| Fall '07/Winter '08: Alumni: Tracy Mack-Askew ’98
Interior Trim and the Global Village
Engineering leader puts her cross-cultural
background to work at the world’s largest automaker
Designing interior trim for an SUV is one thing. Creating global standards for that trim is something else entirely—and it requires more than a mechanical engineering degree.
Tracy Mack-Askew ’98 has that “more.”
As an engineering group manager for General Motors, Mack-Askew has to connect the dots between engineers in Germany, manufacturers in Mexico, and cultural tastes from across the world to create a set of global standards that work for all parties involved. Only someone who has immersed herself in other cultures could pull it off—and Mack-Askew has done plenty of that.
An African-American in Singapore
Her cross-cultural odyssey began in Singapore, where she spent her junior year as part of Rensselaer’s Global Engineering Education Exchange (Global E3). While there, her eyes were opened to the mélange of traditions and ethnicities in the city. “When you talk about Singapore, you have to break it down into ethnicities,” she observed. “For instance, the Chinese and Indian workers were often more career-driven, while Malays tended to focus more on family and personal life.”
Even in such a cosmopolitan place, Mack-Askew found her own ethnicity a topic of curiosity. From this crossing of cultures came a watershed experience.
“It was a struggle to explain what it means to be an African-American in the U.S.,” she remembered. “Then, a Singaporean friend showed me a story in a Chicken Soup book she was reading. It was about a young African-American ostracized for playing golf at a whites-only club. Showing me that story was her way of saying, ‘I understand what you’re trying to tell me, and I empathize with it.’”
Rapport in Four Languages
It didn’t take long for Mack-Askew to use her cross-cultural skills in the workplace. Starting as an intern, she quickly rose through the GM ranks, spending a great deal of time in Mexico and Canada because of her job responsibilities. In the process, she learned some of the finer points of cross-cultural communication. “In Mexico, people say yes a lot, but it doesn’t mean they agree with you,” she said. “It simply means they understand what you’re saying. When I’m trying to get agreement on a business matter, then, I have to make doubly sure they actually agree with the direction.”
It is no accident that Mack-Askew came to her current position when she did. Her team of 10 engineers designs not only interior trim, but also carpet, acoustics, and storage space for GM trucks and SUVs. As the company undergoes a massive globalization initiative, she finds her cross-cultural skills exceedingly valuable.
“I regularly mediate between our engineers in Germany and our production people in Mexico,” she said. “Cultural sensitivity makes such a difference in helping us all go forward together.”
Mack-Askew often uses her working knowledge of four languages to put people at ease. “It helps build immediate rapport,” she explained.
“People are pleasantly surprised that I’m trying to speak with them in their own language, even if it’s just casual conversation. It makes them more willing to work with you.”
Rapport, as you might expect, is a big part of Mack-Askew’s cultural repertoire. “The more places I visit, the more I realize how much we have in common as human beings,” she said. “When you seek out the similarities, you find them and get to explore them.”
Broader Horizons, Better Engineers
Not surprisingly, Mack-Askew is a huge supporter of cross-cultural education. “I think every student should study abroad,” she said. “When you experience things you’ve never seen before, it helps you think in a way you’ve never thought before. It expands your ingenuity and creativity. You’ve morphed, you’ve changed, you’ve grown into something more.”
And that, ultimately, makes for better engineers. “Engineering is a method of solving problems,” she said, “and each person brings their own perspective to the problem at hand. That modifies the way the problem is solved. The broader your global experience, the more valuable you can be as an engineer.”
