Susan Ivey, who announced last week that she plans to retire as  Reynolds American's top executive, got leadership advice from her mother.

One message is that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason, Ivey told a group of Wake Forest University business students on Thursday, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

“Great leaders listen, they learn and then they lead,” Ivey said. "The common wisdom is that great leaders are great communicators. Most of them are, but the less-common wisdom is that 80 percent of good communicating is good listening.”

It was one of Ivey’s first public appearances since her announcement that she plans to retire as Reynolds’ chairwoman on Oct. 31 and as CEO on Feb. 28.

Susan Ivey plans to retire early next year as CEO of tobacco maker Reynolds American, one of the state's largest publicly traded companies.

Ivey, 51, has run Reynolds since 2004, and has expanded the Winston-Salem company beyond its core market of Camel, Natural American Spirit and other cigarettes into smokeless tobacco and even nicotine replacement products.

Fortune magazine last month named Ivey No. 22 on its annual list of the most powerful women in business.

Daniel Delen, head of the company's cigarette division will replace Ivey as CEO in February. Thomas Wajnert, a Reynolds director, will replace Ivey as chairman of the board Nov. 1.

Two of North Carolina's largest companies could be headed for a showdown.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that GlaxoSmithKline, which has its U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to remove dissolvable smokeless tobacco products from stores.

Reynolds American, based down the road in Winston-Salem, has been test-marketing tiny lozenges,  called Camel Orbs, in several cities, the WSJ reports. The lozenges are basically smokeless tobacco products.

The new dissolvable tobacco products are competition for GSK's quit-smoking products such as Nicorette gum. In its letter to the FDA, sent after the agency asked for public comment on the issue, GSK expressed concern that the new products are not being marketed in a way that protects the public health.

The FDA, according to the WSJ, has already expressed its own concerns about the lozenges, writing to Reynolds that their candy-like appearance may appeal to kids.

A symbol of North Carolina's tobacco history located in downtown Winston-Salem is on the market.

Cigarette maker Reynolds American is trying to sell its historic former headquarters, the Winston-Salem Journal reports this morning. The Reynolds building is worth about $12.3 million, according to Forsyth County tax records, and could be leased for office space or renovated into a mixed-use project.

The 22-story building was the tallest south of Baltimore when it opened in 1929 and housed employees of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. until recently when the company began cutting jobs and consolidating its Winston-Salem operations into another building.

The architecture firm that designed it, Shreve & Lamb, went on to build a bigger version in Manhattan: the Empire State Building.

Read the full Winston-Salem Journal report here.