The central theme is Carol Tomé's belief that employees are an investment, not an expense. This philosophy, honed at The Home Depot and applied at UPS, posits that investing in people's growth and well-being leads to superior customer service and strong financial performance.
UPS is undergoing a strategic shift from a "bigger is better" mindset to a "better, not bigger" approach. This involves divesting low-margin, capital-intensive businesses like UPS Freight and re-evaluating high-volume, low-profit relationships like Amazon, while aggressively investing in high-growth areas like healthcare logistics.
Tomé is actively working to update the culture of the 115-year-old company to meet modern expectations. This includes tangible changes like relaxing restrictive appearance policies (e.g., on tattoos and natural hair) and implementing a new leadership framework ('head, hearts, and hand') to instill empathy and improve digital fluency.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of both personal and corporate purpose. Tomé shares her personal purpose ('lead to inspire, serve to create, give to remain') and details the process of defining UPS's purpose: 'moving our world forward by delivering what matters.'
Keep pulling the thread on Carol Tomé.