New strategic direction

We have reviewed the way we go about our business and have embarked on an exciting new direction.

Expectations of the energy sector are changing. Sustainability, climate change, energy solutions and the impact of organisations such as Western Power are the focus of national and international discussion.

Many more individuals are taking personal responsibility for energy use while communities and other stakeholders expect to be consulted, listened to and informed on the future plans and actions of their energy providers.In addition, the Western Australian economy is booming and the Western Power network has had to expand exponentially to keep pace. Similar growth is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

It is a pivotal moment in our organisation’s history, and through careful planning, an opportunity to position the business for a strong and sustainable future.

In June 2007, we launched a new strategic direction.

Our new direction is focused around four strategic themes:

Operational excellence
Transform the customer experience
Engage with our community
The green edge

The ’tree’ is a diagrammatical representation of Western Power’s strategic plan, showing the connection of the four strategic themes.

The base of the tree is Western Power’s foundation, a continued focus on embedding operational excellence and continuously improving. It is essential to continue to focus on safety, better reliability and greater efficiency.

Investing for the future is about developing our people and capabilities along with our financial position. These values are the essence of our work.

Operational excellence provides a platform for us to have valuable interaction with our customers, where we listen to our customers’ perspectives and enable them to see what is involved in running the Western Power business.

The three aspirational themes, represented as branches
- transform the customer experience, engage the community and the green edge - are outwardly focused.

They require us to be creative and connected in the way we approach our work. It involves creating dialogue with our stakeholders and customers and meeting expectations.

The green edge component of our new strategy will enable us to respond to climate change; raise awareness of energy consumption patterns; play a leading role in the state’s sustainability debate; and enhance future energy systems through electricity networks.

The strategic outcomes we will work to achieve by 2016 are:

a shift in culture and mindset built upon developing energy solutions within and beyond ‘poles and wires’
integration of sustainability criteria into all decision-making and activity that is strongly linked to commercial reality and community responsibility
a robust and positive connection with our customers, our community, industry and chosen markets
a commercial focus
national recognition and respect in our chosen markets
co-operative (partnership based) and competitive approaches to business flexibility
a global consciousness – we are operating in a global market and our decisions are felt globally
having successfully created our own future

At each stage of the strategic plan we have set down what we are going to achieve, what it will take to get there and how we will measure our success.

“Investing for the future is about developing our people and capabilities along with our financial position. These values are the essence of our work."