When Joel Singer headed the North American Gas Practice at Arthur D. Little, Inc., he helped large companies rethink business strategies to adapt to deregulating markets. Singer called his business model the "competitive strategy framework": "You do not reengineer your way into growth. You've got to figure out what's the growth strategy, then look at building business processes around that."
Singer's approach is becoming evident at Bay State Gas Co. in Westborough, MA. The $418-million utility (em which serves 287,000 customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine (em hired Singer as chief operating officer just months ago. On his first day, the executive was on his feet, talking with groups of employees. The employees had seen restructuring before. They wanted to know if layoffs were coming, why they 'had to go through this,' what the competitive strategy framework meant for them.
The employees quickly learned that this change would be different from those they'd seen before. In December, key middle-management employees among the company's 1,350 workers (em half of them union workers (em began a three-month-long "accelerated transition plan." At the end of the process, employees will be asked: What is your answer for change? How did you work as a team? Did you learn a new strategy, a new organization? What drives the workplace culture and makes it change? Did you learn how to use technology to competitive advantage?
Singer's philosophy is straightforward: Gas companies must capture customers now. Singer believes that gas utilities must position themselves as total providers to meet customers' energy needs, not simply as retail gas marketers. Once they do that, they'll become unregulated retail energy marketers, providing many solutions.