Monica Luechtefeld, Executive Vice President, Global E-Commerce, Office Depot

Promotions and Priorities: Find out how one of the most powerful women at Office Depot kept a big career move from derailing her personal priorities.

By Caroline Cox

At one point, most of us have been at a crossroads in our professional lives—whether it was deciding to switch careers, start that business we’d been dreaming about or take the promotion that came with a hefty paycheck and even heftier list of responsibilities.

For Monica Luechtefeld, that point came when she was offered a job that would take her hundreds of miles away from her son during his last year home before college. Determined to progress in her career without missing out on quality time at home, Luechtefeld chose to take the job and commute home every weekend to spend time with her son.

As Office Depot’s executive vice president of global e-commerce, Luechtefeld is constantly exploring ways to sync Office Depot’s online and in-store customers together seamlessly to drive traffic to both avenues. She is also involved with several women’s organizations and works to expand marketing focus on women business owners.

Here, PINK talks to Luechtefeld about using the web to grow your business, finding Life/Work balance, and why it’s important to work for a company that believes in you.

PINK: Why do you think it’s important to market specifically to women business owners?
ML: Women are our primary customers at Office Depot; they make up more than 60 percent of our customer base, and in some segments of our business, 65 percent. Women are making the purchasing decisions for their business, so they’re at the core of our customer base. Also, women business owners are the fastest growing segment of small business, and these women owners are creating new companies significantly faster than men.

PINK: How do you stay authentic at work?
ML: It’s easier when the organization you’re apart of demands and encourages authenticity. At Office Depot, our commitment to women is there because they are our customers and because of their impact in the small business marketplace. We currently have four women on our board of directors. We’ve been recognized by the National Association of Female Executives because of our commitment to women on our boards and because of the representation of women in our leadership ranks. We believe that if you say women are important as a marketing and business segment, then you should reflect that customer within your organization.

PINK: What motivated you to keep climbing the corporate ladder at Office Depot?
ML: I have been with Office Depot for about 17 years, and I stayed because this company has been the kind of place where you can really progress. I’ve been very fortunate to find new creative assignments I can take on that keep me personally and professionally challenged.

PINK: What was your biggest challenge recently?
ML: While it’s exciting to take on a new assignment, it’s also challenging to leave the team you’ve built and the projects you’ve got underway behind. Each time the opportunity presents itself to take on a new role, you wish it were a year later and you had time to finish up the things you’re in the midst of developing. I always find those transition points exciting and energizing, but the fact that you’re moved out of a role earlier than you’d like is always a challenge.

PINK: What would you say to businesswomen who are hesitant to embrace the web?
ML: The web and Social media are becoming equally important tools for small businesses and the woman entrepreneur to get her business growing. It’s important that women business owners become literate on this space. Not all areas of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are critical for your business, but learning about new emerging social media and ensuring you have a great website with information on your company makes it easy for people to find and connect with you. It’s one of today’s foundational business tools. The Internet and social media are becoming as basic as your business card and letterhead.

PINK: What about entrepreneurs?
ML: Particularly when you’re starting out as a single entrepreneur, you’re out making client presentations. Your website can answer questions about who you are, provide references, create a sales presentation for you and attract sales leads while you’re out of the office working on the sales lead you already have.

PINK: You lived away from your son for a year and a half and commuted on weekends to see him. How hard was it to make that decision?
ML: That was a unique point in his life, and my family was the priority in that decision. He was about to go to college. But I also needed to be focused on that part of my professional life [at that time]. I have never regretted that decision and, in fact, it was probably one of the best times in our relationship. Because I was gone during the week but there every weekend, I was there when he got home from his Friday night date. It was a great time to have conversations with him. A tip to Mom’s: 1a.m. is a great time to have conversations with your teenagers.

PINK: What did that experience teach you about balance?
ML: What most working moms figure out is that you’ve got to live in the moment. When you’re with your child, don’t be simultaneously on your BlackBerry, feeling guilty that you’re not finishing something for work. Similarly, when you’re at work, be 100 percent focused. I don’t know if there is such a thing as balancing the two. I think it’s ensuring that, in whatever setting you are, you’re fully engaged.

PINK: What’s one thing about you that most people don’t know?
ML: People are most often surprised about my science background in college. They just assume that I grew up in the business world and knew that I wanted to be in business from the moment I started, and that wasn’t it at all. People tend to attach a perspective to you based on what you’re doing at that moment. All of us bring these incredible backgrounds we’ve developed over our lives to the table. It’s a great lesson to understand that people come not just with the job description they have today, but the wealth of experience behind it.

PINK: What do you like to do in your free time?
ML: I love to snow ski. I try to get away at least once to go skiing each year. I also love the theater. When I have a chance to get to New York and have enough time to be there overnight to try to make it to at least one [play]. My favorites recently were 12 Angry Men and Wicked. Kristin Chenoweth has a spectacular voice on the album.

PINK: What’s your best advice for career women?
ML: Take more time choosing the company you’re going to spend your day with than the specific job. I find women particularly pick the job and not the company. I chose a company that cared about women, cared about its people and was committed to providing opportunities.

The other thing is to be passionate and be prepared to be an evangelist for your ideas. If you are committed to a project that you think could be very impactful for your company, you’ve got to be the one to step up to speak to it and continue to lobby for it. People have wonderfully innovative ideas, but often they’re not pushing them forward.