Good morning, Broadsheet readers. While I was sleeping, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International Summit took over Hong Kong with a slate of programming featuring prominent Asian executives. Read on to learn what the NBA could teach the NFL about women and power. Have a great Tuesday!
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• The future of search. Half of all Internet searches soon will be audio or visual instead of text, according to Jennifer Li, finance chief of Chinese search engine operator Baidu Inc. If the prediction proves accurate, it would make Baidu a more formidable competitor against e-commerce giant Alibaba. Li made her comments on stage to Pattie Sellers at Fortune’s MPW conference in Hong Kong. Fortune
• Asia competes for multinationals. Where’s the best place for a multinational to live and work in Asia? At Fortune’s MPW event in Hong Kong, execs from India, Indonesia and China made the case for their respective countries. “We are all growing in the right direction,” said Mari Elka Pangestu, former Tourism and Creative Economy Minister in Indonesia. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Wrong about Hillary? Polling data shows that Hillary Clinton gave "discernible bumps in female support" to most of the candidates she rallied around in last week's midterms, despite conventional wisdom to the contrary. Time
• A new CIO at Neiman Marcus. The luxury retailer named Sarah Hendrickson as its first chief information security officer. The timely appointment comes while other big retailers like Target and Home Depot recover from disastrous customer data breaches. WSJ
• Mitch McConnell's secret weapon. His wife, former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. “She very actively listens. She really pays attention and remembers details about people,” Kelly Westwood, head of the Kenton County women’s Republican group, told Time. Time
• Blake Lively's new 9-to-5. Actress-turned-entrepreneur Blake Lively spoke with Martha Stewart about her new lifestyle website, Preserve. “I thought I wanted a 9-to-5 job and it is – 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. There is nothing on the site that I’m not involved with," she said. Fortune
• Out of the office. Forever. The ability to choose what you work on, as well as how, when, and where you perform your work, is a growing desire for top talent in the U.S. By 2016, some 43% of the U.S. workforce is predicted to work from home, according to a report from Forrester. HBR
BROADVIEW
What the NBA can teach the NFL about women and power
Like corporate America, the NFL needs to remember that putting women in key positions of power -- not just appointing more women -- is essential.
Last week, the L.A. Clippers made history. The team named Gillian Zucker its new president of business operations, making her just the second female CEO or president in all of major U.S. pro sports. Jeanie Buss, president of the L.A. Lakers, is the only other woman leading an NBA franchise.
Zucker is not alone in landing a significant role with the NBA this year. In July, Michele Roberts became the first woman to lead a major North American sports union when she was named head of the NBA players’ union. A month later, Becky Hammon was hired as the league’s first-ever full-time female coach. She is now an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.
Yes, women in prominent positions across the NBA remain too few and far between. Yet the league is taking big steps to make its culture more diverse by appointing women into positions with direct influence. While Zucker and Buss make decisions that impact the bottom line of their respective franchises, Roberts and Hammon deal with players where they spend most of their time: On the court.
"The NBA and Adam Silver [the league's commissioner] have long demonstrated their commitment to women in executive roles," says EVP and CFO for ESPN Christine Driessen. "The quality and caliber of these women executives will greatly benefit the NBA and demonstrates their commitment to have a diverse executive team."
After the Ray Rice domestic violence scandal, the NFL pushed several women into prominent roles, but not the operational kind that we are seeing within the NBA. Dawn Hudson was hired in September to restore the league’s tattered image as the NFL’s new chief marketing officer. Also Anna Isaacson, the NFL’s first VP of social responsibility, is reshaping the league’s domestic violence policy.
While Hudson and Isaacson no doubt have ample room to polish the league’s external image, I'd like to see more women on the ground working with the players to solve the NFL's biggest problem -- internal culture. Absent any women presidents, general managers or coaches, the NFL isn’t giving its players a chance to see women in a powerful light. Instead, they are further insulating the male-dominated culture on the field from female points of view. The NBA is not without its own gender relations problems, but my hunch is that the women within the league are slowly changing the way players view women and power.
Roberts, for example, is now responsible for representing hundreds of NBA players and building consensus among them to push forward key deals. Hammon, on the other hand, is spending every day with one franchise team, showing them that women can be just as critical to the success of the game as men. "Obviously this is a big deal, but the bigger deal is, I feel like there's been greater pioneers to even get to this point. There have been so many other women who have been doing really great things," she said about the historic appointment.
Perhaps its time for the NFL to take a page out of the NBA’s playbook. A woman on the ground making sweeping policy decisions and calling plays could lead to more change than any marketing or social responsibility exec ever will.
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Is #GamerGate over? The social media movement about the treatment of women in gaming and gaming journalism ethics hasn't gotten much attention from the press recently, but the hashtag is still alive and well on Twitter. For the movement to thrive again, it likely will need to go through a massive rebranding effort, says Slate's Amanda Marcotte Slate
• India lifts ban. Women now can work in costume, hair and makeup roles for India’s huge film industry after being banned for nearly 60 years. WSJ
ON MY RADAR
Women pitch women at female investment boot camp SFGate
Shonda Rhimes joins the likes of Oprah, Meryl Steep with new award Fast Company
Why Banksy is (probably) a woman Quartz
Is Hillary Clinton's biggest threat Elizabeth Warren? PolicyMic
QUOTE
I didn't just want to be alive. I wanted to live. It's what my momma taught me. You make your mess your message.
Robin Roberts, one of Glamour's Women of the Year, on her public battle fighting breast cancer.
