"One of the main challenges for a global company is how to accelerate the transfer of experience and information from one part of the world to another," explains Juliber, who, after a 15-year stint at General Foods, joined Colgate in 1988 as head of its Far East and Canada operations. "How do you take an idea or product that may work in Latin America and introduce it into Asia or Africa, instantaneously? All multinationals are working on this problem because speed is of the essence when seeking competitive advantage."

Speed has also characterized Juliber's ascent up the corporate ladder. After helping to double sales and triple profits for CP's Asian operations in only three years, she was named chief technological officer for worldwide operations. She was then asked to lead the turnaround of Colgate's North American business and in 1997 was promoted to her current post as executive vice president for CP's North American and European business. She played a big role in Colgate's emergence last year as America's toothpaste leader, and some observers are betting her accomplishments may eventually boost Juliber to the top spot at CP, which would solidify her stature as one of America's most prominent women executives.

Juliber's success has not come without difficulties. She broke through the "glass ceiling" that has held many women back in this country, only to bump up against well-built roofs in some foreign markets. "I found in certain countries that being a woman executive can be hard," she says. "I dealt with it by making a very pragmatic decision: 'OK, it's awkward for them to work with a woman, so for the sake of business, let's set up a structure where there is someone they are comfortable negotiating with.' Maybe I haven't been the consummate feminist in these situations, but you do what you have to do to get the job done."

Such difficulties aside, Juliber speaks so glowingly of her work that there is no doubt that she has found her calling. She cites one "fascinating" challenge after another. "Take India, for example," she says. "How do you get people who use twigs to brush their teeth to trade up to something as alien as toothpaste?" (The answer, she explains, is through grassroots education and marketing, intermediate products such as tooth powders, and affordable prices.) "Or how," she continues, "do we apply to Asia - which today has significant macroeconomic issues to resolve - what we learned in Latin America in the 1980s when that region went through its economic crisis?"

For transnational companies especially, Juliber believes, the effective transfer of acquired knowledge and experience across regions and nations is a key to business success. And with dozens of wildly different markets and ongoing geopolitical rearrangements, she knows that, be it toothpaste or any other consumer product, it pays to be culturally savvy if you're going to compete globally.

- Dun Gifford, Jr.