Women in Philanthropy: Mitzi Perdue Shares Expertise on The Role of Women in Family Business and Food Equality
By Shaleen Sheth
“If you are hungry, what can you contribute to society? You cannot reach your potential if you are starving.” Today’s woman dreamer, Mitzi Purdue, is a trailblazer and thought leader in the family business world, and she was also an inspiring speaker at the Akshaya Patra Boston Gala’s fireside chat. She draws her experience from two successful family businesses, including the Sheraton Hotels Franchise from her father’s side and Perdue Farms from her late husband. In this inspiring interview for our “Women in Philanthropy” series, she shares the role that women in particular can play in leading a family business through the next generations, the importance of embracing people who challenge you, her key to success, and why Akshaya Patra’s mission of feeding children resonates with her. Enjoy her story!
(1) You are a pioneer and thought leader in the family business world, drawing on experience from two successful family businesses, the Sheraton Hotels from your father’s side and Perdue Farms from your late husband’s side. What is your advice to women in particular when it comes to their family business? What role do they play and how can they establish themselves as leaders?
With family business, we put a lot of time into getting the business part right, but what often gets overlooked is getting the family part right. I grew up in the family business environment. My father is the co-founder of Sheraton hotels, and the Perdue family has been in business for 102 years. The phrase that both our families use is “Happy Family, Happy Business”.
With family business, 70% of businesses don’t make it to the next generation, and the odds of making it in the next 100 years is about 1 in a 1000. One of the areas I am focused on is understanding why this dropoff happens. The biggest proportion of this dropoff is actually due to family quarrels and conflict.
With family quarrels, we often have this rule to keep it in the family. We can’t let it build up. We should get our grievances out early and often. We shouldn’t let them build up until they become catastrophes. Secondly, don’t let the quarrels go public. The moment it reaches the public eye and a need for lawyers, it is a bridge too far.
Women have room to make a profound impact here. Women, especially moms, have such strong authority and such stature in the family. They are also responsible for teaching the kids( i.e. the next generation of family business leaders). Kids are taught from the youngest age that they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and to leave the world in a better place than they received it. My tips for women are: Have a set of rules and a structure for handling issues. For example, what issues do you solve by consensus? By a ⅔ vote? By a majority? And everyone should know the rules ahead of time. There is no such thing as a family that doesn’t quarrel. The biggest thing is how you handle it. Secondly, teach kids from a young age that they can’t always be right and to be humble and open. One of the fun things about being 81 is you can tell people what to do (and you can get away with it.) I’ve had lots of experiences meeting different people, and at different jobs. I have such an array of experience and skills now that I can contribute more now than I could at 21. The sense of humility has carried me. These life experiences and setbacks give you some humility that you don’t have at 21. This is my advice to women.
(2) You were a speaker at the Akshaya Patra Boston Gala fireside chat this past month, and truly inspired the AP community with your mindset and perspective. How did you find out about Akshaya Patra, and what resonates with you about the work that AP does?
Whoever had the idea of feeding people deserves all the credit and admiration in the world. Someone believed in it and made it happen. I give credit to AP for seeing things realistically and knowing how to get from point A to B, and taking the mission into action. In terms of how I found out about Akshaya Patra was a big coincidence.The Perdue family is in the food business, and we were trying to decide: where does our philanthropy go? We knew we wanted to combat hunger. We came across this organization in India (AP) doing this mission. We saw that Akshaya Patra has the same philosophy. If you are hungry, what can you contribute to society?
You cannot reach your potential if you are starving. They came to the same conclusion that we did that hunger is something we can and need to do something about. At Perdue, we work with a food bank, particularly from a refrigeration/infrastructure standpoint. We believe that there are whole classes of food that are nutritious that you can’t have without access to without this proper infrastructure and refrigeration.
(3) One of Akshaya Patra’s new programs introduced at the gala was the Young Professionals. What is your advice to Akshaya Patra’s Young Professionals as they build their careers?
I loved my career and the feeling of accomplishing things and getting things done. How I define success is, “using the abilities you have at your highest and best level for a cause you believe in” When I finished college at 21, I absolutely believed in something called the Alliance for Progress, which was an effort under President Kennedy in Latin America. I had all this idealism and was ready to work for the government. What I soon realized was that wanting something and having it be so are not the same thing. This was a big lesson for me - what you think is going to happen doesn't always happen. My advice to AP young professional is as follows: you want to have an impact for good, but how do you make it happen without just dreaming about it?
Further, remember, you are going to make mistakes. The best way to make fewer mistakes is to get advice from lots of people. Cherish the people that tell you that you are wrong. My late husband had no use for “yes men”. It is better to hear what’s wrong and figure out a way to fix it, not to be flattered and be told you are right. The greatest gift is getting real world feedback. Enjoy your praise, but be open to that feedback and that chance to grow. My motto is “Nobody bats a 1000! You can’t always be right. Nobody wins every time.”
When it comes to learning from failures and not giving up, I’d love to share my new book, “Mark Victor Hansen's Recipes for Success”. Mark is the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. He is in the Guinness World Records and is what many of us consider the ultimate picture of success. But along the way, he endured bankruptcy, lawsuits, and failed marriage. He learned so much from each time he failed and became a better, more empathetic and understanding person. He had amazing success built on the inverse of failures. When he and his co-author of Chicken Soup were trying to sell the book, he was turned down 143 times. He stuck with it until the 144th time. And it has sold half a billion copies. Imagine if he gave up every time they were turned down. He had the attitude of “Next - No time to wallow!”. My advice to young professionals is cherish feedback and push through setbacks. Don’t give up on your dreams!
(4) Feeding people is a powerful thing. Why does feeding people matter to you?
We are getting philosophical here. Everything we do depends on energy, whether you are running a country or fueling your own body. Without energy, good things do not happen. We can’t innovate, grow, or even survive. Without food, people don’t live up to their full potential. What AP is doing to feed kids through mid-day meals plays a huge role in shaping them into the people they can be.