Our people are a force multiplier!

My first trip of 2023 was to Dubai this quarter where we focused on key themes with the Middle East & Africa One Field Services?(OFS) team… People – our most valuable resource… Customers – the reason we’re here… Ops review – 2022 a year in review and our 2023 roadmap.

PEOPLE – Our One Field Services business?(which is comprised of FieldCore, GE On Site Services (OSS), Operations & Maintenance (O&M) and our North America affiliate, APM) is really a “People” business. It’s people at the end of the day that make us who we are and enable us to do what we do for our customers. Brent Borders, our HR Leader, and Melissa Wellman, our CFO, joined me on the trip and spent as much time or more connecting with the team every day… Each one-on-one opportunity began with us first saying thanks in person to those who give so much for us and our customers. From there it was all about them, listening, learning and engaging, being present and letting the conversation flow as it may, no agenda… just two people connecting.?

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I learned more in 5 days than in my first 400+ days about this team, and not just about their professional journey but even more about who they are at a personal level. It’s incredibly uplifting and humbling when people share who they are and not just what they do. It was without a doubt what I cherished most about my time with the team.

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CUSTOMERS – When you start with the premise of the conversation that the only reason we exist as a business is because of our customers, it helps focus the dialog on what matters and how we should view things. Through the course of the week, we discussed many topics, but everything eventually comes back to “what” we’re doing as an OFS team and how it is impacting our customers… both positively and in some instances negatively. And while it’s great to talk internally about how we’re doing supporting our customers, there is nothing like face-to-face “Voice of the Customer” to make it real! Luckily, on the Wednesday, we had a 9F?Hot Gas Path upgrade going on at one of our larger customers. The site is massive with 10 heavy duty gas turbines, two steam turbines and many generators and other associated equipment.

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We were able to visit the site, spend time with the team on the ground, check in on how Live Outage is positively impacted the outage, witness the unit get to Full Speed, No Load, and most importantly spend some time with our customers.

After sharing our appreciation of the partnership we have with them, they gave us positive feedback on how we performed on Safety, Quality and overall Delivery?(Outage Duration) vs expectation, which always comes back to the People?(Core Crews) who performed the outage. They truly appreciate our team and the relationships we’ve built with them over the years! That said, we’ve still got work to do and need to focus on a few issues that have impacted them. These interactions are invaluable, appreciated and as impactful as they come.

OPS REVIEW – Every month we do our Regional Monthly Operating Review?(MOR) remotely via Teams, and touch upon the results, double click on the areas needing improvement, and talk through the action plans we’re working on to make these improvements, region by region and then a sum of the parts Global MOR follows.

Having had 6 full hours to engage with the MEA team face-to-face, reflect on 2022?(amazing year by the way), dive deep into 2023 and see the team in their element, was incredibly uplifting as it gave everyone opportunity to speak their voice, proudly show some amazing results and really engage as a collective team. This is just not possible when you do it remotely! It also shows the importance of the concept that it takes a village and then some to do what we do, especially in a region as complex as MEA! From Immigration & Tooling… from Sourcing & Logistics… from Resource/Field Operations, O&M & On Site Services (OSS)… with the support of Safety, Quality, Finance, IT and every other member of our One Field Services Team around the globe. Nothing happens without everyone rowing in the boat together… This team demonstrated that while they all may have a role to play on the field… they’re better together when they serve a greater good and a higher purpose as indicated by their results!

REFLECTIONS – It’s honestly hard to sum up 5 full-on jam-packed days with this incredible team of professionals who do more than just keep the lights on for a billion?plus people and countless industries in the region… but here you go…

A. ?Proud - I’m personally proud to have this team on the field, supporting our customers as well as their end customers. You can count on them to deliver reliable and sustainable power, no matter what the application… anywhere, anytime, anyplace... 24/7/365 they're ready to serve!

B. ?Selfless - It’s a team of individuals who know the power of collaboration as a force multiplier in making continuous improvement iteration by iteration year over year…

C. ?Talented - Built from the ground up, this team has been in the region for the region and in their roles for decades… continually building their skills and tools to advance their careers and in the end, better serve our customers with a rock-solid foundation of Leaders who care.

D. ?Appreciative - Every second spent mattered. Engagement from each connection was graciously appreciated as we all went back-to-back to make the most of the time we had together.

To each of the MEA Team who made it possible and supported Melissa, Brent and I, THANK YOU!!! ????

Cheers,

Jim?