Vicki Escarra - An Inspiration to High Flying Aspirants

          I was working on my project about online reputation management for airline industries, in the course of process to check for chief marketing officer of aviation industries, Vicki Escarra, former CMO of Delta airlines grasped my attention in a moment for her inspirational professional and social life. I was amazed when, I found out how she has soared to unprecedented heights within aviation industry from a normal post, and to know her significant contribution to Feeding America. Vicki Escarra serves as a source of strength and a voice for women as a visionary in distinguishing herself in the corporate world while maintaining a high level of integrity in the society.

Beginning of Vicki Escarra’s Career and Success:

      Vicki Escarra began her career in Delta’s In-Flight Services division (flight attendant) as an eager and passionate young woman, who was just out of Georgia State University with Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in the year 1973, with a plan in her mind to take the advantage of the opportunity to work and see the more of the world at a younger age.

          She was pursuing her job in delta with a plan to return to graduate school one day. Along the way, however, the job itself became the source for her continuing education, and Vicki Escarra became completely enamored with the airline industry and it’s potential. An interim decision had resulted in a propelling moment in her career.

           In a career in aviation industry that lasted for more than 3 decades, the former flight attendant had risen through the ranks to be chief customer services officer at Delta Air Lines and later the company's chief marketing officer.
In an industry with daily advancing aviation technology and increasing demands by business travelers, it was a challenging beginning in one’s career but she pursued it with her trademark diligence – and it has paid off. Her skills at interacting with throngs of people from all across the world in less than ideal situations continue to serve her well today, as they did then.

       To point out one, in the aftermath of the tragedies involving so many aircraft and passengers on September 11, 2001, Escarra called upon her ability to handle a crisis, to listen with compassion and to assure thousands of flight attendants under her supervision worldwide that all would be well. Her mission at the time was also to help in-flight crews manage the fears of the more than 104 million customers they would continue to serve, as they flew Delta each year.

Vicki Escarra first accounted for the safety of each of Delta’s 500-plus aircraft in its global network. Then she moderated a conference call with flight attendants, many of whom were stranded away from their home bases and made sure that they weren’t alone as they experienced the grief and concern that had suddenly gripped the nation. Attention to people’s needs characterizes Escarra’s management style.

           Not long after the industry began to experience post 9/11 trauma in terms of lagging ticket sales, with the increased responsibility Escarra was challenged again. With a challenge to minimize the impact of this devastating travel malaise on Delta’s revenue, she responded by escalating her efforts to strengthen strategic partnerships by expanding company’s relationship with coca cola company. A  deal was done to make Coca-Cola products the exclusive beverages on 8,000 daily flights to more than 500 destinations in 114 countries to add to company’s revenue by Skyteam – an alliance comprised of Delta, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech, and Korean Air.

         Her expeditious progress and professionalism in Delta is commendable. In 1992, she assumed management for more than 21,000 flight attendants worldwide as Director of In-Flight Operations. Later, in 1994, she was named Vice President of Reservation Sales, where she successfully directed the company’s telecommunication resources for more than 20 Call Centers worldwide. Following the addition of Distribution Planning to her responsibilities, she was appointed Vice President for Airport Customer Service, where she was accountable for the daily operations of 315 Delta airport locations in 39 countries. Having been promoted to Senior Vice President in that position, she soon ascended to the post of Executive Vice President, and, in May 2001, she was named to CMO. Escarra is among very few women in aviation to have achieved this level of responsibility.

            She was named as one of the “200 Most Powerful Women in Travel” in 1997 and for three consecutive years afterwards by Travel Agent magazine. The National Air & Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution presented her with its National Aviation and Space Exploration Wall of Honor certificate in January 2000. In 2002, she received the Atlanta YWCA Women of Achievement Award.

Her contribution to Feeding America:
            After leaving Delta in 2004, she began to consecrate most of her time for the commitments in which she found her own happiness, love, and satisfaction. Now she had more time to devote to placate the pain and hunger of deprived people of America. In 2006 she was appointed as President and CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, which provides food to Americans in need through a network of more than 200 food banks. Vicki Escarra also serves on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships as a member of the Task Force on Economic Recovery and Domestic Poverty. She is on the Sesame Workshop Advisory Board on Food Insecurity, as well as the boards of HealthNet, the Congressional Hunger Center, The Chicago Network, and the Committee of 200.

          Feeding America, which has many recent awards to its name, relies on a broad community of supporters to achieve ongoing success, and Escarra has been central to strengthening relationships across the public and private sectors. Under Escarra’s guidance, the network successfully encouraged the passage of a robust Farm Bill in 2007, leading to significant enhancements of federal feeding programs. Her efforts have created partnerships with the charitable arms of the TV shows "American Idol”, "The Biggest Loser" and "Celebrity Apprentice" and expanded the number of people served annually from 25 million to 37 million and the pounds of food and grocery products distributed annually from 2 billion to 2.8 billion. Feeding America provides the emergency food to almost one out of 8 needy Americans. One of the richest nations in the world has 13% people starving for daily food (of which 37% are children), then what would be this statistics in other developing and underdeveloped nations? The appreciation of Indian government on its step to Right to education (Author – Suraj Sharma) doesn’t mean that it has succeeded in providing other basic human rights like food in India. The Human Rights start off with basics that every human requires. To the next level comes being human, to have pleasure, recreation, and then being able to love and contribute to the society. I appreciate the step initiated by Bhook.com in India.

                To achieve this great success in Feeding America, Escarra made major innovations in every aspect of Feeding America’s operations. Most visibly, after taking the Chicago job she initiated the organization’s comprehensive rebranding effort that evolved its long-standing brand, America’s Second Harvest, to Feeding America. She says "No one knew what we were doing. The new name has increased awareness and giving.” She continues to serve in Feeding America with the intention that no one sleeps and dies with hunger. 
              Vicki Escarra has truly soared farther than her expectations in her career and forerunner in fighting for a cause, and provided the aisle with no limit for other women with high-flying aspirations. With growing needs of such person in the society, I believe we would be seeing many more fighters (shero) to born and provide a balance in the community. - Suraj Sharma

Social Media Marketing – An Imperative Change to be Fit

With the advent of new technology, new media of communication is discovered. Even though the basic remains the same, the change needs to be adopted in order to survive in business . Social media marketing is the new trend, in fact, new revolution in the internet and in business.

With growing social networking sites like Face book, twitter, Orkut, etc. and blogosphere on the internet and their great success in attracting the users, the new component is added in Integrated Media Communication (IMC) plans of the organizations read more.

Facts About Social Media Marketing

As many organizations have understood the importance of Social Media Marketing to be incorporated in their marketing and communication strategy, as I have explained in my post Social Media Marketing – An Imperative Change to be Fit, there are few fascinating facts about social media and its growth that would allow you to imagine the position of Social media in business and our life in coming future.

Social media has reached people so rapidly that currently more than 90 % of the world’s populations know at least one social network on the net and 72% of internet population is active on at least one social network. In 1984 there were 1000 internet devices, now  read more.

Google succeeds completing Android

           Android 2.2 the complete Android has evolved into a real product, on a totally different level than its first year.
           Android 2.2—aka Froyo—is the most usable, polished iteration and seventh version of Android yet. But more importantly, it's the first release that makes Android truly compelling for a broad consumer audience.
           Without getting overly technical, Android executes its apps in a layer above its core Linux OS in a virtual machine called Dalvik. There have been the results of a 2x–5x performance boost read more
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Creation of artificial cell - I would say an epoch in human history

May 20, 2010, it is the day that would be remembered forever as scientists announced that they have successfully created first artificial life in the history of human being on this day. It is the production of a living cell powered by man-made DNA. The inventors (Dr. Venter and team) call it the world's first synthetic cell, although this initial step is more a re-creation of existing life which is changing one simple type of bacterium into another — than a built-from-scratch kind.

The breakthrough could be a step toward creating artificial microorganisms that observers say might be used for such purposes as absorbing greenhouse gases or developing vaccines and fuel.

 They, however, have also expressed concerns that the research could result in the production of hazardous life forms or biological weapons and many more to come which would be a big threat to humanity.

"It's the first self-replicating cell on the planet that's parent is a computer," says Venter, referring to the fact that his team converted a cell's genome that existed as data on a computer into a living organism. Dr. Venter has a reputation as a maverick, having raced the federal government to map the human genome and finishing in a tie in 2000.

How was artificial cell formed?

The researchers picked two species of Mycoplasma, simple germs that contain a single chromosome and lack the cell walls that form barriers in other bacteria. First, they chemically synthesized the genome of M. mycoides, that goat germ, twice as large as the germ genome they had previously built.Then they transplanted it into a living cell from a different Mycoplasma species, albeit a fairly close cousin.

At first, nothing happened. The team scrambled to find out why read more

My Dream Death.

We are all aware of the fact that we all are gonna die one day. Our life is not permanent and one day we will leave this world and blaw, blaw and blaw..

Most of us actually have a dream which never will be going to happen at present that we want to live forever. And most of us dream about how we want to live to live in this world, how you want your life to be, how victorious you should be, how you want your friends, lover or life partner to be. But my dreams don’t end with this. Apart from these normal dreams, I have another dream “How My Death Should Be”.

Yes. I always have the great passion towards Astronomy and NASA. I wanted at least to be a part of NASA and travel once in space. But life doesn’t go the way you dream and certainly doesn’t go the way you wanted when what your wish is distinct and difficult, and on those occasions if  you don’t show any effort to achieve it. And of course, in life, priority matters. The wish to be a part of NASA still remains in me but the funny part is that sometimes I feel very stupid. I want the death to take me from a spaceship while I am travelling far in space. I don’t know from where the heck these stupid things come to my mind but certainly my happiest death, as I feel of now, would be me dying in space while making some space journey.