Margery Kraus: Never Underestimate the Power of Being Underestimated

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A globally recognized master storyteller and communications innovator, Margery Kraus is also a Washington legend, having taken a small consulting outfit in 1984 and building it into the multinational communications titan that APCO is today. 

 It’s also one of the largest private majority women-owned firms in the world. Author of “Roots and Wings: Ten Lessons of Motherhood That Helped Me Create and Run a Company,” Ms. Kraus has also been an innovator in prioritizing diversity in hiring. 

“I’ve always believed that ‘we’ is stronger than ‘me,’ and in trying to get people around me who were different than I was, who thought differently,” she says. “Unless you have a diverse workforce, unless you have a culture of mutual respect, you’re not going to get the best out of solutions and the people that you have. “

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That attitude has seen APCO, organically and over time, build and maintain a board and C-suite that is 50 percent people of color, along with 38 percent of the company’s global, 1,200-strong workforce. “I've always felt that diversity is about numbers, but inclusion is much more important because It’s about bringing people together to work together in a way that's beneficial to the outcome,” she says. 

Among her examples of applied togetherness: Considering that three million women lost jobs or left work on account of the Covid pandemic, APCO created a program called APCO Encore. “It’s geared specifically at women who have been out of the workforce, who really want to comeback,” she explains.

“But they still have obligations, parents who are ill or kids that they can’t leave or other health concerns – but they’re treated as if they have to start at the bottom rung and work their way up again.”

APCO Encore works to find matches between candidates and mentors within the company “to bring them back with dignity,” says Ms. Kraus.

“These women who have come back are probably some of the best employees we have, you know, because they’re dedicated. They understand the value of being able to come back on their own terms, and also to give the company what it needs to succeed.” 

To her, the value of working mothers is a given: “I want them to bring their whole selves to work. I think we’re richer for the experience of them being a mother and learning the values of life and things of that sort.”

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A child of immigrants and a former twelfth-grade government and civics teacher, she also maintains a position on the board of an organization she helped create over 50 years ago: The Close-Up Foundation, which brings middle and high school students and teachers to Washington to better understand government, politics, history and citizenship by observation and experience in the national Capital. “It’s brought more than a million young people to Washington,” she says. Among lessons learned, and to share with younger generations? 

“I think I probably was a little too loud and aggressive at the beginning of my career, but I kind of had to be because there weren’t many women around. But I do think, over time, calibrating that, and really being more thoughtful, is the way to get ahead, and to do the best job at any job you have. You never know where it’s going to go: Never underestimate the power of being underestimated,’

Publishable Article By Richard Leiby Courtesy BIPOCXChange 

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