Adaptability and leadership drives the Great Lakes region

Helping everyone adapt to the future

I firmly believe that credibility is earned, not given. This is one of the core attributes of great leadership. I’ve been fortunate to have had great mentors in my life and my career. They showed me what true leadership looks like through example and guidance. It’s my privilege to pay it forward by serving as a mentor for my team and others within Lumen as well as our customers. I love to challenge our Lumen team here in the Great Lakes region and our customers to work together to think beyond today and imagine the future and anticipate any roadblocks they may face.

I am inspired by these future leaders and the new ideas they bring to the table. This is how our industry will continue to adapt and prepare for whatever challenges lie ahead. I have great confidence that our future is in secure hands.

The states surrounding the Great Lakes (Indiana, Michigan and Ohio) are home to many manufacturing and retail powerhouses. The strategic geographic location of the Great Lakes states makes them a central hub for shipping and transportation. This region has certainly seen its fair share of change and growth from the early days of the fur trade to one of the largest, most important economic and population centers in the world. Industry here will continue to play a critical role in the future economic health of our nation so long as enterprises are able to remain flexible and adapt to change.

It is said the only constant in the universe is change. Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so long as we remain flexible and learn to adapt to whatever curve balls life throws at us. Take the last 18 months, for instance. The pandemic turned our lives and businesses upside down in an instant. Uncertainty about the future drove enterprises to adopt new technologies and new ways of supporting their workforces and customers. As a result, remote work and digital retail are now part of the new normal. It is one thing to adopt specific changes. It is the ability to ADAPT our thinking and approaches to the world that makes us stronger and prepares us to lead through the challenges of the future.

So, what does that future look like? And how will you adapt?

Changes big and small

Change may be inevitable, but it is also exciting. I’m reminded of this each time I gaze into my 13-month-old daughter’s eyes and see the wonder of the world reflected there. My life has changed dramatically in the past 18 months, and like most everyone I’ve had to make some adjustments. Maybe I don’t get to play golf as often or travel as much or as far, but life is good, and the future holds much promise.

Change isn’t slowing down. The way companies do business and interact with customers continues to evolve. At the same time, the technology landscape is shifting dramatically. We still face uncertainty in a fast-changing world, and our customers need us now more than ever.

At Lumen, our goal is to help guide and mentor customers through these changes. That means maintaining an ongoing open dialogue with our customers and truly listening to their needs and sharing what is possible. A great example of this is a customer we recently worked with to adjust their cloud usage to better meet their business needs. Before we could present a solution, we took the time to have a deeper conversation with the customer so we would have a more comprehensive view of the business challenges they were facing. It’s through conversations like this that we earn the trust and credibility of our customers. Once we understood the problem, Lumen was able to create a multi-cloud environment that redistributed the workloads, allowed more flexibility in their cloud spending. That enabled better return on investment and more adaptability to the company’s needs serving their customers.

Understanding the challenges our customers face helps us bring solutions that drive outcomes and return on investment. It’s more than a single transaction selling a given technology. It’s about building a consultative relationship built on trust and delivering on promises. Our goal is to design solutions that make your life a little easier and prepare you to meet the challenges of the future.

Is your organization ready to meet the challenges of the future? Let’s talk.

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