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Excerpts from Cracking the Corporate Code

Carolyn Baldwin is a decade older than Green and DeVard, and her strategy at The Coca-Cola Company was more indirect. She worked hard and continually requested more responsibilities, always expecting to receive the commensurate pay and position before long. It was a subtle strategy, but as long as there were many positions to be passed around, it worked.

"When I started at Coca Cola, I only expected to do a good job and to be rewarded accordingly. I was very fortunate my undergrad degree in economics and my MBA landed me in the finance office. At this company, finance has always been not just a player but a leader. I have worked closely with many people who have played important roles in this company over the years. I don't think I ever thought about strategic thinking on a very conscious level. I just thought about doing what I needed to do and doing it well. Since I was a child I've always worked. If there is one thing I can do, it is work. I do what I have to do and enjoy it. It's a matter of attitude. I didn't even think it had anything to do with my race or gender. I just thought it had to do with Carolyn. This is who Carolyn is, irrespective of race or gender."

For twenty years, she thought she was on that team. She was working successfully with important players, who willingly accepted her advice and her work on important assignments. And she was excellent at building a broad expertise in finance, operations, and international assignments. It appears that as long as she was a supportive cheerleader for their success, the men accepted and valued her and her contributions. But when the pyramid narrowed, the stakes became higher, and the opportunities fewer, she, as is often the case with minorities and women, may not have been viewed as a serious contender. Clearly, her reading of her environment was off in some critical aspect.

"Most of my career, people placed value on what I believed I needed to do and what I enjoyed doing. But I've come to the conclusion that people really evaluate you based on other criteria, their own personal beliefs." In a corporate power game, subtle messages from women often do not register. When you are a black woman or a woman of any color, for that matter-and your behavior is not recognizable within the context of the game rules, you are not really in the game.