So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New

Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for

free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!

Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Alison Beard.

Throughout this month, we've been sharing conversations with current and former CEOs about the

business world's most pressing challenges. Today, we wrap up the series with some remarkably

candid reflections from Ursula Burns, who served as CEO of Xerox from 2009 to 2016. In

that role, she was the first black female executive to lead a Fortune 500 company. It was

the culmination of an amazing life journey from a Manhattan tenement to the C-suite. She

stepped down in 2016 after a battle with activist investor Carl Icon, which led to the

company's breakup. Today, she lives in London, sits on several corporate boards, and serves

as an advocate for inclusive capitalism and racial equity. She also has a new memoir,

where you are is not who you are. Here's Ursula Burns in conversation with HBR editor-in-chief

Adi Ignatius.

So let's get right into it. What I like about your book is that it's straightforward.

I don't know you, but I suspect it captures the real you. What was your goal in writing this book?

It was to present Ursula Burns and the world that I lived in in ordinary human terms.

I am often described and the world that I grew up in and currently living, it's described in a

either overly harsh or overly idealized way. And one of the goals that I had was to present

just a life, my life. And my life, while when you review it backwards, looks spectacular and

well planned and well formed and highly insightful. It was just every day going to the next day,

to the next day, to the next day, and keeping some really basic beliefs and ideals in mind.

...