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							CARTER-MILLER'S CAREER SPANS INDUSTRIES, COUNTRIES Jocelyn Carter-Miller’s career in business all began when she played with Barbie. Not as a child–though she grew up with the popular toy–but as an adult, when she oversaw the profit and loss and global marketing of the Barbie doll as vice president of marketing and product development at Mattel. Her work repositioning Barbie for all audiences including the African American, collector, and international markets helped launch a career spanning several industries and continents. Now corporate vice president and chief marketing officer at Motorola, Carter-Miller, ’81, talked about her career and her definition of success with nearly one hundred members and friends of the University of Chicago Women’s Business Group at their annual tea April 26 at Chicago’s Ritz Carlton. Before joining Motorola in 1992, Carter-Miller spent nine years with Mattel, where she was the company’s youngest vice president. Under her direction, the company updated Barbie’s image and advertising campaign, and launched a broader line of international and limited edition dolls. She oversaw a makeover of African American Barbie and Ken, who were resculpted "to look like real people" and featured in several skin tones. She also threw a 30th birthday bash for Barbie at the Lincoln Center that featured a limited edition collectible doll outfitted by designer Bob Mackie. "I grew up with [Barbie], and I had a blast working there," Carter-Miller said of Mattel. Of course, there were a few trying episodes, like the time a senior executive questioned the Barbie birthday celebration. "He asked me if we should really celebrate her birthday because ‘thirty is such an unattractive age for a woman,’" Carter-Miller recalled. "We did it anyway, and it was a great success." Perhaps her most impressive feat to date has been her leadership in Motorola’s division in Brazil. Given the opportunity to run the previously unprofitable operation, Carter-Miller jumped at the chance–and turned the division around. "I succeeded at one of the most high risk assignments," she said, "but we did it the hard way." When she arrived on the scene, the management team was full of "incompetence and corruption," inflation was in the thousands, and volatile economic conditions often fluctuated drastically between morning and noon. While in South America, she spent a lot of time thinking about how to make the operation a success. "I came back and told the management team that we could not duplicate what we were doing in Schaumburg," she said. "We needed to find the right type of local managers and, with the help of our Motorola Latin American team, teach them about our industry. And we began using key business metrics–numeric measurement of success–that everyone in the company could easily understand because they were in the common language of numbers." The team turned a profit–and Carter-Miller was promoted to vice president and general manager and later chief marketing officer and corporate vice president. Though clearly happy with her career, she said she has made sacrifices along the way. On the road soon after the birth of her first child, Carter-Miller missed her daughter’s first step. But with the birth of her second child, she took eighteen months off–and this time she saw her daughter walk for the first time. Her experience made her realize the importance of constantly evaluating your career and your life. "Ask yourself if it’s worth it," she said. "The definition of success is always highly personal and always changing, " she said. "What it really comes down to is this: at the end of the day, are you happy? If the answer is yes, you’re in the right place. If not, it’s time to go."–M.M.B.
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