How Meg Whitman overcame disability and transformed eBay
United States Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman during a press briefing at the US Embassy in Nairobi.
What you need to know:
- When Meg was a newborn, her parents took her to a special hospital in New York City and doctors discovered she had dysplasia, an unusual congenital bone defect that resulted in her left hip having no socket.
- During her tenure at eBay, the company advanced so rapidly. Meg responded by ingeniously adding exciting new acquisitions of physically disabled staff to her portfolio.
Before she became the US ambassador to Kenya, Margaret “Meg” Whitman developed an optimistic outlook. This excessive power of positivity, permitted the Princeton economics graduate and Harvard MBA bearer to transform eBay into the largest online auction platform.
In 1997, Meg operated a $600 million division at Hasbro, where she developed the business art of scaling, which enhanced her favourite business activity of solving problems. By the time she joined eBay as president and CEO in March 1998, she could instil cohesive management techniques that created eBay’s innovative success.
The company’s sophistication ensured anyone on the planet could post pictures of their products while interested clients and would bid and efficiently pay through PayPal, which was Meg's pivotal acquisition that she purchased as a subsidiary of eBay for $1.5 billion. The online auction procedure enabled Meg's development of new skills and capabilities that reverberated with clients, as the company grew larger.
The trust she placed on people granted Meg the opportunity to set a stretch goal in September 2000, when eBay hosted its annual Analyst Day. A stretch goal is a financial projection that provides specific numbers for an institution's forecast. With eBay revenues totalling $430 million, Meg predicted that eBay would be a $3 billion company by 2005, to provide her team with an aim.
Mary Meeker, a savvy analyst who adjudicated eBay for wealth management firm Morgan Stanley, expressed her displeasure. She chastised Meg's public commitment to a specific long-term number as reckless and stupid. Mary was assured that failure to attain that goal would suggest weakness of leadership, planning, and execution, which could eventually frighten shareholders.
Unscathed, however, Meg surged on. She artfully implemented a sound business plan that consisted of a strong value proposition, which translated seamlessly into her talent pool. Her stretch goal was heeded exceptionally well as an inspirational rallying cry.
Soon, eBay began realising soaring revenues while decompressing numerous liabilities. Meg's new product innovations were consumed with receptivity by eBay users and created new emerging online markets, including the US automotive auction industry.
It was at eBay, where Meg primarily adopted the chief principles as highlighted in her memoir, The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life. She led eBay from a $4 million company in March 1998 when she was hired to a $400 million business, as she transformed and scaled her managerial skills. By 2005, eBay had hit $4.5 billion in revenues, superseding her projection of $3 billion five years earlier. It went on to grow with distinction to an $8 billion virtual auction global brand, with a prosperous global marketplace.
During her tenure at eBay, the company advanced so rapidly. Meg responded by ingeniously adding exciting new acquisitions of physically disabled staff to her portfolio. Her corporate social responsibility was inspired by her childhood experience of overcoming disability.
When Meg was a newborn, her parents took her to a special hospital in New York City and doctors discovered she had dysplasia, an unusual congenital bone defect that resulted in her left hip having no socket. The hip is a ball and socket joint, the socket being a curved enclosure that contains the top of the large bone of the upper leg that allows the leg to rotate and move. In Meg's case, the surface of the hip against which her leg rested was flat instead of curved, causing the joint to become inherently unstable.
If left untreated, the implications of a child with this would result in permanent disability because the leg bone would not sit snugly in the socket, and would constantly dislocate when the child moved. When Meg began to crawl, doctors repeatedly asserted that she had to be placed in a stiff metal brace and leather straps that literally pushed her leg into her hip to create the socket.
Her stroller and baby carriage were also modified to allow her legs to point out sideways, and when she was not being wheeled, she had to be carried everywhere. The strategy was to maintain a constant, steady pressure on her soft toddler bones to create the socket. It miraculously worked. It was, however, challenging for the family. Even after the braces were removed when Meg was two, she was not allowed to stand and apply weight on her hips for another six months.
When her family received permission from the doctors to let her play freely, the results were remarkable. She could walk, run and jump, just like any other child. She had no pain, and received a moment of self-validation when she gravitated to playing sports, including basketball, lacrosse and swimming, which were critical to developing her adulthood character traits of persistence and perseverance and were eventually fundamental to her administrative success.
To her delight, as eBay grew, Meg aligned the company’s principles to nurture the talents and restore the courage of the physically disabled. She integrated an entire community of staff consisting of physically challenged individuals, and explored their intellectual energy and resourcefulness, while eliminating enormous stigma that surrounded their preconceived notions and abilities. Having experienced the fright of disability, she resonated with the disparity of the physically impaired.
The writer is a novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative, and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).
