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ALLIANCES 2016 9 The selection process centred on get- ting the right people and the right teams who could collaborate. It was there not to catch you out but to draw out the true you as an organisation. They wanted the named individuals, the people who were going to work here, not your marketing team who can tell a good story. We're all in this together. That's important not just to Anglian Water but to the other partners. It's like a big blind date so you've got the Cilla Black of Anglian Water bringing together people and you as one of those individual mem- bers are going into this sort of arranged marriage. You want to know the people doing the selection process are going to choose the right partners for you. The process was, to a degree, unique in that it had three features. It was well defined and planned out so you start as you wish to carry on; it met all if of its deadlines; communication was open and it drew out the best of people. We'd already written the first five years' busi- ness plan between ourselves and we'd shared a lot of stuff. You are only as strong as your weakest link and as the supply chain you are welcomed in, you share information and you become very aligned. You can't under-estimate the cultural change that's needed and, you shouldn't be surprised by this, it's going to take time, investment and energy. It's a journey that you're on − it's not all going to happen just because we've got the contract and we've signed it. One of the biggest lessons is making sure every- one's on board. If you go back two AMPs we started alliancing and one thing we learnt was not everyone was on board. We had oper- ations and incentives over here, and over here capital delivery going in a different direction. The two didn't meet at a macro level. What we've got to make sure is that collaboration works all the way down through the business. The reason we're collaborating well together is we've got huge efficiency challenges to meet, and we'll only do it effectively together. For me the three ingredients are knowledge, skills and desire. You've got to have the knowledge and know what you're talking about; you've got to have the skills to transform and change; and then you've got to have the desire and the passion to be the best. The IOS managing team, not the directors, has come up with things they really think will make a difference, mak- ing sure we're responsive, addressing customer issues and making sure we're reducing risk for the business. Among the directors there's a champion for each of these so I'm working with Sean (Mur- phy). We're putting a real big focus on responsiveness, and ultimately that will be the one that drives SIM and ODIs." NAME Paul Gibbs JOB TITLE IOS chair; director of water recycling COMPANY AWS " I'm director of water recycling at Anglian as well as being chair of IOS. I'm a key customer. A lot of the work that's delivered is on my sites, delivering solutions for wa- ter recycling and clean water. I wear two hats − I have accountability for the deliv- ery of that vehicle but I'm also a key cus- tomer. I was involved with the @One Alli- ance, although I didn't sit on the board. It was principally through the success of what we saw in @One that we set up IOS and the other alliances for AMP6. I got quite involved in the upfront selection process for our procurement. My main involvement was in the executive inter- view part of the selection process. I sat the other side of the table doing those interviews. There was a real focus on behaviours and, ultimately, that ele- ment of the whole process played a large part in the selection of the right partners within the alliance. We had done similar behavioural pro- cesses but not to that level before but not with the full-on executive interviews that we put in place this time. There's a whole set of different KPIs. Obviously, health and safety is a funda- mental focus and number one on the agenda. There's a big focus on delivery against outcome delivery incentives. We've tried to align the KPIs within the alliances to the ODIs that we deliver. There's a very big focus on customers, and there are tar- gets aligned to our SIM measurement; on pollution incidents; interruptions to sup- ply; bathing water quality. We've then got the commercial focus and people. There are around 100 [staff] directly from Anglian Water who transferred across from the previous operational capital delivery route, and the remainder is made up from the partners. They all become IOS employees. We've tried to completely remove any branding from the partners' organisations. That was critical in building IOS. We went in right upfront making sure we had the right people for the task across all of the partners but obviously you had the difficult part of having a whole bunch of Anglian Water people in the previous capital delivery and a heavily unionised business with a focus on ensuring Anglian Water people retain their roles within the alliance. We took that on and made sure we had the right people in place. That's been fundamental. It's surprising how quickly the partner organisations have, in effect, lost their own partner identity and become IOS. I worked with @One and I've seen that development where it's the right person for the task rather than a job being given directly to one partner. It took some time to do that. At IOS that's happened very quickly. It's almost been like developing allianc- ing principles in super quick motion.w There's been quite a lot [new best practices] in terms of procurement. When you put an alliance together you want everybody to open their book and highlight how they do things. That's sur- prised me as well, how easy that has been to do but we've identified best prac- tice in terms of procurement, plant and equipment. Within AMP6 we're focusing on inno- vative totex-type solutions and that's driven us to look at off-site build solu- tions, minimising the time onsite. We're seeing innovation from across the differ- ent partners. We're looking at around the 21% mark for savings. I can't forget the customer side. That's where I'm absolutely focused. From the perspective of where I sit on the alliance it's very helpful because I can keep them focused on the customer." "We've tried to align the KPIs within the alliances to the ODIs that we deliver" Paul Gibbs, AWS

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