This post by Blackstone Content Correspondent Summer Suleiman originally appeared on ideavillage.org.
Rocks her Nike Sky High Dunks. Loves her mom’s home-cooked fried chicken. Watches Jon Stewart.
She’s the kind of girl you want to kick back and have a drink with on a Friday night. That’s IF you can catch up with her. She also happens to be the President and CEO of GE Business Innovations and the Chief Marketing Officer of GE.
You can call her boss lady.
When she’s not flying halfway across the world to meet with GE stakeholders, or working with innovation teams in her New York City office, Beth Comstock is spending quality time with her husband and two daughters at home. As the CMO, Comstock leads the company’s growth efforts in sales, marketing and communication, and GE’s innovation platforms, ecomagination and healthimagination.
Before she was appointed as GE’s first communication officer in over 20 years, Comstock served as the president of integrated media at NBC Universal.
Outside of leading the innovation teams at GE, she also serves on the Nike Board of Directors, and still makes time to sweat it out.
You don’t want to mess with this powerhouse. We hear she has a mean roundhouse kick.
Speaking of kicking butt-Comstock rocked the house as one of our keynote speakers at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week. We have the highlights for you coming up on #IDEAinsider. In the meantime, here’s an inside look at a day in the life of this leader in innovation.
Q: What’s a day in your life like?
5:00 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. If I’m in NYC office depart home / coffee Dunkin’ Donuts run (if in Connecticut office, I depart home at 5:45 a.m.)
8:00 a.m. Lightning business review via telepresence and call with Dubai team
9:00 a.m. 1:1 meetings with direct reports or important GE stakeholders
10:00 a.m. Prep call for external speaking engagements for following week / virtual roundtable meeting
12:00 p.m. Lunch while catching up on emails or conference calls
1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Back to back meetings/conf. calls consisting of, agency creative reviews, ventures updates, ecomagination updates, meeting various startups, Quirky, Growth Board meeting, Cooper Hewitt Museum meeting
6:00 p.m. Depart office usually for external meetings and dinners. If I’m lucky, a night off at home & the gym
10:00 p.m. Asleep, usually while reading my iPad and watching The Daily Show (I will miss Jon Stewart!)
During the Day
Q: Do you have any morning rituals?
A: I usually spend the first 15 minutes gazing at my phone or iPad for breaking texts, emails and news. A bit of exercise – or a walk if I am traveling.
Q: Do you have certain beauty or health products that you live by?
A: I’m a skincare fanatic with a cabinet full of brews.
Q: Coffee or tea?
A: Tea first thing, then a cup of coffee mid- morning.
Q: What do you usually wear to work?
A: I prefer soft neutral dressing. Style is modern, never too trendy, understated elegance. When traveling, a carry-on packed with pieces that mix and match so as to achieve maximum versatility.
Q: Heels or flats?
A: Heels…but loving my Nike sky high dunks-heels + sneakers in one!
Q: What’s your mode of transportation to the office?
A: Subway or Drive
Q: What’s your best workday consist of?
A: One that is not like any other-love the diversity.
Q: What’s your favorite way to communicate at work? Phone, text, email, in-person?
A: Text & email, but in-person is best for quality.
Q: iphone or Blackberry?
A: iPhone
Q: What do you usually eat for lunch?
A: Soup, grilled vegetables, tuna with salad, or sushi.
Q: You serve on Nike’s board of directors. How do you like to get your sweat on?
A: Kickboxing-I can do a mean roundhouse kick.
Q: Where do you get your news from?
A: Multiple news readers—I look at about 5 of them to scour dozens of news sources. I go from the NYTand WSJ to the Daily Mail and NY Post, and everything in between.
Q: What’s in your bag?
A: Wallet, laptop, iPad/charger, glasses, nuts, hand sanitizer, makeup bag, keys and bottle of water.
At Home
Q: How do you like to unwind in the evenings?
A: Dinner with family and friends, good music.
Q: What time do you go to sleep?
A: 10 p.m.
Q: Do you have any bedtime rituals?
A: Normal beauty stuff, reading iPad and watching Daily Show.
Q: What are you watching right now?
A: House of Cards Season 3, but my favorite new show is Black Mirror out of the UK. Can’t wait for the next installment.
Q: What are you reading right now?
A: I love to read, especially fiction. Right now, I’m on a memoir kick-working my way through Proust’s In search of Times Lost and just finished Tina Fey’s BossyPants.
Q: Do you have any pets?
A: No longer
Q: What’s your single, most-favorite food to eat?
A: My mother’s fried chicken.
Q: What’s your cocktail or spirit of choice?
A: Gin & tonic, extra lime
In life
Q: What’s your sign?
A: Virgo
Q: What’s your spirit animal?
A: Bear
Q: What’s your idea of the perfect vacation?
A: A trip with my husband and daughters, catching up on reading, hiking, unplugging and discovering new places. My favorite place to travel is where I haven’t been yet.
Q: Your work requires a significant amount of travel. I read that you enjoy writing (by hand) on long flights. Me too! What do you most enjoy writing about?
A: I like writing observations and reflections. And I love to doodle.
Q: Do you have a favorite pen to write with?
A: I like the feel of pen on the paper. I’m quite specific about using a black felt tip pen. I also love calligraphy markers as they make me feel fancy.
Q: What words do you live by?
A: Follow your passion. Be generous.
Q: We all have vices. It’s part of what makes us interesting. What would you say is your biggest vice or worst habit?
A: Impatience with a healthy dose of nitpicking.
Q: What is the quality you value most in a significant other?
A: Considerate and fun.
Q: If you could be anything else in life, what would it be?
A: An anthropologist.
Q: Do you have any fears or phobias?
A: Fear of wearing my bathing suit at work.