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The business of sustainable development
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Management Focus
Management Focus
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Paul adds that studying for the MBA is of unquestionable
relevance to today’s CEO. “Business and innovation has
to be part of the solution. The MBA has helped me ask the
right questions.”
After a period in SmithKline Beecham he then joined the
Environment Agency in 1998 as a director of environment
protection and then after six years in this role he was
appointed as director of operations. Paul’s strategic focus
was essential. Having gained considerable experience
of working in both the private and the public sector, he
sees the challenges as no different from those facing any
large organisation. “Within a company you are focused
on improving shareholder value and being profitable.
The only difference here is that the government is the
major shareholder and our value derives from protecting
people and wildlife. We use a slightly modified balanced
scorecard to measure our results which are reported
quarterly at our board meeting and are available on our
website for all to see.”
With plans to retire in September, Paul regards his
contribution to running the Environment Agency as work in
progress – good successes but more to do. With a change
of government, and with flood risk management still on
the agenda and continuing interest in high-profile issues
such as fracking for shale gas, it is time to recruit his
successor and give the new CEO the chance to influence
and shape the next five-year plan.
And just in case you feel that Paul has been a bit hard-
headed in his drive to balance the books, his satisfaction
at leaving an organisation in good health takes second
place to his overwhelming love of the environment as
a place for people and a habitat for wildlife. He returns
to the agency’s core mission. “At the end of my time
here, the quality of the air and rivers in England in terms
of the issues we have responsibility for has measurably
improved. Fish are back in rivers they have been absent
from since the industrial revolution and otters and water
voles are now present in all English counties.” Now that is
an achievement to be proud of.
MF
The Environment Agency, a non-departmental publicly
funded body with an annual budget in 2014/15 of £1.3
billion and a head count of 10,500 people based in
area offices throughout England and its national office
in Bristol, is both a service delivery organisation and a
regulator. While managing flood risk is its most visible
responsibility, the agency’s diverse remit includes pollution
prevention, improving water quality, water resource
management, waste regulation, monitoring, inland
fisheries and water-related conservation. The agency is
sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The Secretary of State appoints the
chairman and members of the agency’s board. The chief
executive is appointed by the chairman.
Appointed CEO in 2008, Paul with the board launched an
ambitious five-year business plan to slim the organisation
and make it better equipped to meet its public obligations.
The plan has seen the Environment Agency become
more accountable and pass on more money directly to
projects which will have the most impact. These include
river management schemes, better drainage, and flood
storage areas. For the first time the agency has been
awarded a six-year £2.3bn capital settlement for its
flood risk management work from 2015/16 to 2020/21.
It also receives around £345m of revenue funding on a
cost recovery basis from those it regulates and around
£108m for other environmental protection work. Value
for money is gained by the use of private contractors and
organisational efficiency.
Despite a falling revenue budget, Paul has increased
investment and improved effectiveness by adopting a risk
management approach. “Over the last five years we have
reduced our corporate support service costs such as HR,
IT, finance and procurement by 34%. And we have moved
from a national, regional and area structure to a national
and area-based organisation,” he says. Paul benchmarks
the Environment Agency with other national public and
private sector organisations. “We look at Network Rail, the
Highways Agency, and big supermarkets to see what they
do. Like them, we have devolved management and deliver
a consistent and efficient service with a large dispersed
workforce. Part of our success is due to achieving brand
recognition whether you are operating in Cornwall or
Cumbria,” he asserts.
Good communication is a vital ingredient in managing a
devolved organisation. Paul believes the CEO should be
highly visible and his working week includes meetings
with people who are not his direct reports, visits to hear
about work on the ground and web-based Q&A sessions
with people at all levels in the agency known as a “chat
with the chief” every four to six weeks. Communicating
effectively is a key to business efficiency. “I meet regularly
with my seven direct reports and their direct reports and I
always encourage people to know and talk to people two
levels down. The secret of management is to have a good
team,” he explains.
Paul gained an Executive MBA from Cranfield in 1990. At
the time he was managing director of an environmental
consultancy. This included research on sick building
syndrome for the Building Research Establishment
(BRE) and advising chemical and process companies
how to comply with the COSHH regulations – (Control
of Substances Hazardous to Health). His chairman and
business partner, Cranfield alumna Nancy Thomson,
who herself had established the company out of a
business start-up at Cranfield University, suggested he
take an MBA. “As a scientist and technologist I wanted
to understand business more and my dissertation was
a strategic business plan for the consultancy,” he says.
Studying for the MBA is of
unquestionable relevance to
today’s CEO.