Tapping into People Power

American Association of Blacks in Energy National Conference
Bill Coley
Group President
Duke Power

I’m glad to be here today—and especially glad to speak before this organization, which I feel is very important to the energy industry.

We created Duke Energy in 1997 by combining Duke Power Co. and PanEnergy Corp of Houston, Texas,—two fine companies. Duke Power, a 93-year-old regulated company. PanEnergy, a younger, much more unregulated company.

Duke had 2 million customers—PanEnergy about 500 customers. Both companies had been highly successful. As we joined together, both sides decided; “We’ll teach them what they don’t know.” Over time, the results have been excellent.

I think it’s safe to say I’m not the first speaker at this conference to say that the energy industry is going through some great changes. Or that there is more and more competition now in the energy industry than ever before. Or that energy companies need to get on the right track for success in the new millennium.

All of those statements are true.

However, I would like to be the first speaker at this conference to echo the words of Will Rogers when he said, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Let’s face it. No matter how brilliant our plans; how expert our research; how visionary our insights—the actions of the people in our organization will determine how we measure success and failure.

I’d like to share some thoughts today about how to avoid that dilemma Will Rogers spoke about, just “sitting there.” The recipe involves you, me and the people of our organization—how we attract our people; how we challenge ourselves; how we challenge the people in our organizations.

The future winners in the energy industry will be the experts at assembling the right team—a team that will take action when the situation demands it. And unlike the past, this team may not think alike; look alike; be the same age; or be the same color. In fact, if they all think, look and act alike—they won’t succeed. But in order to be leaders in this changing environment, they will be striving for the same winning results.

I believe Atlanta offers a good example of leading in a changing environment. Despite some trouble in the World Series, the Atlanta Braves seem to be in the baseball playoffs every year. Each year, they lose a few players, but sign others to fill the void. They have some young players, some old players. They don’t all look alike, and judging from their off-the-field comments—they sure don’t all think alike. But each year they are up among the elite teams.

It would be easy for them to sit back and say, “We’re on the right track. Let’s stand pat.” But they don’t. Each year they attract the best, keep the best and challenge the best. They don’t just “sit there.”

Now, I’m sure some cynical person would say, “Well, the Atlanta Braves have a lot of money.” That’s true. However, there are a number of sports teams that have a lot of money and they didn’t get into the playoffs last year. In fact, there are a lot of energy companies that have a lot of money and they didn’t get into the playoffs last year, either. And they might not exist in the future.

So let’s look at this People Triangle of challenges we face—attracting the best, challenging ourselves and challenging our fellow employees.

First off—how do we start attracting the best? If I’m not in HR—is it really my job?” Of course it is. We should all take responsibility in attracting the best. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Whether it’s the contacts you make at a conference like this; the talent you know at another company; keeping up with your summer interns; or tracking the progress of your high school and college scholarship winners—you can make a difference using what you have, and where you are. Don’t just “sit there.” And don’t seek out only those just like you.

We survey our new employees and I’m always interested in what they tell us. You know ... why they joined Duke instead of one of our competitors. Money is an issue, but it’s only part of the story. Reputation brings in new employees; using the latest technology brings in employees; future growth brings in new employees. “Is this a company that’s going to enhance my reputation? Increase my knowledge? Raise my level of expertise?” Given the choice between a “cutting edge” company and a “dinosaur” of industry—who do you think will win in attracting the best?

It’s a tough labor market out there. There are a lot of sexy companies in sexy industries competing for the best. There has been a lot of talk here the past few days about the excitement in our industry. We’ve got to sell that excitement to others. We’ve got to sell that excitement to students right here in Atlanta, Ga. I didn’t know this, but more African-Americans graduate from college in Atlanta that any other city in the U.S. Where will the future members of this organization come from? Maybe they are in a classroom in this city right now.

You might ask yourself, “If I was coming into the labor market today with the skills I have right now, where would I want to work?” Would it be your current company? Some Internet IPO? Telecommunications? Biotech? A drug company? It’s worth thinking about.

We need to be mindful of diversity in our new employees. I hope I’m not the first speaker to mention that at this conference. And I may be preaching to the choir here, but this country was founded by a collection of diverse people—from diverse backgrounds—immigrants from many countries.

I don’t see that changing in the 21st century. I see our country continuing to be a nation of many cultures—many backgrounds. To lead in this changing environment, your team can’t be a blanket—made of one thread, one color, one cloth. It must be a quilt—made of many colors, many fabrics and many textures.

Fresh thinking and diverse thinking—no matter what your color or age—is always welcome. It can also be the spark plug to challenge yourself as you continue in your business career. And it’s essential for a company’s success.

I’ll use myself as an example. When I was chosen to lead Duke Power three years ago, I had become a stranger to the regulated electric utility. For the previous three years, I headed up Duke’s unregulated businesses. I was concerned about power plants in South America, China, Indonesia, Australia—how we could do business in Russia and Africa. I saw other countries tackle deregulation long before the U.S. did.

The experience challenged me, and gave me a fresh insight about our industry. It made me question some of my long-held beliefs about how to run an electric company. I’d like to think I bring that freshness and diverse view to my work everyday.

Depending on how you look at it, I’ve either had the fortune, or misfortune, of heading practically every segment in our electric operation at Duke—power plant production, engineering, marketing, computer technology, distribution, regional operations—and those are just the ones I can remember. Each one was a challenge. And I wanted that challenge. Stephen Covey calls it, “Sharpening the saw.” We need to be mindful of challenging ourselves—to keep sharpening our own saw.

I like to think that Duke offers up that same challenge to our employees today. Over the past few years, we have brought in people from other industries—people who had been through deregulation—like natural gas, telecommunications, banking and finance. Today, 35 percent of our leadership are recent additions from outside our corporation. We teach them about the electric business. We need them to teach us the lessons they learned from deregulation.

An article in the Harvard Business Review stated that students learn more when surrounded by those different from them—than in situations where they were surrounded by those like themselves. It’s equally true in business.

The results, I believe, have been great. I don’t have all the answers about deregulation in the Carolinas, and how Duke will respond to every possible scenario—but I’m certain that we’re better prepared today that we were two years ago. Even today—everyone at Duke (thank goodness) doesn’t think alike, but we’re all headed in the same direction.

I’ve talked about attracting the best and challenging yourself. The final piece of the puzzle is challenging your workforce. And this is a critical element in leading in this changing environment. You could attract every Harvard MBA student who graduates this May. But if they’re just staying for 1-2 years, and then moving on, you’re just training ground for other companies.

But the bigger point I’d like to make is that the people who made a company a success in a regulated environment—may be just as successful in a deregulated environment. Many of our companies, like Duke, have a warehouse of intellectual capital waiting to be unleashed. Our challenge is to turn that warehouse of knowledge into a competitive advantage as we move forward into this changing environment. At Duke we say, “Leaders must be teachers.”

We need to become lifelines—just like on that show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We need to be that phone call away. The person with the right answer who keeps the contestant on the way to a million dollars.

We need to challenge our employees, spur them on; encourage them to greatness. We can’t let good employees lie on the vine—waiting for someone else to pick them off.

A famous man once wrote, “Few things can help individuals more than to place responsibility in them, and let them know that you trust them.” I think we all understand that quote. And I know we all have stories at our own companies that echo that thought. I’m proud of our people at Duke. People like:

• Renee Alexander, who’s with us here today - Renee started out at Duke as a customer service representative. Now, she’s leading our women and minority vendor program - helping others get a fair shake at doing business with Duke.
• Rufus Kellam - He was once a dispatcher at our Transmission Control Center in Charlotte. He later oversaw the largest transmission system in Argentina and today is the project manager at Duke’s first power project in the state of Maine.
• Bill Hall - He began his career as an assistant engineer at one of our power plants. Now, he runs a fleet of plants for Duke in California—the first truly competitive wholesale generation market in the country.

These, and many other people, were presented challenges and met them. If we attract the best, challenge ourselves, and better yet, challenge our workforce—we open up a new era of opportunities for us in the energy industry. But we must make it happen.

When Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there,” I believe he was appealing to the ability of humanity to take action - not to just devise the answer, but to carry it out. So whether your company is run by Bill Coley, Bill Cavanaugh, Bill Dahlberg—or any other person named “Bill"—the brightness of our tomorrows will be measured on the actions we take today.

People make the difference in our organizations; people fuel our organizations; people will get us on the right track—but most importantly, people will keep us moving and prevent us from being run over. By attracting the best; challenging ourselves and challenging our workforce—there is no way we will “just sit there.”

Thank you.