Smart Business Magazine, October 2017
24 Smart Business Pittsburgh October 2017 The first opportunity I had which was my starting point was to create a whole company rather than just being an operating division OBrien says Between adding a call center administration and support the new company which had been legally around for about 125 years brought 300 new jobs to Pittsburgh More importantly it was forged around a new identity We created a simple vision statement that said The reason we exist is to make our customers lives better whether it is a residential customer or a business customer OBrien says A lot of people view utilities like government We dont necessarily because were a regulated monopoly treat customers like a retail company should treat its customers somebody who can leave you or buy product from someone else he says You have to believe in your heart what youre doing and you have to recognize that its a long journey to get a company and employees to embrace a vision and values of what you are and how you want to do things MORGAN OBRIEN PRESIDENT AND CEO PEOPLES NATURAL GAS CO LLC Even today OBrien and his leadership team spend time convincing employees that Peoples needs to add value to every customer it serves But its easier to get that buy in from both his employees and investors because the results have proved OBriens point In almost eight years under his leadership Peoples has grown from 500 employees to nearly 1500 Its also selling more gas than ever going from 350000 customers to more than 750000 Youd better believe it Its one thing to talk about running a company differently with a focus on partnering with customers but it takes time to show it OBrien says in the beginning employees who had been part of the operating company or came from other utilities didnt understand what he was saying and how deeply he meant it COVER PEOPLES NATURAL GAS CO LLC www linkedin com company peoples natural gas company
You must have JavaScript enabled to view digital editions.
