Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | APRIL 2022 | 35 Decarbonisation conundrum, but the group identi ed a number of barriers that o en hamper pro- gress. One participant suggested that client organisations can play a signi cant role on this issue by encouraging the supply chain to work more collaboratively and incentivise the adoption of fresh ideas and new tech- nologies. "It doesn't need a wholesale policy or framework change to really push a shi in the culture," they added. While some sustainability objectives can be achieved through incremental change, many aspects of the net-zero transition will require transformative action. Both water and energy regulators came under re for a perceived lack of leadership in this space, as one attendee quipped that they are o en "more of a hindrance" than a help. "There is a real mismatch between the warm words from various regulators and their action," they added, lamenting a lack of support for utilities' sustainability journey through decisive action and investment. But the criticism was not solely reserved for the regulators, with the participants squarely acknowledging utilities' weak- nesses in their approach to sustainability. The level of engagement with customers on the issue of carbon was highlighted as one such concern. There was agreement that the net-zero transition o€ ers a "golden oppor- tunity" for the sector to improve communi- cation with consumers, but this is yet to be fully realised. "There is a danger of seeing customers as one block," warned one attendee. "We need a lot more customer segmentation." Echoing this concern, a senior leader from a water company added: "Utilities aren't that good at understanding the people using their prod- ucts. We're an order of magnitude behind other sectors and companies like Amazon and Sky." As the discussion drew to a close, the group re‡ ected on the key takeaways from the debate and reiterated the importance of viewing carbon and sustainability through the same lens as any other business activ- ity, like cost or health and safety – a perva- sive concern for every department and every individual. As one sustainability leader wryly put it: "Everyone has to take individual responsibility and recognise their sustain- ability impact so that one day, hopefully, I'll be out of a job." Nadine Buddoo, head of content Download Beyond Zero Carbon: Lessons in Business Transformation free at: https:// utilityweek.co.uk/beyond-zero-carbon- lessons-learned-for-business-transformation/ Opinion Anandarup Bonnerjee Utilities segment head , TCS "Consumers can be empowered through mass personalisation" in association with "We can do more to encourage collaboration between retailers and power networks, or between energy and water." "It doesn't need a wholesale policy or framework change to really push a shift in the culture." A t TCS, we empathise with the hard road ahead of utilities. But challenging as the net-zero carbon mission is, we also know that achieving a more sustainable future for the environment, society and businesses will require more than cutting emissions. We all need to commit ourselves to a wider "zero" vision. A commitment to delivering zero outages, incidents and leakage would drive towards holistic infrastructure resilience. Meanwhile, shooting for zero delays and zero boundaries for customers and partners would force us to reinvent our industry ecosystem for greater customer inclusion and collaboration. At TCS, we believe strongly in the pursuit of this wider "zero" vision and we are ready to partner with our customers to tackle every aspect of what it will entail. That is why we chose to collaborate with Utility Week to conduct this research and the roundtable, which explores the views of industry leaders on the signi cance of the zero-carbon mission to their organisations and the scope they see to leverage lessons from this to increase the ambition and scope of transformation initiatives in other key business areas. We believe in creating "zero boundaries" ecosystems where collaborative innovation and co-creation can thrive. Well over half of respondents to this research said they see signi cant or enormous potential for learning to help accelerate and increase ambition in other important areas for business transformation. At TCS we believe strongly in a future of zero boundaries where there is frictionless integration of organisational systems and where di€ erent business functions as well as external stakeholders can work ‡ uidly together on common goals. Enabled by a sophisticated digital ecosystem, this idea of zero boundaries will help utilities push beyond the immediate challenge of zero emissions to pursue new "zeros" in interruptions, incidents, and customer delays. We believe in empowering consumers through mass personalisation in the way customer experiences are tailored and delivered. The research and roundtable capture a clear message from energy retailers that improving their ability to engage with consumers at scale is absolutely essential to the future of their businesses. TCS has developed a concept we call "the power of one" to express the way we see mass personalisation of service design and delivery happening. Our approach is powered by machine learning and arti cial intelligence as well as big data analytics. Lastly, driving resilience across the utilities value chain is an imperative and we believe in building resilience and adaptability by design. Anandarup Bonnerjee is utilities segment head for UK and Ireland, Spain and Italy, TCS

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