Fran Bartlett
Founder and President/CEO
Federal Liaison Services, Inc.
Fran Bartlett is founder and president/CEO of Federal Liaison Services,
Inc. (FLS). Now in its 11th successful year, FLS dominates the market
for payroll tax compliance software and services to employers. Customers
include more than 425 members of the Fortune 1000. Bartlett has more
than 20 years experience in technology, payroll processing, tax
payments, employee compensation, electronic commerce, electronic data
interchange, enterprise resource planning, and government tax and
regulatory issues. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences on
payroll and on technology. A well-known activist and proponent for her
customers, Bartlett currently serves on the Internal Revenue Service's
first Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC).
1. What was your first job in technology?
2. Who has been your most significant mentor? Why?
3. What has been your greatest challenge and what strategies did you use to overcome obstacles?
4. Who has been the most influential person in your life? Why?
5. What lessons have you learned that would be valuable to women beginning their careers in technology?
6. What new technology do you believe will have the most positive impact on the world in the next 20 years? The most negative impact?
On a lighter note:
2. What was the last book you read? What books do you love to recommend?
I recommend:
Michael Gerber's "The E-Myth Revisited." It should be required for anyone
thinking about starting a business. He says that entrepreneurs have many
good but distracting ideas, and often make poor business people.
3. If you were to choose a different profession, what would it be?
4. What is your definition of success?
Divisional controller for Ralston-Purina, automating all accounting and
measurement-of-process systems. I later worked in sales for Computer
Sciences Corporation (CSC).
Senior Vice President James Jackson at Cigna. When Cigna acquired my
technology company, Hamilton-Taft of San Francisco, in 1984, I was the
only woman CEO within Cigna, a $50 billion insurance conglomerate. He
helped smooth the way through the old-boy network, and developed my
leadership and team-building skills.
In my career my greatest challenge has been dealing with a male-dominated
corporate environment. My strategy to overcome obstacles has been to know my
talent and then go do what needs to be done. You have to focus on your
strengths and not be distracted by other things.
My sister Therese. She had cerebral palsy, was mute, and was not
supposed to live to age 5, but she lived to age 30. In seeing what she
endured, I felt there was no excuse for me not to succeed.
A woman needs to choose a career and do everything that men do to pursue
it - and expect no more and no less because you're a woman.
The Internet has already had positive impact, it brings the world
together. On the negative side, genetic engineering has the potential to
divide us.
1. If you could have dinner with any 2 people (living or not), who would they be?
Elvis Presley. A poor kid who became the King - who doesn't like that? And
Tim Fife, former president of Computer Science Corporation's business services
group. A former colonel in the Marine Corps, he could walk in, light up
a room, take anyone's product and sell it. I learned a lot about selling
from him.
Last book read:
"Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man and Life's Greatest Lesson"
Broadcast journalist
Success, no matter what you do, is leaving a legacy behind - be it children, your own company or an invention.
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