Marissa Mayer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mayer joins an even more elite group of women CEO’s in the tech industry including Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, Virginia M. Rometty, the head of I.B.M., Sheryl Sandberg COO Facebook.

Mayer’s heady new position is fraught with both opportunity and peril.  Mayer is stepping onto a path where others have gone before and failed:  Mayer takes over as Yahoo’s sixth permanent CEO, following  Tim Koogle, Terry Semel, Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson, all of whom tried to chart a course which improved the iconic but under performing Yahoo’s bottom line.  All failed and were ousted.

On a slightly different cautionary note, women in the higher echelons of tech companies who shake up the culture too much, can get unceremoniously dumped as well.  Remember Carly Fiorina, the HP CEO powerhouse, smiling out from the covers of magazines like Fortune, then banished in a career or at least upward trajectory shattering clash with the HP Board ?

No doubt Marissa Mayer has the right stuff: the experience, knowledge and passion to pull it off, to perhaps invent a new road map for Yahoo which will restore it’s luster.  Onlookers are waiting to hear her strategy and how she will build her team to execute this.

To add to the challenge, Ms. Mayer is several months into a pregnancy and says she will work through her maternity leave.  Which brings us to one topic the media is buzzing about.  CNN notes: “This month’s Atlantic magazine cover story, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” has stoked intense debate on the topic.

Former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter proposes that the only women who manage to reach the pinnacle of their careers while raising a family are “superhuman, rich or self-employed.”

Feminists and policy experts have been saying for years: that corporate culture in the United States, one of few industrialized nations without paid family leave for new parents, does not foster ideal conditions for work-life balance — for women or men.

“We live in a society where there’s very little space for men or women in corporate spheres to easily juggle family lives with professional lives,” said Caroline Heldman, chair of the Politics Department at Occidental College in California…

Someone in Mayer’s position likely has the resources to enable her to work through maternity leave, but that’s certainly not the norm for most working mothers. If anything, her experience is representative of the rules and expectations of CEOs of major corporations, 97% of whom are male, Heldman said.

“Her choices don’t necessarily work for women in lower ranks and should not be held up as a standard for what all men or women should or could do,” Heldman said. “She’s playing by the good old boys’ rules, which uphold a system that doesn’t allow space and time for male or female CEOs to really take time off if they need it.”

But for now, let’s hope Mayer’s ascension is a harbinger of better days and better policies to come for women.  Mayer sounds like a woman who’s up to the challenge.  She also sounds like a woman who knows how to enjoy the journey. According to the online WSJ, Mayer’s “well-known throughout Silicon Valley, in part for her elaborate parties that regularly draw the tech elite. They include a Halloween pumpkin carving bash and an annual winter holiday party where she erects an ice-skating rink in the backyard of her Palo Alto, Calif., home.”

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via Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg at Barnard: “Men run the world” – May. 18, 2011

“What if men ran half of households around the world and women ran half the companies? Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg thinks the world would be a better place.

Sandberg offered that idea in her commencement speech on Tuesday in New York to a group of 600 graduating students from all-women college Barnard, as well as their camera-festooned families.”

Her message: “There aren’t enough women in the workforce, and the gender gap is very much part of our society.”

“Men run the world,” she told the audience, before rolling out a list of statistics to support the statement. One eye-popping one: Among the world’s 190 major heads of states, nine are women. Those numbers haven’t moved in the past decade.”

Sandberg is Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Chief Operating Officer, lending her experience and operational expertise, having  served as chief of staff for the Treasury Department and her extensive contacts with advertisers from her time as a top executive at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500).  Many investors and venture capitalists require experienced management, sometimes known as “adult supervision” for their young techie geniuses before they part with their money. Sandburg is sometimes referred to as filling this role for 27 year old Mark Zuckerberg.

She urged women to be more aggressive in seeking to climb the corporate or government ladder: “Women underestimate their performance.”

The only antidote to the hurdles that may be thrown in your path is to work hard, aim high and do your job well.  And, of course, Sheryl Sandberg is an inspiration to women seeking to climb the ladder as she is the operational power behind what is described at “the tech world’s hottest company.”

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The Best Industries For Starting a Business Right Now | Inc.com.

If you are mired in apprehension about tough economic times and a suspicion that some of the U.S.’s most iconic businesses have already seen their best days….. then look to the future.  Inc. magazines features a crop of new, upcoming businesses with healthy growth rate predictions and a lot of upside potential.

They include:

• Environmental Consulting

“If you thought going green was a fad, think again. Environmental consulting is a robust and growing industry, valued at $17.8 billion, according to IBISWorld. Growth of 9 percent a year over the next five years is expected. ”

• Translation and Interpretation Services

“Talk is cheap, but solid communications are priceless in this global economy. The U.S. military and businesses expanding overseas are two of the translation and interpretation industry’s best customers. Overall, the market grew some 18 percent last year.”

• Mobile App Design

Sure, iPhones have been around for a while. But with the advent of the iPad, explosive sales of Android phones and an ever-expanding market for mobile apps that work on any Web-enabled phone, there is plenty of fresh territory for programmers, developers, and designers. One tip: Keep location in mind.”

• Home Health Care

“Despite this year’s legislation, health care costs – particularly at hospitals and primary-care providers – are soaring. As the elderly population also grows and demands less expensive, out-of-hospital care, the industry is expected to expand by an average of 4.9 percent through 2014, according to IBISWorld.”

There are about a dozen more, ranging from tea and healthy beverages, exam preparation and tutoring, bakeries and baked goods to water supply and irrigation systems.  Most of these businesses don’t have very high barriers to entry and some are well suited to a private contractor.  So the opportunities are still out there.  Just make up your mind and go for it!

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