Arlene Blum
A mountaineer provides a glimpse of the true nature of leadership.

In business, you have to be willing to take risks, withstand stress and deal with rules and conditions that can change in the blink of any eye. It is no different when you're leading a team that is trying to reach the summit of one of the world's highest mountains.

Arlene Blum, mountaineer extraordinaire, will tell you, "We're all climbing mountains. You have to have a vision of where you are going. You need a focus and the resources to achieve your goal. Above all, you need leadership that can help make your dreams a reality."

Blum provided what Fast Company has called a "Hollywood" moment when, in 1978, she led the first successful American ascent of Annapurna, the world's 11th highest peak, which is located in Nepal. The fact that the climbers she recruited for her Himalayan expedition were all women made the story even more dramatic.

The expedition, which is chronicled in a documentary, "Annapurna: A Women's Place," and in Blum's book of the same name, was described in an audiovisual presentation that she gave after dinner on the first day of the Seminar. It was more than just an exciting recounting of a history-making event. Blum used the Annapurna adventure to make some telling points about leadership. "You can't succeed unless you have a shared vision," she said, "and a passion to achieve your goals."

Blum has been delivering this same kind of message in leadership seminars for organizations as diverse as Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, the Girl Scouts and government agencies in the U.S. and India. One of her basic messages is that you have the power to change things. As long as you believe that what you're doing is meaningful, she has said, you can take the next steps and make it to the top.

It soon became obvious in her presentation to the Page Society that her experience on the slopes of Annapurna was akin to running a start-up - working with dozens of employees for many months under extreme conditions. For Blum, Annapurna had become a metaphor for difficult and important goals. Achieving that goal required exceptional planning and perseverance.

To raise the $80,000 needed for the expedition, the organizers sold 15,000 T-shirts that read "A Woman's Place Is On Top." (The reason for the theme is that, until then, women climbers had been discriminated against, considered liabilities by men.) They recruited 10 climbers, two filmmakers and a base-camp manager. Eight thousand pounds of food and gear were purchased, packed and shipped.

Choosing the climbers was no easy task. Believing that the best way to pick a team is to let the teammates pick themselves, Blum invited all the candidates to go on a practice climb. She wanted not only to find out if they were good enough but also if they enjoyed it. That would be important in the Himalayas when the glamour fades and the hard work sets in. Those in the final cut, all experienced climbers, ranged in age from 20 to 50.

When they got to Nepal, they began to hire the high-altitude porters, the Sherpas who would accompany them on the climb.