When Ursula Burns became CEO of Xerox in 2009, she didn't think it was that big of a deal.
Then calls started to pour in from the likes of President Bill Clinton, NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and Al Sharpton, to name a few. Burns had just made history as the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a position she held until 2016.
"Then I said, 'Holy sh-t, this is a big deal,'" Burns, 63, tells CNBC Make It.
The spotlight was new territory for Burns. So was the job: Xerox, a 100-year-old tech giant, was struggling to keep up with the times. Burns realized she didn't know nearly half of what she needed to know to run the company.
But she had an intense work ethic, she says. And she was used to thriving in corporate settings as an outsider — being both Black and female. "My natural comfort is being the>On growing up poor: My mother was 'clear' that she wanted us to be successful
I'm the middle child of a single-parent household. I have the traditional traits of a middle child: I'm independent, a little bit of a loner and very compliant. I didn't cause a lot of trouble for my mom or at school.
I grew up in a very poor environment. My mother was an immigrant from Panama. She came here with my father, but he left when I was two. She raised all three of us, basically>On climbing the corporate ladder: 'My natural comfort is being the>The three strategies that helped her become CEO: 'Being a minority … turned out to be an advantage'
First, I worked really hard. I chose a career that was perfect for me. It was very analytical, and you could manage it being a loner because you worked>Life as the Fortune 500's first Black female CEO: 'I didn't know nearly half of what I needed to'
It was clear to me that I didn't know nearly half of what you need to know to run a company. Therefore, I needed a team of experts with me.
When you have a team of people with you, you can build a perfect human. You can't do it by yourself. It just doesn't work. And this may be a gender thing, but I had no problem asking for help. None. I wanted feedback, and I wanted to give feedback.
I am a firm believer in not being too nice. [Many] companies have this culture of "everybody be nice — but when we get to the private room, we talk about how we really feel." [We did] it because we didn't want to hurt people's feelings, which I do understand. But it didn't allow them to learn.
If it's good, tell me that it's good. But if it's not good, please tell me so I can fix it.
