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Just for Utilities - Introduction Print E-mail

Big Changes, Small Time Frame

Municipal and cooperative utilities will be experiencing exceptionally high levels of change in a very narrow time span, as their worker populations tend to skew higher in age than other industries.

The degree of change will also be greater and more abrupt because the replacement for existing workers will be coming from Gen X, the generation with the smallest numbers of people and from the Millennials (also known as Gen Y), the group with the least experience and perhaps the least interest in utilities as a career direction.

The Triple Witching Issue
Competition will be intense on three levels – 

  1. Competition for skilled workers in particular
  2. Competition for the best and brightest managers– your current as well as future employees
  3. Competition with other resources that deliver the same services (for-profit utilities, outsourcing options, privatization initiatives, etc.) 

In the parable, (shown in the box on this page) the utility in question decided to position itself for acquisition. But is that really a choice for your utility, let alone a popular choice? What of the local ownership, local management and local control that your customers enjoy?

Acquisition can be compared to marriage. You fall in love, you get married, you have your honeymoon period, and then – often – the fallout is disastrous. Just like in divorces, disentanglement (on a personal or corporate level) is expensive, mean-spirited, stressful and mutually destructive...to say nothing of the loss of a long-standing community asset.

Doing nothing to manage change can leave a local utility with only two choices – go out of business or be absorbed, for better or worse, by a larger utility. Unless you like playing fast and loose with your community’s assets, neither of those scenarios is very attractive.

 

>> Learn why Leadership is NOT Optional

 
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A Brief Parable on NOT Coping with Change

A centennial utility decided that it was not capable of producing the capital to re-tool and deal with the pace of change. Instead, the company chose to wring out costs by replacing experienced workers with new and relatively untrained people.

Those mechanical manipulations made the rates stable, for a while. During the halo period when the revenue and expenses kept pace, the decision-makers accepted a buy-out offer…the pot was just too sweet! As the service deteriorated, costs soared, turnover continued, and local rates increased every six months. Local control was gone and cost decisions were made by state regulators.

The dam burst because the local management and control that could have solved the problems—through joint action and strategic planning—chose the quick and easy way out.

The moral of the story?

Unless your exit strategy is to plump up the bottom line, sell for whatever you can get and run off to the Bahamas, you need to lead change – or be prepared for changes you probably won’t like.
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