Pacific Gas & Electric
Area of concern:
Creating internal synergy and collaboration
The new corporate CFO of one of the largest power utilities in the United States inherited a situation where the financial organizations of the holding company and its wholly owned subsidiaries operated independently. Communication among them was poor and they were often at odds with one another. The CFO wanted to rapidly engender a high degree of synergy and collaboration. At the same time, he thought it important that each finance organization continue to report to its respective divisional president rather than be integrated into one corporate-wide organization. This made the task even more daunting.
A core leadership group comprised of people at all levels from all three finance departments generated a common vision, core values, and a set of breakthrough projects, which would require people from all the divisions to work collaboratively together. The staff then participated in a series of workshops designed to allow them to take personal ownership of the vision and values and invent ways of making their vision real. Each workshop was highly diversified, with employees participating from each division and from all organizational levels. Bureaucracy and "silos" started breaking down as various teams began to take on joint initiatives to improve the performance of the Finance Organization overall.
The 2000-01 power crisis resulted in suspension of the engagement mid-term as the client's attention was drawn fully into responding to the crisis. Nonetheless, remarkable results still occurred. A notable one was in the Tax Department. In the face of the crisis, the Tax Department launched a project to accomplish something unprecedented, and by most considered impossible: an eight-month acceleration of the timeline for filing the year 2000 corporate tax return. The whole department took on this breakthrough project with tremendous spirit and ultimately beat even their most audacious target date. This result allowed for a $1 billion tax refund to be paid four days after filing and nine months prior to expectation, giving the company badly need cash resources to deal with the crisis.
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"The impact the reinvention training had on many individuals in this company was substantial. They started to experience what they could personally accomplish by imagining what is possible, taking a stand on an issue, requesting specific commitments of others, and fulfilling their own commitments. Regardless of the circumstances, that learning isn't ever forgotten. I attest it raises the potential accomplishment of a person for the rest of his or her life."
- Garth Hall, senior corporate
executive
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