May 30, 2008

SRE CORPORATION
PRESENTS:

 

One of the companies I admire the most in America is AA and one of the main reasons is its diversity and the way is able to melt so many employees coming from so many cultures and join them to reach a common goal"To please the traveling public". I Commend its management and its nearly 100,000 employees.


How do three Asian-American employees at American Airlines draw on their cultural heritage to serve their customers? For Myrna Carreon, it's maintaining the Filipino tradition of warm hospitality and respect for guests. Dayong "John" Zhang uses ancient Chinese war strategies to overcome obstacles in his job. For Zhu Zhu Lemmons, it means applying her understanding of Asian travelers' expectations to win new customers on American's flights to the Far East.

For Asians coming to the U.S., learning a difficult new language and assimilating to American culture and social customs can be daunting. Yet these three have found a way to acclimate and still retain the unique cultural experiences of their upbringing.


Zhu Zhu Lemmons
Lemmons came to the U.S. from China at the age of 15. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and a Bachelors degree in Asian Studies from the University of Texas in Austin. She then came to work for American as a sales rep in Centralized Account Sales two years ago. She chose AA as her employer because she likes that the company accepts employees' differences and that "AA keeps faith with its people." She admires American's decision to keep off the bankruptcy path saying she thinks it has "taken the soul" out of the companies that have gone this route. She especially values her travel privileges since spending time together is important in Chinese families.

One of the things she loves about being an inside sales rep is that she is surrounded by people from a wide variety of backgrounds. "Just over the wall from me is Irene. She is from Cameroon. Chikako is from Japan and Victor is from Bolivia." She says an asset she brings to her job is her understanding of the spending mentality of Asian customers. Another asset is that she speaks both Chinese and Japanese. She also understands the reluctance customers sometimes feel about flying American versus their home country's carriers. She believes it is her job to give them reasons to consider traveling on American and takes advantage of shared language and customs to help persuade them.


Myrna Carreon
Carreon, born in the Philippines, has lived in the U.S. for 30 years. She earned her degree in Bachelor of Arts and majored in English. In addition to English, she speaks Filipino and Spanish, which can come in handy in her job as a reservations sales rep in Group & Meeting Travel. She says Filipinos are typically known for their "resiliency, tolerance, education and loyalty." She also says, "There are no uninvited guests. We offer whatever we have in the kitchen."

It should come as no surprise, then, that Carreon is social event coordinator for the Asian Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group (APIERG). In her many years of volunteerism, she has put together a number of networking events for Asians, the APIERG and employees of all backgrounds. Well networked in the community, she was nominated by the Greater Dallas Asian Chamber of Commerce for Outstanding Community Service. She also hosted the very first Asian Festival in Euless and proudly promotes American Airlines within the Asian community. She is also the recipient of Reservations' highest honors, the ACE and High Flyer awards.

Her deeply held belief in respect for elders and guests and her warm personality have served her well in dealing with disgruntled customers. She says, "I just let them talk." Then, when they calm down and she is sure they are finished, she said they begin to work together to solve the problem.


Dayong Zhang
Dayong "John" Zhang comes to work each day prepared to do battle for his services as a network architecture engineer. He uses the premises set forth by Sun Tzu in "The Art of War," a treatise on military strategy written in the fifth century B.C., to guide his approach to work. According to the author, understanding yourself and your enemy is the surest path to success.

Zhang defines knowing himself as reaching out in as many ways as possible to understand his team, his customer, his project and the technology. "First, I must know my manager, my co-workers and our contractors, and help them know me. I must understand my project's road map. And I must continue to educate myself to serve my customer better." Zhang and a group of co-workers study two hours each week to keep up their knowledge of technology.

Born in China, Zhang has lived in the U.S. since 1999 and was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas in Dallas for three years. His home town in Szechuan province was near the epicenter of the deadly May 12 earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people. Luckily no family members were hurt.

This cheerful man doesn't seem as though he would have an enemy in the world. But Zhang seems to know his enemy quite well and says it is "anything that blocks my service to my customer." He concludes, "We should be able to provide them with reliable, high performance technology. American is a great company and our customers deserve the best service."


Thank you AA for sooooo many pleasant flights.
Domenic


 

 

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