Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/401986
UtILItY WeeK | 24th - 30th OctOber 2014 | 9 Interview M artin Baggs looks happy. Showing Utility Week around two rooms on the top floor of Thames Water's Reading headquarters, he is beaming with pride as he points out the pictures of the company's 5,000 employees brainstorming values and strategies; the flow charts and diagrams that show their conclu- sions, and Thames's progress through a business trans- formation project that began earlier this year. It's a world away from the battles that are oen asso- ciated with Thames. Negative headlines are inevitable for the UK's largest water company, serving England's capital, but Thames gets more than its share. From the £4 billion Thames Tunnel mega-project to regular disa- greements with Ofwat over funding, including last year's application for an interim determination and this year's price review, the water company is seldom far from con- troversy. But for chief executive Baggs, the focus is on the job in hand – improving customer service, keeping his staff well and safe, working with partners in new ways and getting the company ready for the many challenges ahead. Prominent among these challenges is the introduc- tion of competition for non-domestic customers to the water sector in 2017. In preparation for this, companies must separate their wholesale and retail businesses for the first time, and Thames is one of the few that is well advanced in doing so. It has already created a separate wastewater business and retail arm, and is active in the competitive Scottish market. Honing these plans and developing a strategy for the UK market is a major plank of the transformation project under way. Meanwhile, Thames is already in the throes of trans- formation, with new ways of working including the Eight20 alliance, its delivery vehicle for AMP6. The alli- ance of eight includes IBM as well as more traditional construction partners. Baggs is rightly proud: "Most companies are way beyond project management and have been for some time. Most companies are now into