its Gas and Energy Division in 2007, a significant achievement in a company that hired few women as engineers as late as the 1970s.Â

Graça Foster credits that high school dream as the inspiration for her success in a largely male-dominated world of oil and gas. The key to advancement, she believes, is “being well prepared, studying hard, and having the necessary knowledge and courage to take decisions.”

It’s also vital for executives to keep their fingers on the pulse of the organizations they lead. “Great leaders are men and women who understand their employees, and are strong and supportive,” she said. “Solidarity with peers—and a thorough knowledge of your company’s operations—are two very important...