The Power of Many: Values for Success in Business and in Life

Is it possible to run a multibillion-dollar corporation on the power of trust? Must you set aside your authentic self as you climb the corporate ladder? Is there another role for technology beyond saving costs and creating efficiencies? In The Power of Many, Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay, speaks to these questions and more, identifying ten core values that steered her—and can steer any leader—to success without ethical compromise.

During her decade at the helm of eBay, Meg Whitman transformed it from a tiny start-up into a nearly $8 billion global powerhouse, revolutionizing the way goods are bought and sold online. Fortune magazine twice named her the Most Powerful Woman in Business.

Now, with the vitality, candor, and often self-effacing humor that is her trademark, Meg lays out the ten core values that she credits not only with her strategic success but with many of the joys and satisfactions of her private life. Values such as trust, authenticity, courage, and validation are not naive, Meg shows us, and they are definitely not a luxury. Rather, they are essential tools for success that go hand in hand with traditional business practices—like holding oneself accountable or growing a company efficiently. She believes they are the foundation of strong management in the twenty-first century. Today, technology and the transparency it brings demand that organizations demonstrate a character that aligns with the values of their communities.

Meg illustrates the origins of her values and the underpinnings of her approach with compelling stories from her extraordinary career and her down-to-earth upbringing—from the harrowing twenty-two-hour system outage that nearly sunk eBay to the indomitable spirit of her eighty-nine-year-old mother, who grew up in Boston society but worked as an airplane mechanic during World War II. It was her mother, Meg says, who gave her “a bias toward action.” Here, too, are stories of finding her equilibrium during the time when she had young children, and in her marriage to a neurosurgeon with his own highly demanding career. Meanwhile, her experiences at some of America’s best-known companies, including Disney, FTD, and Procter & Gamble, offer valuable case studies of what can go wrong and right, and how even mistakes can be transformed into opportunities.

Meg Whitman shows us that achievement can and should be teamed with optimism, trust, and honesty. The Power of Many offers the insights and motivation we need to propel ourselves to the next level—to scale, as Meg would say—in business and in life. 

"Having helped shepherd Ebay, one of the few online commercial success stories, from a $4 million business to an $8 billion behemoth, former president and CEO Whitman reveals her methods in her debut, as much a memoir of her tenure at Ebay as a guidebook for struggling MBAs. Though timed to coincide with her California gubernatorial run (the out-of-place last chapter includes her reasons for running, and a defense of friend and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney), Whitman crafts an engaging and not altogether opportunistic narrative that spells out solid business values, a no-nonsense approach to work, and thoughts on corporate integrity centered around practical advice for employees, managers and business leaders ('Be authentic. You can't buy integrity'; 'Enfranchise and validate'; 'Prune distractions'). In an era of bloated corporate profits and downsized prospects for average workers, Whitman's sincere commitment to and insights regarding community-building are refreshing, and should prove helpful for entrepreneurs and voters seeking information about the probable candidate." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

MEG WHITMAN was the CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008, growing the company into an unparalleled engine of global e-commerce. Her thirty-year career includes helping many companies, including Stride Rite, Bain & Company, Procter & Gamble, Disney, and Hasbro. In 2009, she announced her candidacy for governor of California. She lives in Atherton, California, with her husband, Griff Harsh, and has two grown sons, Griff and Will.

JOAN O’C. HAMILTON is a former Silicon Valley bureau chief for BusinessWeek. She now works with executives and political leaders as a book collaborator and lives in Menlo Park, California.