Americans love their stuff. Compare the aisles of any U.S. retail market with their foreign counterparts and chances are strong you’ll see many more brands and products on the domestic front. But now that the global economy has made road warriors out of many of us, packing light has become a necessary art form. And as the new order of business means getting things done ever faster and often without an office with a lot of storage space, time- and space-saving gadgets have also taken on new importance. So when space or time is limited, what do you refuse to do without? Here is how seven local women answered that question:
– Ann Gee is a road warrior’s road warrior. In 1994, while helping set up a Wilson Sporting Goods division in Australia, Gee logged a strenuous 180 traveling days going back and forth from her then-home in Singapore. What got her through? A small leather travel bag. “It has 8 million pockets and the whole back side opens up and I can stuff my briefcase right down into it so I can have just one bag to carry through airports,” says Gee, now Wilson’s golf division finance director. “When I sat in airports I’d always be worried about having a lot of bags to keep track of. And it doubles as a foot rest once you’re on the plane. That bag saw me through a lot.”
– Elizabeth Kent, a manager with Andersen Consulting who has traveled extensively for work, is never without a notebook section in her daily planner. There, she collects inspirational quotes from sources as varied as business colleagues and cab drivers, professional speakers and sides of buses. “You never know when you’ll run across something that could be useful in a team meeting or just to read to yourself when life gets a little out of hand.”
– Mary Bishop, executive vice president of Leo Burnett Co. Inc., the advertising agency, often finds herself trapped in airports awaiting flights. Rather than fill the time with phone calls and tedious paperwork, Bishop pulls out a work of fiction and reads. “You can get wonderfully creative ideas just immersing yourself in fiction,” says Bishop.
A recent favorite: E. Annie Proulx’s “Accordion Crimes” (Simon & Schuster, $25). Back in Bishop’s Chicago office, however, sits her most prized possession: a park bench handpainted by a child who lives in a public housing project. It depicts urban row houses and trees that, in Bishops’s view, reflect the essence of Chicago life. “Not a person comes into my office who doesn’t ask to sit on it,” says the agency executive vice president who is responsible for the huge Procter & Gamble account. “And there have been a lot of great deals cut here. A lot of P&G global managers have sat here, sometimes to beat me up. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have been shed here.”
– Cheryl Ferrone, sales vice president for Superfresh, a Franklin Park food distributor, doesn’t go in for good luck charms or expensive schedule organizers. An organized person, she says she simply makes sure she’s never without a good shade of lipstick tucked in a coat pocket for emergencies. “I don’t wear makeup, but if I get called into a quick meeting, I can throw this on and it looks like I’m polished and put together.” This month’s choice: Clinique’s Guava Stain.
– Vivian Cagigal, who assists in running the day-to-day operations of American Airlines’ O’Hare International Airport Admirals Club, never leaves home without a religious necklace, the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. “she takes care of me. Even when I had my children, I wouldn’t let the hospital workers take her off my neck.”
– Lisa Shaw doesn’t travel for her work, but the nurse at Loyola University Medical Center never knows when a regular shift will turn into a 14-hour day. And without an office in which to stow a lot of personal items, space is always at a premium. “So something I always have with me is a travel-sized toothbrush, because we may end up short-handed on any given day and I’ll have to stay late,” says Shaw, assistant nursing manager for the neonatal intensive care unit.
– Peek inside Linda Brennan’s travel bag and you’ll find plastic bags filled with fruits, crackers and nuts. Now pregnant with her second child, the marketing director for toothbrush maker John O. Butler Co. hates getting stuck on a trip without snacks, because a little hunger can make her queasy, which is hardly productive for a traveling executive. “It’s gotten to the point where I almost have to plan meetings around eating,” she muses.
