LEADING AND LOVING Through Digital Transformations
By Ronald Hedley
Crystal Khalil is CEO and founder of Crystal Khalil and Associates. She launched her company after working nineteen years for Porsche, most recently as Director, North America Indirect Procurement. She is also an author. Her book Hard Workers Work Hard, And Networkers Move Up is an international best seller. An excerpt from Khalil’s book reveals her faith in God and humanity, and highlights her unbreakable bond with her late mother: “I was raised with an abundance of love. [Mom] instilled in me a good work ethic, integrity and morals” (p.17-18). She taught me to serve God, respect others and myself, persevere against the odds, [and] judge a man by the content of his character” (p.22). Woven into Khalil’s career is her mom’s legacy. Khalil’s work ethic, community service, and faith in others can be directly attributed to her mom’s influence. By applying her depth and breadth of supply chain knowledge to digital transformations, and by developing and nurturing a network of colleagues and peers, Khalil has cultivated her mom’s legacy and made it her own. Khalil reveals in her book how she learned early in her career that leaders do more than just work hard; they develop a network. “The best leaders understand success is a team effort. These helpers become the network, an arrangement of intersecting horizontal and vertical human connections that exchange information, support, develop, and introduce professional or social contacts” (p. 39).
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Khalil believes that in order to move up in the business world, one must challenge oneself to “push past the terror barrier and walk into your purpose” (p. 154). She followed her own advice when she made the difficult decision to leave her comfortable job at Porsche and launch her own startup. “It was a difficult decision to
