Service Magazine Fall 2017

14 | @Service Magazine Summer 2017 Walk the halls of our Healthcare Institute in Milwaukee, WI, and you’ll see firsthand the legacy of TomDunham . There’s even an award named in honor of Tom, the Thomas E. Dunham Award, that recognizes excellence in Service. Tom served in key leadership roles across our Lighting, Major Appliances and Healthcare businesses during his storied career at GE. He led the Service business for nine years. During that time, the business saw unprecedented growth and innovation, as he pioneered everything from remote diagnostics to multi-vendor service to the biomed business. He introduced LCT and the concept of teamwork across Service and Sales. And we won HCA during his tenure. Earlier this year, we were honored to have Tom share his leadership philosophy with more than 300 of our people leaders. We asked Tom recently to expound on his messages from that presentation. Q: You led the Service business for nine years. What lessons can you share from that experience? The importance of trust would be ranked at number one! In Service, you can go for days without direct contact with your team, so you need to establish an atmosphere of trust and candor. Personal and organizational integrity are non- negotiable components of success! In addition, a measure of humility goes a long way in fostering cooperation. Q: Every year, we recognize a top field engineer with the Thomas E. Dunham Award for service excellence. You’ve personally called past winners to congratulate them. What’s it like to talk with these winners? I view the FE as one of the most important people in our organization. They work 24/7 and with each call they have two difficult tasks: fixing some of the most sophisticated equipment GE makes and satisfying a very professional and demanding customer. And they are often at the end of a very tenuous communications channel. I am in awe of all FEs and getting to talk to the top FE each year is a real treat! Without exception, I come away impressed with their dedication, competency and humility. Q&A with Tom Dunham