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UtilitY WEEK | 4th - 10th April 2014 | 9 Interview T ake no prisoners. The phrase could have been coined for Robert Symons. The chief executive of Western Power Distribution (WPD) has a ruthless and focused approach to business that has transformed his sprawling region into the acknowledged leader of the network sector and the "winner" (his word) of the first round of RIIO, the only one of the network businesses to achieve fast track status. Today, Utility Week is meeting Symons for the first time. He and his business have hitherto been media-shy, dodging requests for meetings and interviews and issu- ing just a coy one-line statement on the news that WPD had achieved fast-track status. Indeed, a preparatory Google search reveals that remarkably little has been written about Symons. It soon becomes clear this isn't out of shyness: Symons is more than happy to enumer- ate WPD's many achievements and his own role in them. Rather, it's symptomatic of his whole approach: focus ruthlessly on what you need to do and jettison the rest. His one-time belief that networks didn't need to speak to the press has changed as their profile rises – hence today's meeting in a cosy London club, where over a lunch peppered with jokes and anecdotes, Symons out- lines why he believes WPD is the best in the business. Fresh from a meeting with energy secretary Ed Davey and the other network bosses (who must be getting sick of the sight of each other), Symons settles into an arm- chair and chats with vigour about why he believes the three-digit outage phone number, upon which Davey has hung his hat, is achievable. There are challenges in establishing callers' whereabouts to route their call when they dial in from a mobile phone, and issues with Ofcom about setting up the number, but Symons is ready to drive a steamroller through all of these to get the job done. That's been his approach since day one. Symons is