WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.055 --> 00:00:02.638 (upbeat music) 2 00:00:09.530 --> 00:00:11.180 Greg, Jon, 3 00:00:11.180 --> 00:00:14.460 thanks for joining us today to talk about Octopus Energy's 4 00:00:14.460 --> 00:00:17.470 highly innovative approach to operations. 5 00:00:17.470 --> 00:00:20.553 I'd like to start by going back to 2015, 6 00:00:20.553 --> 00:00:23.642 when you entered an industry which 7 00:00:23.642 --> 00:00:25.883 I think some would see as quite traditional. 8 00:00:25.883 --> 00:00:28.800 Why did you choose that market to enter? 9 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.050 Well, I think the founding team, 10 00:00:30.050 --> 00:00:32.510 we previously had a business that built 11 00:00:32.510 --> 00:00:35.430 platforms for a whole variety of industries. 12 00:00:35.430 --> 00:00:38.550 And I think what we saw was, time and again, 13 00:00:38.550 --> 00:00:39.700 that there were industries that thought 14 00:00:39.700 --> 00:00:42.040 they wouldn't be disrupted by technology, 15 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:45.170 and they were the ones where the greatest opportunity lay. 16 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:46.410 And, you know, with energy, 17 00:00:46.410 --> 00:00:50.180 you had this sector where companies were 18 00:00:50.180 --> 00:00:52.510 running on systems that are a couple of decades old, 19 00:00:52.510 --> 00:00:54.980 where customers were experiencing poor service, 20 00:00:54.980 --> 00:00:58.900 and where companies were typically quite bloated 21 00:00:58.900 --> 00:01:01.310 and bureaucratic. So we had the opportunity to not only 22 00:01:01.310 --> 00:01:05.655 kind of build a business where we use technology to 23 00:01:05.655 --> 00:01:08.920 dramatically improve customer service and drive down costs, 24 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.020 but we could also, hopefully, 25 00:01:11.020 --> 00:01:14.076 find ways to use technology 26 00:01:14.076 --> 00:01:16.113 to help change the sector 27 00:01:16.113 --> 00:01:18.363 from one which causes climate change to one which, 28 00:01:18.363 --> 00:01:21.663 potentially, starts to fight climate change. 29 00:01:21.663 --> 00:01:25.190 Wow, pretty, big bold ambitions there then. 30 00:01:25.190 --> 00:01:26.510 And so, 31 00:01:26.510 --> 00:01:27.750 Jon, if I can come to you, 32 00:01:27.750 --> 00:01:32.750 you had worked in many other energy retailers beforehand. 33 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:36.510 What did you take from those that you wanted to 34 00:01:36.510 --> 00:01:38.560 try and do differently this time? 35 00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:41.290 Yeah, I mean, I think I spent my whole career 36 00:01:41.290 --> 00:01:44.690 working in electricity and gas businesses and seeing, 37 00:01:44.690 --> 00:01:46.580 you know, time and time again, 38 00:01:46.580 --> 00:01:48.820 the same sort of technology platforms 39 00:01:48.820 --> 00:01:52.970 and the same sort of organizational structures, 40 00:01:52.970 --> 00:01:55.460 which to me looked designed 41 00:01:55.460 --> 00:01:57.270 to give customers a bad experience. 42 00:01:57.270 --> 00:02:01.480 And so, the opportunity to really rewrite the rule book on 43 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:02.900 how you organize teams 44 00:02:02.900 --> 00:02:05.410 and how you organize and structure a business 45 00:02:05.410 --> 00:02:07.390 to deliver better outcomes for customers-and, 46 00:02:07.390 --> 00:02:08.850 I think, most importantly, 47 00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:10.580 better outcomes for the people 48 00:02:10.580 --> 00:02:12.760 who actually work within them-was 49 00:02:12.760 --> 00:02:14.310 a really exciting challenge. 50 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:17.940 For somebody joining Octopus, 51 00:02:17.940 --> 00:02:20.170 what would that feel like then? 52 00:02:20.170 --> 00:02:22.050 Everybody starts with Octopus 53 00:02:22.050 --> 00:02:25.650 understanding the most important job in this business 54 00:02:25.650 --> 00:02:27.280 is looking after customers. 55 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.380 Everyone who starts at Octopus Energy, 56 00:02:29.380 --> 00:02:31.580 whether they're starting in a marketing function 57 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:33.290 or in a tech function, 58 00:02:33.290 --> 00:02:36.100 they'll go through some training to learn how to 59 00:02:36.100 --> 00:02:37.670 respond to customer emails, 60 00:02:37.670 --> 00:02:41.210 or to learn how and what our energy specialists do. 61 00:02:41.210 --> 00:02:43.730 We hired a marketing director, 62 00:02:43.730 --> 00:02:44.563 a few years ago now. 63 00:02:44.563 --> 00:02:46.907 And within a day or two, she came to me and said, 64 00:02:46.907 --> 00:02:49.650 "Where do I get legal sign-off for copy?" 65 00:02:49.650 --> 00:02:50.483 Right. 66 00:02:50.483 --> 00:02:52.504 And I said, "Well, you're don't." 67 00:02:52.504 --> 00:02:53.337 And she said, "What do you mean?" 68 00:02:53.337 --> 00:02:54.960 I said, "Well, you're the marketing director. 69 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:56.000 You take responsibility. 70 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.073 You sign off." 71 00:02:58.073 --> 00:03:00.490 Early on, the most senior people 72 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:02.630 kind of hit this new paradigm 73 00:03:02.630 --> 00:03:04.920 in which they're asked to take responsibility, 74 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:07.990 rather than to find someone else 75 00:03:07.990 --> 00:03:10.050 who's going to take responsibility. 76 00:03:10.050 --> 00:03:11.400 That's one of the best examples for me 77 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:13.380 of the differences that people get when they come here. 78 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:14.750 Greg, what are the other, 79 00:03:14.750 --> 00:03:17.800 leadership behaviors that you think are critical 80 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:20.390 for success in this sort of model that Octopus has? 81 00:03:20.390 --> 00:03:21.530 I think the most important one actually 82 00:03:21.530 --> 00:03:23.040 is that we're all one team. 83 00:03:23.040 --> 00:03:24.460 And I know companies say this, right? 84 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:27.180 We have no bonuses, 85 00:03:27.180 --> 00:03:31.400 and we don't have KPIs or targets 86 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:34.860 for the functional heads or for our business leaders. 87 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.810 So, I'd much rather we get something wrong 88 00:03:37.810 --> 00:03:40.010 and wrap our arms around each other- 89 00:03:40.010 --> 00:03:42.730 which means we're going to the next thing 90 00:03:42.730 --> 00:03:45.280 as a collaborative support team- 91 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:47.810 than we end up blaming each other. Because 92 00:03:47.810 --> 00:03:51.160 business is a repeated game and 93 00:03:51.160 --> 00:03:52.880 we're only as good as the next match. 94 00:03:52.880 --> 00:03:56.160 I think our freedom is very important in our organization 95 00:03:56.160 --> 00:03:58.243 so that people feel that they can be their full selves, 96 00:03:59.490 --> 00:04:04.330 but also, making sure that's balanced with really honest, 97 00:04:04.330 --> 00:04:07.000 candid, transparent, 98 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:08.460 feedback when things are going wrong 99 00:04:08.460 --> 00:04:11.793 or when people are doing things that aren't quite aligned to 100 00:04:13.160 --> 00:04:15.230 how we think about the world at Octopus. 101 00:04:15.230 --> 00:04:18.110 Thinking about the model: it's something you've built 102 00:04:18.110 --> 00:04:20.620 from scratch with a very clear sense of purpose. 103 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:22.660 And you've kind of designed everything very carefully, 104 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:25.400 really clear. It's been fascinating to learn about that. 105 00:04:25.400 --> 00:04:28.860 How could this be relevant to an existing organization? 106 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:31.090 We've had an incredible opportunity 107 00:04:31.090 --> 00:04:33.010 over the last 12 months to help 108 00:04:33.010 --> 00:04:37.130 a very large incumbent energy company in the UK 109 00:04:37.130 --> 00:04:40.730 and a very large incumbent energy company in Australia 110 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:44.630 try to move to an Octopus Energy operating model 111 00:04:44.630 --> 00:04:46.450 using the Kraken Technology platform 112 00:04:46.450 --> 00:04:47.960 and our operating model blueprint. 113 00:04:47.960 --> 00:04:51.480 And what's really fascinating is, 114 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:53.314 for frontline teams, 115 00:04:53.314 --> 00:04:56.380 what these businesses are really about- 116 00:04:56.380 --> 00:04:57.371 serving customers 117 00:04:57.371 --> 00:05:00.040 and bringing outrageously good service to customers 118 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:01.940 and then building a business around that- 119 00:05:01.940 --> 00:05:05.210 they transitioned incredibly well into this model because 120 00:05:05.210 --> 00:05:09.180 they're moving from a constrained, policy-driven 121 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:12.390 departmental silo to 122 00:05:12.390 --> 00:05:14.220 high degrees of autonomy 123 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:16.230 and high degrees of freedom and responsibility. 124 00:05:16.230 --> 00:05:19.040 It's like the service Nirvana for them. 125 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:20.690 The big observation for us was that 126 00:05:20.690 --> 00:05:23.420 transforming the existing stuff is difficult. 127 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:25.370 But starting from scratch, 128 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:26.730 that's the way that you can 129 00:05:26.730 --> 00:05:28.190 reinvent all your processes, 130 00:05:28.190 --> 00:05:30.810 reinvent the way in which people work, and everything. 131 00:05:30.810 --> 00:05:33.080 I think the real exciting opportunity 132 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:37.564 is to take everything you know as an existing company, 133 00:05:37.564 --> 00:05:39.812 create that start-up, 134 00:05:39.812 --> 00:05:42.053 but double down on it 135 00:05:42.053 --> 00:05:43.330 as it gets bigger. 136 00:05:43.330 --> 00:05:45.720 Fundamentally, the core of all of this 137 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:47.200 is something we start the conversation with, 138 00:05:47.200 --> 00:05:50.490 which is actually trust and responsibility. 139 00:05:50.490 --> 00:05:54.710 The vast majority of people that work in most 140 00:05:54.710 --> 00:05:59.710 organizations can be trusted with far more responsibility 141 00:05:59.710 --> 00:06:02.357 than they're typically given. 142 00:06:02.357 --> 00:06:07.357 And if we want to create organizations that are 143 00:06:07.577 --> 00:06:12.570 multifold more efficient, 144 00:06:12.570 --> 00:06:14.480 more capable, more agile, 145 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.130 we need to give people multifold more responsibility. 146 00:06:17.130 --> 00:06:18.590 Greg, Jon, 147 00:06:18.590 --> 00:06:20.720 thank you very much for your time and your insights today. 148 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:22.370 It's been fascinating, thank you.