Carol Tom is a leader who appears to demonstrate that being an inclusive and value-based leader is of paramount importance in today's day and age. She has held many positions over the years in her career. Her work as an effective leader has been particularly recognised at 'The Home Depot' from 1995 to 2019, serving as Vice President and Treasurer and later as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During her time 'The Home Depot' grew from 400 stores to 2,200 with revenue of nearly $100 billion. Its share price over her tenure increased more than 450%. She has received praise for The Home Depot's performance after its emergence from the 2008-09 financial and housing crisis.

Carol Tom is currently the Chief Executive Officer of United Parcel Services (UPS) a Fortune 500 multinational shipping & receiving and Supply chain management company with operations in more than 220 countries and territories. UPS today is primarily known for its ground shipping services as well as the UPS Store, a retail chain which both assists UPS shipments as well as provides tools for small businesses. In addition, UPS offers air shipping on an overnight or 2-day basis and delivers to PO Boxes through UPS SurePost, a subsidiary that passes on packages to the United States Postal Service for last mile delivery. UPS is the largest courier company in the world by revenue, with annual revenues around US$85 billion in 2020, ahead of competitors DHL and FedEx. UPS's main international hub, UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky, is the fifth busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic based on preliminary statistics from ACI, and the third busiest in the United States behind FedEx's Memphis Superhub and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

Carol Tom is in a way 'breaking the glass ceiling' by being a first outsider CEO (at UPS), the first women CEO (in company's 114 years) and the first women CEO in that industry. She is currently one of four Fortune 50 CEOs and have been named a Supply chain Trail Blazer. She accepted the role in 2019 after retiring from Home depot after 24 years of service. She came into UPS knowing that it is an organisation with powerful brand, culture and values. The company stock had been flat for six years, so she saw it as an opportunity to create value for Shareholders. She formally accepted the position in the beginning of March 2020 with an official transition in June 2020. However, her job became a whole lot more complicated as on March 11 World Health Organisation declared Covid- 19 outbreak a global Pandemic. Not only UPS had to keep their sorting facility operational and their vehicles and airplanes moving but they must meet the surge in demand that quickly matched peak holiday-shipping volume and never abated. Carol have found herself working with rest of the leadership team to push her way through the pandemic while also planning for future.

Carol's strategic direction since taking over the helm of UPS has been particularly enlightening as to her personal as well as business values. Beyond clear focus on financial viability and profitability of the company, she also clearly has a personal ethical direction that comes through in her vision for the company. From the moment she took the role as CEO, she had a clear vision that the future of UPS lay outside its traditional work methods. She recognised that the purpose of any business is to add value to its stakeholders. She is strengthening UPS's product portfolio, reducing company's carbon footprint and heavily investing in more diverse portfolios. Under her leadership UPS have been able to do everything necessary to maintain UPS's current business and have also been able to hone UPS's purpose. She has been able to strategize, reorganise, prioritise, divest, invest and have been able to bring together a team that is stronger and more engaged. After starting the position, she invited her top team to a Two-day Covid-safe offsite at her farm. With the help of a third-party facilitator her leadership team debated on the aspects of the company that should be carry forwarded and the aspect which might be changed. After a collective debate she took a decision to settle on five key principles

1. The company will stay grounded in the values of co-founder Jim Casey, including integrity, sufficiency, constant learning and improvement 2. Company will have a strong focus of both customer and employees 3. The company will maintain its brand relevance 4. Finally, UPS will keep their balance sheet credit rating solid, will protect their dual class ownership structure and will continue to pay dividend

She has also revised UPS's purpose statement to include not only a clear understanding of 'What' UPS does but 'Why' UPS does it. She did not come with a preconceived notion about what UPS should become but she listened to her senior leadership team. She has also revamped the decision-making structure of the company to be more decentralised in some areas. She believes in inward leadership pyramid hence she is initiated culture change at many levels to facilitate it. In a short span of one year, she has been able to increase UPS's market share of small and medium size enterprise by 36% in US. She has also been able to ramp up the technology and digitization investment. Under her leadership UPS has committed to be carbon neutral in all their operation by 2050, which is considered a massive feat given UPS has a fleet of more than 500 leased and owned aircrafts and thousands of package-delivery vehicles which is a combined travel of billions of miles per year. Currently, UPS is working towards achieving a Net Promoter Score of above 50 by listening to and learning from their customers. UPS is also working on getting an 80% and above employee recommendation number which has currently reached 57% from 50% under her leadership.

Q1 - There is a relationship between 'leadership' and 'integrity'. How far is that statement true and applicable to leaders like Carol Tom. Provide a balanced analysis using specific examples from the business world.

Q2- Carol Tom has proved it is possible to think beyond profits even in a post-pandemic 'Covid normal' era. Do you think it is time for business leaders to think beyond 'return on investment' for their shareholders and embrace a stakeholders value-added approach? Support your claim/argument with examples.

Q3- The primary ongoing challenge for leaders is to deal with continuous change. Covid 19 has changed industry dynamics and the way we perceive the future, our attitude towards work organisation and the skills we need to maintain our competitive advantage. Research and explain one specific change Carol Tom have brought in UPS that other organisations can benefit from. Provide evidence in support of your answer.