DUBAI: Remember that incident in 2017 on board a United Airlines flight where a man was videoed forcibly being removed? The video went viral and most people took it as the end of one of the world’s biggest airline.
A year later, a record number of pets died on the carrier’s flights. People thought that’d be the last nail in the coffin.
How did Oscar Munoz, United Airlines VEO, pull things through?
Speaking before students of Standord Graduate School of Business (GSB), Munoz gave no magic formulas, just straightforward thoughts from his learning experiences.
“It’s a tough balancing act,” Stanford GSB’s Insights quoted him as telling the students whom he also asdvised that improving the customer experience is done by sitting down and asking customers what they care about and what their pain points are.
“Involving more folks requires patience. And it requires putting your ego aside.”
Munoz, segueing to the viral video and the dead pets incidents said the “turbulences” changed his approach to business:
“We let our policy and procedures get in the way of doing the right thing,” Munoz says, adding that the firm’s new focus is a more “customer first” approach.
Munoz said that as it is “a meritocratic world out there, people notice quality and leadership; and reward it.”
However, you can be the smartest person in the office, but that doesn’t mean you’ll rise up the ranks. You need emotional intelligence just as much as book smarts, he says. Put your ego aside, show patience, and really listen, he adds.
“It’s the saddest thing when people haven’t figured out the EQ side of things. You have to make yourself the kind of person that people are willing to come up to and provide advice.”
