Her father did not believe women were meant for the workplace.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson, CEO of travel-and-leisure conglomerate Carlson Companies, has dramatically transformed the company founded by her father, Curtis Carlson. Carlson was a consummate salesman and a tough, demanding boss. The elder Carlson taught his daughter about business, but never encouraged her to join his company, believing that women were not meant for the workplace. After giving birth to her first child, Nelson worked from her home as publisher of Carlson’s employee newspaper. After she produced a catalog of the company’s products, she was promoted to department head. When she reported this news to her father, his response was blunt: “You’re getting too involved in the business. You should be at home with your children.” Added Nelson, “My father fired me on the spot. I left the building with tears running down my face.”

When her last child went off to college, Nelson finally rejoined Carlson—at age forty–eight. In her first month she accompanied her father to a presentation by MBA students at Minnesota's Carlson School about their research into Carlson Companies' corporate culture. Nelson recalled asking, "How do the students see Carlson?" No one dared to answer. Finally, one student said, "Carlson is perceived as a sweatshop that does not care about people. Our professors don't recommend that we work for Carlson." Nelson was stunned. "That meeting lit a fire under me," she said. She realized then she needed to change the corporate culture away from her father's top-down, autocratic style. Eventually, Nelson assumed responsibility for key Carlson divisions and began to reshape the company’s leadership and strategy. At the celebration for her father on the company’s sixtieth anniversary, she was named CEO.