Tannaz Grant Morano: Young, Engineer, Mother, Executive, and Values-Driven
- At EBBF's 2008 Annual Conference
Tannaz Grant Morano is an EBBF poster child--extremely kind, values-driven and successful. Behind the sweet smile is a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Tannaz was the Director of Global Product Strategy for Carrier Corporation's Residential/Light Commercial International division until this past July, and previously a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton in New York City. Prior to attending Wharton, she worked as a Manufacturing and Quality Engineer at Ford Motor Company and volunteered for one year at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel. She is currently at home full-time with her two small children, and plans to return to work in 2009. We took advantage of this brief window to talk to her about the learning garnered from a career path not too many women choose, and how her vision of bringing values to bear at work has evolved along this path over the years.
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EBBF: You’ve been coming to this conference for a long time now.
Tannaz: I first met George Starcher in 1997, two months before I began business school in the USA, and every year he encouraged me to attend the Annual Conference. I finally went in 2000 and was so inspired by the presentations, workshops, and by the people I met. It was very encouraging to meet professionals who were trying to bring new values of business. Before EBBF, I would read about people like this—now I had the opportunity to talk directly with them, learn about their experiences and learnings, and build friendships. I also was grateful for EBBF’s inclusiveness of young professionals. The young professionals were encouraged to fully participate and share ideas and experiences, not just listen and learn.
EBBF: You started your career as a young professional in engineering. How did you choose that field?
Tannaz: I always enjoyed math and science as a child. While I was in high school and considering various career paths, my father introduced me to an Engineering professor who had a Mechanical Engineering student working in his lab. She spent some time speaking with me about Mechanical Engineering and I thought it was a great fit for my academic and professional interests. Growing up, I had always been interested in cars, so I was especially excited about the idea of working as an automotive engineer.
EBBF: Did you have any apprehension over choosing a male-dominated field?
Tannaz: I didn’t realize engineering was male-dominated until I was attending university and saw that in a class of 30 students, there were usually two or three other women in class. Frankly, I was surprised and I think this is because my parents never drew any distinctions between the capabilities of men and women while I was growing up. I am very grateful for this as I never felt any restrictions in choice of a profession.
- Visiting an engineering lab in India
EBBF: Did you find challenges as a woman in engineering?
Tannaz: When I was at university, I did not. But when I started working in an automotive plant, there were challenges. I would estimate that less than 10% of the salaried workforce in the factory was female, and the work environment could be difficult. It took perseverance and patience, but after people got to know me and my work, attitudes changed. I think everyone saw that I was motivated, I set a high standard for my work and I loved what I was doing.
EBBF: How did you decide to shift from engineering to business and get your MBA?
Tannaz: I saw getting an MBA as a natural extension of my engineering career. I knew I wanted to move into a managerial position and I needed an MBA to do so. I was most interested in learning how to build and lead highly productive and satisfied work teams. While I was working for Ford in Atlanta, I met Larry Miller, who coincidentally is an EBBF member. At that time he was a co-owner of Miller Howard Consulting, which specialized in this type of work. He told me about his work and gave me some books he wrote. From there I became very interested in management consulting, and knew that I wanted to work as a consultant after business school. I applied and was admitted to an MBA program, but felt that if I went to school immediately, I would miss a last opportunity to spend a year volunteering abroad. My sister had spent a volunteer year in Ecuador and I always wanted to do the same, but felt that as I advanced in my career, it would be harder to take a year off. So I deferred my admission one year and looked into various year-long volunteer programs. In the end, I spent a year in Haifa, Israel, at the administrative headquarters of the Baha’i Faith. I did not look at it as a “career move” but it turned out to be the best possible pre-MBA experience. I worked in a department of 30 people from 24 different countries. The department leader had spent 20 years learning how to lead and motivate (without any financial incentives) incredibly diverse teams so I was able to watch him in action and then have long conversations on management and leadership challenges. I learned so much from him and I am sure those lessons will be used throughout my career. For example, he believed strongly in using consultation as a tool in decision making, and would give a management challenge to his team leaders, and allow them to consult together to come up with a solution. These team leaders were in their early 20s and I am sure many would not trust a young group with some of the issues he presented them with. But in doing so, they felt valued, which of course helped build their self-confidence, and also were able to develop their own skill set in problem solving and group decision making at a very young age.
EBBF: And this was around the time you encountered EBBF?
Tannaz: Yes. I can not remember exactly who told me about EBBF which is unfortunate as I would like to thank this person! But I believe it was during my volunteer year. As I mentioned earlier just as I was preparing to leave Israel and return to the USA to start my MBA program, I met George Starcher which was quite remarkable as earlier in the day I had mentioned to someone I wanted to join EBBF and was going to look for a contact. So when several hours later I met George I became a member. From the beginning George encouraged me to pursue my interest in applying spiritual and moral principles to business in my studies and after graduation in my career. I think it was partly due to George and EBBF that I completed an independent study on Business Ethics under the guidance of the late Professor Thomas Dunfee. In 2001, I presented a summary of that study at the EBBF Annual Conference.
- With husband, Piero
EBBF: How have you translated these values into your work?
Tannaz: That is a question I ask myself constantly, and will do for the rest of my career. Let me start to answer this by saying that when I was in business school, I considered becoming an Ethics Officer. I am fascinated by the ethical challenges in business and thought this would be a great way to have a values-based career. But then I learned that often Ethics Officers are lawyers, so I didn’t necessarily have the right training, and that the work I enjoy and am best suited for is working in “the field” or in the business operations. I was to some extent disappointed because I wanted to have a direct impact on bringing moral values to business and thought that working directly as an Ethics officer was a great way to do so. But then I realized that I was diminishing the importance of the exemplifying these values in one’s own work in the heart of the business. I think some of the most powerful actions are not recognizable as a single accomplishment to be listed on one’s resume. For example, being honest and trustworthy without exception, striving that my work be performed in a spirit of service to humanity, valuing the opinion of all stakeholders and seeking the viewpoints of those who are silent or ignored, trying to be warm and kind to everyone I encounter and working to bring out non-financial considerations in business decisions. So I may not be an Ethics Officer but I have the opportunity try to be an example that the Ethics Officer can hold up to others. I also try to stay active in EBBF, to mentor individuals who share the same values, and to help other organizations. And now as a mother, along with my husband, I am trying to provide my children with a strong spiritual and moral education.
EBBF: You mention a few ways that you—and others—are able to bring ethics into your own work. We know that business in its noblest sense serves as a means for both the development of human potential and the production of goods and services to promote, in EBBF's words, the "well-being of humankind". In its basest sense it is the means towards the enrichment of a small group of people, often at the expense of the lives and families of others, and of the environment. What are the key changes that need to take place in order to help more and more businesses transition towards this loftier goal?
Tannaz: This is a broad question and I think in reality, businesses often do not embark on a roadmapped transformation or have a clear transition path. In addition, becoming an increasingly responsible business requires changes in every aspect of the business, so there are no quick fixes. Transformation is typically gradual and far reaching, for example, an ethics training program may be implemented, new accounting practices that consider more than just the companies financial results may be adopted, or hiring practices may be analyzed and improved to attract principled and skilled employees. If I was pressed to name a single starting point, I think examining the mission and core values of a business is essential. This will force deep discussion among the leadership team that will affect both the strategy and operations of the business and should naturally lead to the identification of transformation priorities. In terms of a key concept, I think one that must be recognized is the oneness of humanity—that the whole world is one human family and the failure of one is the failure of all. This belief will certainly revolutionize business as we know it today. Business in its historic form has valued individual success. The transformation required is to bring about success for all impacted by the enterprise. Rather than focusing on the shareholders, businesses would seek to benefit all stakeholders. Rather than trying to beat competitors, businesses would strive to reach their fullest potential, unconstrained by external benchmarks. Rather than measuring success by the quarter’s earnings, businesses would measure their short and long term financial, ethical, environmental, and human success. It’s such a simple idea but it literally changes everything.
