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OCA
staff with Mr.
Robert Reeg and Ms. Pat Smith
By Scanews staff
St. Louis, MO - The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), St. Louis Chapter, a national nonprofit Asian Pacific American (APA) civil rights and education group is pleased to report the completion of the 2002 Leadership Development Program, MasterCard International session.
 
On
June 29, 2002, 38 participants from the St. Louis
Metropolitan area attended the 3 hour Leadership
training at the MasterCard International Executive
Board Room in O¡¦Fallon, Missouri.
Mr. Robert Reeg and Ms. Pat Smith were the two
senior executives from MasterCard who hosted the
training. The
training program started at 9:00 AM. Matthew Yu, the president of OCA, St. Louis, opened the
program with a quote from Dwight Eisenhower, saying
¡§Leadership and learning are indispensable to each
other.¡¨ ¡§That¡¦s
why we are here to learn from some of the best in the
Industry¡¨, Yu added.
Matthew acknowledged MasterCard as the best
company in St. Louis voted by the St. Louis Business
Journal in 2002.
MasterCard International with its headquarters
in Purchase, New York employs close to 2,200 people in
the St. Louis area.
MasterCard¡¦s new campus in O¡¦Fallon,
Missouri occupies 52 acres of land and is the Global
Technology and Operations headquarters.
Mr.
Robert Reeg, the Senior Vice President of System
Development, first introduced the MasterCard business
model and clarified many misconceptions that
participants had about MasterCard.
He then shared his management philosophy and
practice with participants.
His Fact-Based Management approach awards
employee based on
¡§you get what you inspect, not what you
expect¡¨ principle.
Service Level Agreements, Operational Metrics,
Customer Satisfaction, and Employee Satisfaction are
four measurements he uses to measure himself and his
direct reports. Mr.
Reeg emphasized the point of measurement.
¡§You can¡¦t manage it, unless you can
measure it.¡¨, said Robert. Mr Reeg is very proud of the fact that MasterCard enjoys less
than 2% turnover rate, which is remarkable among the
high tech industry.
He attributes the low turnover rate to career
opportunities, employee satisfaction, and pay for
performance that MasterCard offers.
¡§Integrity,
Respect, Spirit¡¨ are the three keywords to success
at MasterCard.¡¨, said Ms. Pat Smith, the Vice
President of Clearing and Settlement Systems.
Pat is an executive who has led the Diversity
program at MasterCard for three years.
Her presentation very poignantly outlined the
career development and Cadre program at MasterCard.
Many attendees were impressed about the
thoroughness and comprehensiveness of MasterCard
career development program.
Ms. Smith spent a good portion of her
presentation talking about ¡§Mentoring¡¨.
¡§Mentoring is the most direct way you can
gain wisdom from other people.
Successful mentoring relationship requires
commitments from both the mentor and mentoree. You
have to be willing to accept constructive criticism to
grow.¡¨, said Smith.
She shared her experience as a mentor, as well
as a memtoree.
The
Saturday morning program concluded right before noon.
When asked about what each individual took away
from the program, Mr. Mark Shepard, a System Analyst
from Tyco-Mallinckrodt, made the following remarks:
1.
You have to have a way to measure your
progress. If
you can¡¦t measure it, you can¡¦t manage it.
2.
To succeed, you need to take the initiative
yourself. Seek
the wisdom and advice from people who will offer
honest and objective evaluation of you.
3.
MsterCard empowers their employees.
Training has become a part of the MasterCard
culture that is instrumental in employee career
development.
 
At
the end of the program, Matthew Yu thanked Robert Reeg
and Pat Smith for sharing MasterCard and their own
personal success stories with friends and members of
Organization of Chinese Americans, St. Louis.
Matthew Yu concluded the training program with
a quote from president Harry Truman saying, ¡§Man
makes history, and not the other way around.
In periods where there is no leadership,
society stands still.
Progress occurs when courageous, skillful
leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the
better.¡¨
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