Strategy Implementation At An Electric Utility
An electric utility organization becomes more profitable than ever, and makes three critical acquisitions in a year-after years of indecision-as a result of an executive team aligned around a new strategy and the implementation of that strategy.
The CEO of an electric utility had a new strategy to roll out, but since the last two strategy changes had not been successful, there was concern about its viability. In the process of conducting a series of interviews with the executive team, we discovered that they lacked several foundational requirements for successful strategic implementation, threatening likelihood of success:
The new strategy was not clear, and therefore not compelling
The CEO was not clear enough about the strategy to be a committed champion of it (so others weren’t either)
The executive team was not at all aligned on the strategy; in fact, at a meeting at which they had planned to gain alignment, half the executives walked out in anger
As a result, the employees from the direct reports down were not engaged in the pursuit of the new strategy and were very cynical about new initiatives.
KiersonConsulting is hired to implement the Executive Team Alignment Process™
We worked with the CEO and his team to embrace a shared understanding of what it means to be an aligned executive team. Once they gained that understanding, we gave them the choice to be an aligned team or not. They chose alignment. Next, we structured and facilitated a process to develop a new vision for the future that was very compelling. We re-visited the strategy with them until it became clear and they could align on it. Simultaneously, we worked with their direct reports to open up possibility for the new strategic thinking and to engage them in the process, and then helped the company create an architecture for communicating with and mobilizing all of their employees.
The year the new strategy was rolled out, the company set and reached their critical stretch targets, increased profitability beyond anything they had done before, and accomplished three critical acquisitions that positioned them for their new future. As one company president said, “We’re a much stronger company and now we have the tools to keep on getting better and better!”