The natural born leader

35 years later, Erwin’s passion remained undimmed as she progressed through the ranks at Verizon and her rise has been meteoric. When she became the first executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Business, Erwin’s targets were clear: to grow the unit’s revenue and customer base, and transform the way the organization serves its customers.

Erwin was confident in her abilities to help Verizon Business succeed in a rapidly changing landscape. “I know how to manage operations at scale, and I’m committed to helping people drive transformational change.”

Erwin also believes her experiences in customer service had given her an innate understanding of what Verizon Business needed to do to thrive in a 5G future.

“I grew up in the world of serving customers”, Erwin says. “I believe it's the most important thing we can do. If you're not serving a customer directly, you're serving the people who are serving those customers. It takes a team to win.”

Erwin took what she’d learned about technology, customers and teamwork, and used it to plot an exciting new future for Verizon Business. She quickly identified that Verizon could no longer rely on just selling their assets – they needed to better understand who their customers were in order to be able to provide them with holistic solutions.

“We had a really clear strategy for delivering for our customers and building the infrastructure of the future – and how to do it with people at the core, building a strong culture and a clear mission.”

As well as providing core connectivity, Erwin knew that Verizon Business could deliver platforms, applications and solutions. Tami was still just as excited by the possibilities of cutting-edge tech as she had been when trying that ‘great big brick’ of a phone:

“Our big dream was to be the first in the world to deliver 5G capability to our customers. 5G is super exciting, and I think we’re just getting started. So we set out on a mission to be the first to deliver 5G mobility, 5G fixed wireless access and 5G mobile edge compute. And we were the first in the world to deliver all three.”

Verizon Business was off to a great start. But there was a further unforeseen challenge that would need to be navigated. As usual, Erwin faced it with a positive outlook.

“Now, what we didn’t plan for was COVID”, Erwin admits. “It gave us the setback that said all of a sudden we need to send 30,000 people home to work from home.”

But after the initial shock, it became clear that the effects of the pandemic demonstrated that Verizon Business was already on the right track.

“We were talking about digital transformation when we first set up Verizon Business, so COVID just accelerated it”, Erwin says. “It reinforced our commitment to businesses because we had to find new ways to help them serve their customers – whether it’s a health care provider who needs a bigger circuit or a business that suddenly has employees working from home. How can we use 5G to accelerate these digital transformations?”

Erwin’s forward thinking and belief in new technology played a large part in Verizon Business being well placed to navigate the pandemic. But equally important was her style of leadership. She believed in building a culture in which doing good was as important as being successful. And Erwin valued every voice, whether it be listening to the needs of Verizon Business customers, or suggestions from within her team.

It's notable that whenever Erwin speaks about Verizon’s achievements, she is keen to point out that it was a team effort, always referring to ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. There are different ways to be a successful leader. Some do so through sheer force of personality. Others, like Erwin, prefer a more collaborative approach. It’s a method that played a part in her rise to the top of a traditionally male-dominated industry.

“What I found over the last 35 years is for women in particular, how you amplify your voice, how you have your voice be heard is a really big challenge”, says Erwin.

Erwin is a natural communicator. But it helps that she genuinely believes in what she does. For Erwin, 5G isn’t just about providing faster connectivity – she sees its potential to improve lives: “I think we've never had more ability to control the outcome and use tech to help solve some of the world's biggest problems, whether it's education, whether it's health care, whether it's poverty or whether it's digital transformation.”

Erwin is particularly proud of Verizon’s work in the education sector. The Verizon Innovative Learning Program takes a holistic approach, going beyond providing a school with 5G to integrating tablets into the learning process and showing teachers how to use technology to provide a better experience – and outcome – for students.

Erwin and her team also created a program for small businesses. It provides access to expertise, coaching and advice on how to use technology at the core of their business.

It’s clear that Erwin sees it as a duty for businesses to try and make a genuine difference. Her story is one of compassionate, customer-centric leadership, and a belief in the power of tech “to make the world a better place”.