In a recent conversation with Ian Peter, our Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), he shared his vision and strategies for our Company's future. This includes a roadmap for our journey ahead. Our intention is to bring us all to a deeper understanding of the changes happening around us and our Company.
Strategic Leadership in a Dual Role
Ian's role is pivotal in shaping our Company's future. As CSO, he is responsible for leading the development of our strategy and ensuring that our strategic objectives are achieved through the effective implementation of strategy management and the development of the governance process. He also pointed out, "On the other side, I am also responsible for risk as the Chief Risk Officer, even if my role is described as CSO. I am also responsible for ensuring that we maintain our risk management framework, which we do in GOAT (our risk management software platform). We are ensuring that persons identify risks to their objectives and develop the appropriate strategies to mitigate the possible fallout from those uncertain risk events. So that, in a nutshell, I have a dual role that covers implementing strategy and managing risk."
Leveraging Relationships & Experience
Reflecting on his experience, Ian underscores how this will add value in shaping the strategy, "My experience as an executive in this business over the last eight years, the relationships that I have built, and the respect that I believe I have earned among my colleagues will put me in a good place to influence and guide the persons in this organisation who will help me drive strategy."
Revolutionising the Strategy Division
Ian spoke passionately about the newly aligned Strategy Division, highlighting its significance: "The Strategy Division came out of an exercise to come up with a structure that is "fit for purpose". "The outcome of this exercise is a set of units that cover some key functions within the organisation. Some are new to us as a business, and some already exist.
We have strategy formulation, implementation, and change management, which is a new dimension and part of our strategy implementation but a key ingredient in ensuring that we can drive the strategy and risk management."
A big part of our strategy is to focus on process efficiency through business process improvement, a new area for us and the CSO's division will be driving for LUCELEC. The division also includes Strategic Communication to foster communication with the broader business, the Information Systems Department and the Economic Development Unit.
He says the division has a multifaceted role in driving change, risk management, and business process improvement, emphasising that "everyone has to look inward and determine how we can do things better and more efficiently to drive costs down." He adds, "These support functions work closely together to assist other departments in achieving the strategic goals by minimising the likelihood and impact of uncertain events, which is really risk management. Every department is trying to achieve its own goals, and there are uncertain events that come up and may impact our ability to achieve those goals. Risk management helps identify those and develop mitigating strategies so they're not thrown off course.
Emphasising Change Management
Ian points out a crucial shift in focus is adopting good change management practices and techniques. "As a technical company, we’ve always been good at project management, which is about completing tasks and building something or coming up with an output. We sometimes fail when it comes to a project involving people. It is not as easy as building something that is
unfeeling and unthinking. So, it's easy to build a solar farm, but it is a lot more difficult to change a culture or implement a new software you expect everyone to use. So, change management focuses on the rate of adoption and rate of utilisation. How quickly you want people to adopt the change and how much you want to sustain that change over time is where change management comes in."
Envisioning the Future
Ian articulates his vision for LUCELEC's transformation; he believes that focusing on people, strategy, and change management paints a picture of a dynamic, forward-thinking organisation. "As we're changing within our company to suit the external change in the environment, it is important to bring people along in that process."
Conclusion: A Journey of Strategic Excellence and People-Centric Change
This is a significant time for us at LUCELEC; the future is not just about strategies and goals but the people driving these changes. We are optimistic that Ian's leadership and vision and that of the wider Executive leadership will set a precedent for a transformative journey where every team member understands and plays their critical role in driving us towards a successful, efficient, and innovative future.
