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Name Steve HollidayCompany National GridPosition Executive DirectorHQ London, EnglandEmployees 27,000+

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Meaningful connections

National Grid encourages its staff and suppliers to reach out to those less fortunate and give them the power to shape their future.

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When first stepping into his Chief Executive role at National Grid, Steve Holliday turned to the people around him, specifically the top seventy executives, taking each one aside for a few hours and asking some key questions. “The business was successful, but our investors and other stakeholders

thought that we could tidy up the portfolio. I wanted to listen to a lot of people inside the organisation. I wanted to know their views on our strategy, because I felt that we weren’t very clear on it. The answers I got confirmed there was a definite lack of clarity and coherence, and our strategy was not something that they could simply describe.

“I asked about the style of the organisation, the way in which we went about our business, and what changes they would like to see. I also asked them about me and what sort of CEO they wanted, and, as they all knew me, I asked them what they thought I needed to work on and change. Through those discussions I gained an enormous amount of data, which I could build on.”

Steve then took at look at National Grid’s capabilities, as he wanted to discover what it was that the business really excelled in. “What are we really

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“A BUSINESS IS SIMPLY AN IDEA TO MAKE OTHER PEOPLES’ LIVES BETTER.

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“Our strategic partnership with National Grid is now seventeen years strong. The dynamic, positive, and collaborative work environment has enabled us to support critical business initiatives as part of the partner eco-system delivering value to National Grid’s customers.” - Arun Krishnamurthi, Vice President and Global Head, Utilities, Wipro Limited

good at? What are our real core capabilities? Where do we create value, where might there be value in the future?” he asked himself. Those questions led to a focus on energy. In those days the company had a pretty large telecommunications network business as well, both in the UK and in the US. It also had a small business in Australia, and another small business in Argentina.

Steve decided it would be best for National Grid to focus on energy delivery, and the operation of energy networks, particularly in the UK and US, where there was evidence that there was going to be an enormous amount of investment growth over the coming years. In order to do that, he rationalised the business, selling off its other interests. He also doubled the size of its US operations via a strategic acquisition.

He then turned his focus to his management team. “We went outside the business and hired four senior executives to join my executive team. We brought them in from different industries — from consumer goods, banking, and from the defence industry. So we had people from different backgrounds with different skills, who were very talented, and they have pretty much been with me here throughout the journey.

“Building the top team and then getting the top eighty-to-100 leaders aligned around the new strategy and some of the other things that we wanted to accomplish was really important. That was the way we were going to run the business going forward. I try to avoid the word ‘culture’, but the behavior of our leaders was going to be really important for us to be successful, and also for some of the things that we

wanted to be famous for. We wanted to be able to create the characteristics that National Grid is associated with when people talk about us.

“When I joined this company back in 2001, one thing I observed was the enormous amount of pride that people had in what they did — and rightly so. What they provide is an essential service. They are not selling something

that is optional — energy is behind everything that we do every minute, every day. It powers our schools, our hospitals, and our manufacturing plants. People in this business have therefore always taken great pride in the fact that what they do really matters. So the challenge, as I saw it back then, was to never lose that. That’s just something that many businesses would give their right arm for.

“In isolation, it wasn’t enough and we had to think about how to become more commercial — more savvy in a sense — in an industry where there were going to be new players. Plus we thought about how to become more vocal around some of the things that we needed to change. Back in 2006, we became very vocal on our recognition of climate change, our desire to do something about it as a business. We set, and have delivered,

some aggressive cuts, and in doing so have tried to build a cadre of support for the shift towards renewable and cleaner energy in both the UK and US. We have been very focused on that for ten years.

“In the early days our outspokenness certainly upset a few people, but not so much today. Of course there are a few journalists in the UK who like to write that climate change is just the fixation

of a few politicians, but there aren’t very many these days. So that goes back to this notion of pride plus commerciality and a drive for real performance. You still have to deliver, and drive performance hard, and at National Grid it’s also important for us to take a position, stand up for things that matter in society — particularly things that are clearly related to our business, like renewable energy.

“We have stood up for a lot of things because we want to believe the business is a force for good; we can make a real difference. This company does an enormous amount with its employees in organising volunteering work to help people who are not as lucky as all of us who work here, and we have become known for that — it is part of what we do. I often say to young people who want to work with us that if you don’t have a social conscience, if you don’t care about some of those things or want to get involved, then you probably shouldn’t come and work for this company because it’s become a part of who we are. We believe the business can contribute to society, as well as be financially successful. It has had a snowballing effect, because we recruit people who are good — they’re going to work hard, they’re going to drive

“I try to avoid the word ‘culture’, but the behavior of our leaders was going to be really important for us to be successful and also for some of the things that we wanted to be famous for.” – Steve Holliday

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“As National Grid’s global technology partner, we share in their successes as they pioneer the use of new technologies to power and develop communities. This isn’t just a business strategy, for National Grid making a difference to those around them is second nature.” - Rich Montgomery, Group Vice-President, EMEA Sales, Verizon Europe

performance hard, and they’re going be passionate about what they do. They are also going care about our communities which, in the long term, will benefit both us and all the areas in which we operate. We’ve genuinely moved away from using a notion of Corporate Social Responsibility; this is now simply the way National Grid operates as a business.

Of course if National Grid sets such high standards for itself, it also expects a lot from its suppliers. Steve says that because the suppliers are often effectively doing National Grid’s work for them, they cannot behave and act in a way that is not consistent with the company’s values. “We have worked for a long period of time with a number of our suppliers to encourage them to support a whole load of the activities that we care about. They do a fantastic job these days, and of course it’s inevitable that we’ve learned from many of our suppliers along the way. One of those, that we recently won an award for, is our Young Offenders Programme in the UK, where we take people who have just made one mistake when they were young, and we give them some training while they are still serving a sentence. If they come through the training, then there will be a job at the end of it, and a huge number of our suppliers have been very active in that program.

“Safety would be another of our values that we try to instill in them and I think that if our suppliers reflected on it, they would see that they have become much, much safer over the last ten years than they were before. If you go to any of our training centres in the UK or the US, from the first day people get the fact that safety runs through everything we do. It’s first and foremost, and it’s very much a core value. From an operational perspective this company is one of the safest organisations in the industry

— statistically we are in the top decile — but that was not the case ten years ago. So there is real alignment with a number of our key suppliers; however, the relationships always have to be based on good commerciality.”

Steve has since become Executive Director at National Grid, handing the Chief Executive reins over to colleague John Pettigrew, whom he has known since the day he joined. “He is going to be a fabulous leader of this organisation,” Steve says, “and I am really proud that we have been able to find somebody inside of the company who is going to continue the journey. I have given him some advice, but he doesn’t need that much — he is very well prepared for this role. There are two main things I’ve learned. Firstly, one of the skills I’ve worked hardest on over the last few years has been listening. You learn a lot in the early part of your career about communication skills without

realising that the other half of that is listening. Becoming a good listener, and making sure people know that you are open to different opinions and different views is crucial in any business. The second thing is to be humble. Humility is a trait of leadership that I think is extraordinarily powerful. If you truly understand that, then those two things interact: if you are humble enough to appreciate the good fortune you have to lead an organisation like this, then you should be humble enough to listen and ensure that your people know that you hear everything they are trying to tell you.”

“We have worked for a long period of time with a number of our suppliers to encourage them to support a whole load of the activities that we care about.” – Steve Holliday

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