FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Former NIKE & Lucy executive Shaz Kahng’s  ‘writing inspired by true life

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Sometimes the best man for a job is a strong woman. In the first book in her Ceiling Smasher series focusing on positive powerful female leaders, senior executive Shaz Kahng fictionalizes her decades of top business experience to create a thrilling story of the first female CEO in the sports industry. Kahng’s vast experience working in male-dominated boardrooms enables her to provide a behind the scenes look at what it’s like to work in the sports sector as a woman and what it takes to shatter the glass ceiling.

In The Closer, we meet Vivien Lee who has spent her entire consulting career helping CEOs look good. When she finally has the chance to go after her dream of running a business, she grabs it. A lifelong athlete, Vivien arrives at the Smart Sports campus in Portland, Oregon and is introduced as the first female president over the women’s apparel business. It’s one of the highest-profile jobs in an industry inhospitable to women. Principled but slightly naïve, Vivien believes her male peers will give her a fair shot.

Vivien stumbles early on, making a series of rookie mistakes. With guidance from the Ceiling Smashers, a secret society of successful professional women, Vivien learns to navigate the treacherous business terrain. A tight-knit group of male sports executives is determined to show that an industry outsider cannot prevail. The challenge is all too clear: will Vivien triumph in the sports industry against impossible odds? The Closer is a fresh, riveting tale about a strong woman endeavoring to succeed with smarts, scruples, and style.

Fans of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In will love this book for its strong, talented, and likeable female characters and the supportive environment they foster through their secret society, the Ceiling Smashers. The Closer sends a message of hope and positivity to all working women out there striving to achieve
more.

Shaz Kahng is a visionary leader and inventive thinker adept at turning around and scaling businesses in the retail, sports/active apparel, and footwear industries. From Global Women’s Director at Nike, to CEO/President of Lucy Activewear, she has led teams to achieve success in very male-dominated industries. She has previously worked as a research scientist, a global consulting partner, a builder of e-businesses, and a brand strategist. She graduated from Cornell University and has an MBA from the Wharton School. Shaz currently works as a global startup mentor and advisor to PE and VC firms. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and twin daughters

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About the Book

In an interview, Shaz Kahng can discuss:

• Growing up first generation American and how that influenced her work ethic
• Her educational path toward big business success
• Being one of the first females to head a global business at Nike
• Balancing motherhood (and infant twins) with an enormous executive position at Lucy Activewear
• Her successes in fast company turnarounds—both at Nike and Lucy, Ms. Kahng lead her teams toward profitability in a fraction of the time requested of her
• Female business leadership—how to embody the characteristics needed for success as well as inspire other women to pursue executive careers
• Women supporting other women, and real life “Ceiling Smashers”
• The Super Powers of Ceiling Smashers—what qualities do these women embody?
• Her writing process, from concept to manuscript in just 10 months
• Real life anecdotes from her career and the adversity she had overcome to achieve her goals

 

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An Interview with Shaz Kahng

You were born in the U.S. but your parents came from Korea and Japan. What are some of your earliest childhood memories of the challenges of being a minority in America and how did that influence you?
My father taught me a valuable lesson: even if you came to this country with nothing if you work hard you can be a success. He arrived with a few dollars in his pocket yet he ended up getting four law degrees from Tulane, Yale, and NYU and became a law professor and human rights activist. Along the way my father endured a great deal of discrimination and this is something I also experienced first hand at a young age.

I was about six years old and my family went to visit some friends in the countryside for the day. My sister and I went to the market with their kids and on the way back we ran into three older white boys who started hurling racial epithets and insults at us. I was shocked at how vicious these kids were acting and the ugly things they were saying. My older sister told me to keep going and ignore them, but I couldn’t just let their behavior go. I was so angry I whirled around and marched right up to them and told them to shut their mouths. I explained that we were Korean, not Chinese, so their insult was not applicable to us. I also said, “My father came to this country not speaking a word English and he worked hard to become a law professor. What does your father do, drive a dump truck?” I was a small, skinny kid and I think the boys were so shocked that someone like me would stand up to them they were cowed into silence.

How did you choose what to study in school and what career to target?
Everyone in my family was either in the education field or law and I found science to be the most interesting and challenging, so I knew I wanted to major in science in college. My father gave me some practical advice and told me to pick a major that was specific enough to allow meto get a good job right out of school. So I looked at the classifieds in the NY Times and WSJ and saw many openings for Food Scientists, and that field appealed to me. I chose that major and went to Cornell because it had the best Food Science department and a fantastic science program in general so I minored in Chemistry. I spent a couple of years working as a scientist and really enjoyed it, but I realized I wanted to run a company someday and I didn’t see any scientists running companies so I knew I had to get an MBA. I went to Wharton and then thought about what career would give me the broadest exposure to business problems (focusing on retail and consumer products) so I would be well equipped to run a business, so I chose consulting. I continued to seek out opportunities to round out my skill set until I finally had the chance to run my first business at Nike. I think for me it was important to have an overall goal guiding my choices, but I will say for many women out there don’t be afraid to take on a new challenge or change careers.

You’ve worked in a number of male dominated industries as a scientist, strategy consultant, ebusiness builder, brand builder, and executive. What enabled you to succeed in each field?
I ignored naysayers. When people told me “It can’t be done” or “You can’t accomplish this” it would only strengthen my resolve. I’m a pretty stubborn person and I like proving people wrong. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking a disaster of a situation and turning it around much to the surprise of others.

At Nike you were in charge of the global cycling business and were the first woman in that role. What was it like taking that leadership position?
It was interesting and challenging. The business had been run for seven years by a former professional track cyclist, but had never made a cent. The team was mostly male and certainly not welcoming of a female leader. I had to do a number of creative things to get the team on board, transform the business, and get results. In my first full team meeting I knew I had to get the team to recognize the many problems with the business, so I took them through some exercises that made them rethink how they were approaching things and to open their thinking to new ideas. Ultimately, we grew revenues 300% and got the business profitable in a year.

You inherited a troubled business when you ran Lucy Activewear, yet you and your team turned it around and made it profitable for the first time in history. How did you accomplish that?
It was not easy. I was the third CEO/President in three years and the business was struggling, bleeding cash, dealing with product problems, experiencing poor performance at retail, and having so many other issues. We also had to physically move the company to the Bay Area, hire a completely new team, change all our business processes, move onto new IT systems, and change our factory sourcing base- all in the first quarter of my leadership. My team and I worked hard to completely overhaul the business and set it on a new path and we actually got the company profitable within thirteen months, which was one-third of the time expected by the corporate parent. Also, my husband and I had twin girls and I took only a two-week maternity leave, which I definitely do not recommend to other new moms.

As a woman leader what are some of the pitfalls you need to watch out for when taking a new and visible role?
For some reason when people, especially some men, encounter a new female leader they don’t expect certain things from her that are key to being a great leader. They don’t expect her to come with a bold vision for the business. They don’t expect her to be strong and determined. They don’t expect her to be decisive. They don’t expect her to hold people accountable. They don’t expect her to be tough when necessary.

The upside is that people are very often surprised when they encounter a female leader who actually does bring these characteristics- it may throw them off a bit at first, but when they start to see the results she’s getting they tend to get on board pretty quickly.

You wrote this book when you were working and had newborn twins- what was your writing process like?
I did most of my writing in my head. I’d think about my writing first and then capture everything on my computer when I had a chance. My twin daughters were less than a year old when I started working on this book and we didn’t have a full time nanny, so things were busy. I outlined the book and then would think about a chapter and how the story would unfold, then when they girls were napping I knew I’d have one precious hour to sit down and write it all down. I found that doing the writing first in my head made the physical writing process was fairly quick and I finished the book in about ten months. Of course the editing process was a lot longer and more painful than that.

Explain what you call the “Superpowers” of Ceiling Smashers
I have noticed a consistent set of strengths or what I call “superpowers” of successful women who have broken through the glass ceiling. When I mentor other businesswomen I try to weave in some of the lessons I’ve learned where using one or more of these “superpowers” had enabled me or other women to overcome a tough situation. I’ve been asked many times if there was a great book on career tips for women and there wasn’t one like this, so I’m writing a nonfiction book that lists out the “superpowers” of Ceiling Smashers to help other women trying to move up the career ladder.

What made you want to write this story?
Frustration. In nearly every fiction book I’ve read where there was a female leader or a successful woman they were always portrayed as evil, or cunning, or deceitful. Or they were allowed to be good at their jobs but were required to be neurotic or desperate for a man. I personally know so many smart, successful, honorable women leaders and I wanted to write this book for them. It was important to me to create a positive female role model and I believe you can have a character who is accomplished and has integrity who is still a fascinating person to learn about.

As a minority woman in big business, you have faced much of the scrutiny that your character Vivien encounters in the book. What are some real life episodes you have experienced?
Too many to cover in one interview. But one situation really stands out for me because it was so outrageous. I was a manager at a consulting firm working my way up to being promoted to partner level. I was leading a project for a retail client in Atlanta and had just sold a huge follow on engagement that was the largest project in our firm’s history. The CEO of my firm called me in for a chat. He congratulated me on selling the biggest project ever, but then he dropped a bombshell. He told me that the CFO of the client wanted to replace me with a new leader or they wouldn’t sign the contract. Confused, I said, “But I delivered the first project ahead of schedule, under budget, and with nearly three times the revenue benefits we predicted. They were happy with the project, and I assume me, or they wouldn’t have bought more work. What’s the problem?” It was sickening to learn what the client’s problem was with me—my gender and my race. They insisted upon replacing me with a white male manager…and my firm was going to accommodate the client’s request. After all my sweat equity and the great performance I turned in for my firm, they were not going to stand up for me. That stung. The CEO said, “What other choice do we have?” I said, “You can do the right thing and tell the client you’re walking away from their business over their unreasonable request. If I can sell this size project once, don’t you think I can do it again?” The CEO was too afraid to lose the business and told me he was sorry but was moving forward with his decision. I said, “You have a daughter, don’t you? Well tonight when you sit down at the dinner table I’d like you to tell your daughter about your decision and see if she thinks you make the right choice.” I was so disgusted with the experience I knew that once I made partner I was out of there- I would not stay at a firm without values. A funny postscript to the incident was that they did bring in a white male manager to replace me and when he started struggling I was asked to “coach him from behind” which meant I was working on the project without the client’s knowledge. After two months they were so unhappy with the white male manager that the client CEO requested to have me come back and lead the project. At that point I was already leading another client project so I wasn’t available.