EARLY in her tenure as president and CEO of Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Kelly Tomblin set her sights on changing the culture of the company that many Jamaicans had regarded as uncaring.

Now, after five years, Tomblin is satisfied that things are different, even though she believes that she arrived at a time when JPS was already evolving.Even better for Tomblin is that she’s totally convinced that the culture will survive after her departure next month, regardless of who sits in the CEO’s chair.“It’s too big now,” Tomblin told the

Jamaica Observer last week. “It’s not about any one person, certainly not about me and it’s not my culture, it’s our culture.”Tomblin, who will return to the US on July 8 to take up a new job as CEO of INTREN Inc in Illinois, said she and her team at JPS spent a year talking about their vision and mission.In early 2012 they did an analysis of the state of the company and got some ideas about how employees felt about the company.“We put together a transformation team from throughout the organisation that went to every location and asked people ‘what is your greatest vision for this company, what do you want with your hearts, what is your heart telling you?’” she explained.“It came from here, it wasn’t like I brought it, and I think what leaders do, if they do it right, they find what already exists in you that may be covered up, because we got hurt, we’ve been abandoned, we’ve been talked down to, whatever reasons. And so I think a lot of what leadership is all about is being able to uncover and take away that baggage from you and say, ‘Oh, that’s who you really are, let me see that’.“I think that’s what we’ve been able to do, to say take off your mask, quit trying to be like that person, be your grandest self of what your creator made you to be, and I do think that requires a different language that we’ve had,” Tomblin said.“Yes, there are always naysayers, every company has people who think that everything is hogwash, but I do believe that the team that I’m leaving have not only embraced it, they’re the people who have generated the change. So I do think when the new CEO steps in here, it’s too big, too solid,” she added.“I’m most proud of who we have become and that idea that we’ve been able to change our language around what we do in the world,” Tomblin argued, pointing out that utility companies need to appreciate “with some seriousness and honour” that they play a vital role in people’s lives and the economy.“I think we’ve been able to reacquaint ourselves with that, and I always worry that when I say what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last five years I’m somehow indicting the 90 years of wonderfulness before that, I’m not. I’m just saying, just like human beings we all evolve, and I just came when JPS was ready to evolve in a different way,” she said.“So I think… it was really timing; the company was ready and I had a deep commitment to doing power differently… that thirst for something greater was already there at JPS, so it wasn’t like I came like a saviour, it’s just that that thirst was there and we were able to work together and I was able to bring some great people, who were already in this company, [together with great people] from outside the company — Sheree Martin came from NCB, Gary Barrow came from Cable and Wireless in Trinidad. We brought people in from the airline industry, we brought a lot of young people in, we gave women power, so I think it was really just mining what existed, and where there were gaps, finding people from Jamaica.”Tomblin also said she was “really proud” that she was “the only expat” working with the “1,700 committed Jamaicans” at JPS. In addition, she believes that the new ethos she and her team have created will sustain the company, even as it continues to evolve.“I’m really proud that we’ve been able to establish a mission, vision and values that really work — the culture of the organisation — not just deciding what you’re going to do, but who you will be. We have a little mantra here that says ‘Do power differently’ and that means eliminate hierarchy, love your customers more, admit when you’re wrong, this idea of eliminating the distance between me and you, creating a sense of we all rise and fall together, it’s more like eliminating separation because… I don’t care [about] the colour of my skin, my gender, we’re all walking the same human path.“So, for me, just to embed that language and cooperation anywhere, especially [at] a utility company, has been my greatest honour,” said Tomblin who, before JPS, spent more than two decades in the energy industry in both deregulated and vertically integrated markets throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Latin America.Significantly, Tomblin was vice-president for GDF SUEZ/International Power, one of the world’s largest energy companies; and president of Pennsylvania Electric Company, a part of FirstEnergy, one of the largest utilities in the USA.Asked whether she has seen any improvement in the attitude Jamaicans display toward JPS, Tomblin’s eyes lit up with a bright smile.“Didn’t you see the PSOJ customer service awards yesterday? We had six out of nine. I was never so happy,“ she said.The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) awards, presented on May 30, saw JPS taking the best large-sized business trophy and five awards in other categories.She recalled a conversation she had with Carreras Managing Director Marcus Steele after he was named CEO of the Year 2014 by

Business Suite Magazine. That conversation, she admitted, “just blew my mind”.“Here Marcus Steele was, he’d just been named CEO of the Year and he was talking about an interaction he had with my company. I said, ‘How did you feel when you talked to JPS?’ and he said, ‘Helpless’, and I thought ‘My God, Marcus Steele, CEO of the year, feels helpless, what must everyone else feel’,” Tomblin related.That discussion and an experience she had with her US phone provider Sprint, reminded her just how much power people feel that utilities have over them.“I always say, if you have a lot of power you have to be 10 times more humble because people don’t like it already that you have power over them,” Tomblin said. “So we have to just remind our team that people already feel powerless, so we have to be a lot more respectful, even when people are aggravated with us.”