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Proposed
Christian Employee Network
Leslie Williams Johnson Contributing Writer
Jerome Miller's first Delta flight was with his high school basketball team, the Savannah High Blue Jackets, who came to town to play Atlanta's Carver High some 30 years ago.
He still remembers the close score, too: 52-51, Blue Jackets.
Even then, he said, the airline "left me with a very positive assessment," said Miller, who became Delta Air Lines Inc.'s new vice president of global diversity and community affairs Oct. 25.
These days, Delta is playing a whole new ball game as it continues its fight to overcome financial woes. The week of Miller's arrival also brought news that Delta had reached a tentative, but critical, agreement with its pilots union.
The airline also announced it has financing commitments from American Express Travel Related Services Co. and GE Commercial Finance.
As the company works through its problems, Miller said he sees strength in Delta's commitment to diversity.
"Even during challenging times, leadership in this key aspect of their business is important," said Miller, 50.
He will report to Delta CEO Gerald Grinstein and to Lee Macenczak, senior vice president and chief customer service officer.
Miller replaces Paul Graves, who now is at health-care company Schering-Plough Corp.
Miller came to Delta from InterContinental Hotels Group Plc, where he was vice president and chief diversity officer for the Americas division.
Prior to that, he was with The Coca-Cola Co. for 12 years, where his positions included human resources director for Southern Africa, business change consultant and human resources consultant. He also worked at Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. and Ford Motor Co. world headquarters.
"The community we serve plays a vital role in our survival and our growth," said Jennie Lanham, general manager with global diversity and community affairs. She reports directly to Miller. "I think [Delta's community relationship] is already extremely strong, but we want to make it even stronger."
Hard lessons
It was in South Africa while working for Coca-Cola that Miller faced some of the most crucial lessons in diversity.
The year was 1994, shortly after the elections in which Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa had been under an apartheid system for years. In the midst of the country's historic sea change, Miller needed to promote diversity.
"I was met with what I would consider some misunderstanding," Miller said. "There were some question marks: 'Where is this new leader, this expatriate, coming from?' Some of that resulted in degrees of resistance."
Miller said he needed to help people understand how diversity would benefit the country, the organization, and the individual. Not easy, considering working together as teammates was unfamiliar territory for workers.
The lesson: "Even in a culture like that, if you can educate people on the business benefits, you can trigger change that will be sustained," Miller said. "That worked back then and it will work today."
At Delta, Miller said he wants to weave the value of diversity into the company's fabric, "to make diversity and community affairs a very active part of everything we do," Miller said.
Fostering transformation
But there are challenges, Miller said.
"One of my biggest challenges is to work with the existing team in a total sense, at all levels, to take global diversity and community affairs to another level," he said. "As we go forward, I would like to institutionalize diversity and inclusion and community affairs into our overall business strategy and objectives."
Miller's goals are in line with those of other diversity leaders today, said Hal Jones, vice president of sales and business development with R. Thomas Consulting & Training in Decatur. The company focuses on diversity management. They are looking beyond numbers and mandates to see the true benefits of a work force in which both genders, various races, experiences and skill sets are represented, he said.
They're saying, "we need diversity not because the law requires it, but because our business demands it," Jones said.
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