Achieve promised outcomes
Having set a radical ambition, transformative leaders channel their organization’s energy toward delivering on it. They translate ambition into specific, measurable outcomes and create the structures and systems that enable the organization to go beyond business as usual. Transformative leaders also remain personally engaged as execution moves forward, fighting the organization’s natural tendency to settle for functional excellence as opposed to transformative change.
S+B: Organizations can be resistant to change—especially organizations that have been successful for a long time. Is this something you experienced during E.ON Sweden’s transformation journey, Susanne? And what changes did your leadership team make to help the organization reinvent itself?
SUSANNE GELLNER: When I came into the business, we were organized by function—asset management, operations, and customer care. In the first phase of our transformation, even before energy transition was high on the agenda, we changed this. We moved to a structure with three business areas, each with full P&L responsibility. This was partly about breaking down silos and partly about introducing more business-mindedness into the culture. Our engineering culture remained critically important, of course, but the new structure enabled us to think end-to-end about customer journeys, for example. Although we didn’t know it at the time, it also put us in a position to pick up the pace for the phase we are now in.
Today, there’s real urgency to move fast and do things differently. The energy crisis arising from the war in Ukraine was a wake-up call, especially in our part of the world. The energy transition and electrification are accelerating. There’s a completely new flow, physically, in the grid, with solar and wind coming in and big, stable sources such as nuclear being phased out. So, we are learning to run the system differently, with better methods and new technology. That’s the physical part of it. In relation to customers, contracts are changing. We need to be able to accommodate more flexibility and have different business models for different customers. Again, the challenge for us as an organization is moving fast enough. It’s a major shift.
Here’s a very hands-on example: historically, if we needed a transformer, we would calculate precisely what we needed and then source it. Today, we might need to source 25 transformers in advance. We don’t know exactly where and when we are going to use them. But if we don’t order them now, we may not get them for years. So, in finance and procurement we need to convince ourselves to take that risk. And the engineers need to accept that they may not get exactly what they want, but it will be good enough. We need to think in different ways.
S+B: Beyond systems and processes, what works in terms of getting an organization aligned and committed to achieving the promised outcomes? Manoj, Andy, what’s your experience and advice?
MANOJ PATEL: We are innovating to show what’s possible if we raise our ambitions. For example, we are working across different cancer streams to identify where things can be done better. We looked internationally at different models, and different technology options that enable pathways to diagnosis that are better designed around the patient experience. We are looking to develop pathways that empower people to better manage their health. The early results from the pilot are promising. We’ve been able to detect early-stage cancerous changes and therefore prevent cancer from developing in a group of people with an average age of 50. These are real people and their families whose lives changed based on the program we are developing.
This is a program and a story that transcends the business case. It’s not about ROI. It speaks to mission and purpose, which is especially important in the early stages of transformation. It gives people hope and belief that not only can you dream of a better future, but you can also achieve it.
ANDY MITCHELL: You need to have a clear vision, a sense of the journey, a North Star you’re moving towards. Reinforcement is the key thing. People sometimes make fun of me because I mention the same few things over again—and it can be exhausting to keep doing it. But, over time, reinforcement works.
The other thing is learning to communicate in new ways. I grew up professionally in an industry where the people tended to have similar technical, commercial, or project leadership backgrounds. I was trained to discuss everything very logically. Now I’m interacting with people who have commanded warships, or battalions of soldiers or marines. They don’t necessarily communicate in the same way. Basically, I’ve come to realize that I’m quite good at communicating with a small percentage of the population. It’s something I’m working on.
