Leader: Thames boss is ready to shake things up

One of the biggest jobs in the water market has changed hands. After several months of speculation, a new chief executive has been appointed at Thames Water, the UK’s largest water company and, historically at least, one of the most prone to feature in news headlines.

So, it’s goodbye to Martin Baggs, and hello to Steve Robertson. What will he bring to the party as Thames squares up to the challenges of market opening and the evolution of “pro-market” regulation in the water sector?

The answer – if we can judge by his recent leadership experience – is an awful lot.

Robertson joins Thames from Truphone, a telecoms company that was founded in 2001 and has since disrupted the market for provision of business communications services. Bringing proprietary technology to bear, it has worked to undermine and transform the accepted wisdom that firms with international operations have to put up with hefty mobile telephone bills. Truphone introduced a global network that lets business travellers make calls, text and browse the internet at local rates using voice over IP technology. It’s a virtual network with physical infrastructure delivered through partnership.

This background will bring many important areas of experience to Thames, but two stand out. First, a firm foundation in dealing with business customers and changing their expectations with regards to the service they receive from a utility that has previously been undifferentiated and arguably, uninspiring.

Second, an innovation-friendly, digital-first mentality that will become increasingly important for water firms as they seek to break out of the “capex equals good, opex equals bad” mentality of yesteryear – which speakers at Utility Week Live (p9) recently said still prevails in the sector, despite the move to a totex and an outcomes-based regulatory regime.

Robertson will have a big challenge on his hands as he brings this experience to bear. Although Thames Water’s performance against Ofwat’s service incentive mechanism has steadily improved in recent years, it still lurks at the bottom of SIM league tables and there is still doubt in the water market about the extent to which the low retail margin will allow competitive differentiation to flourish come April next year (p27). But these challenges notwithstanding, Robertson’s appointment indicates an intent to disrupt from Thames’s board.