The Swidarski File
Tom Swidarski
President and CEO
Diebold Inc.
Born: Pittsburgh
Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing and management at the University of Dayton; master’s degree in business management from Cleveland State University
What is a typical week in the life of Tom Swidarski when you are not in the office?
Quite a bit of my time — maybe 40 or 50 percent — is spent traveling. And a lot of that is international. That’s really for me to get in front of customers as well as our associates and understand and make sure that we’re meeting customer needs and where we have holes or gaps and making sure that the information we’re getting in. It’s important for customers, especially larger customers that are maybe spending $100 million or $150 million with you, that they see the CEO and that he’s committed to it. So China is important in that regard. Brazil is important in that regard. For me, it’s also important to not only go see them but also to view our operations, to sit with our top team as well as always spend time with our folks internally.
How do you get employees to buy in to your vision?
If you can demonstrate in the deepest, darkest hours the humanity of making tough calls and doing it appropriately, that really helps people buy in to the vision of what you are trying to accomplish, regardless of how good you are at communicating. Regardless of how good your vision is and how fancy it is, it comes down to do people trust you. For me, that’s what it’s about.
