Over the past year, we have tracked and posted Western’s Fiscal Year 2013 Strategic Targets progress. The end-of year results show that employees worked diligently throughout the year to achieve the agency’s mission, closing out FY 2013 with 82 percent of our goals achieved.
In FY 2013 Western applied the balanced scorecard principles to our planning process, which helped us translate our vision and strategic plan into specific and achievable actions. The premise behind the balance scorecard is to look broadly at Westerns business through four perspectives: Customer, Financial, Operational and Managerial Excellence, and Organizational Capabilities. During the year, Western outlined 33 overall targets, though many of them included multiple measures and quarterly milestones. “The strategic targets are areas that Western needs to focus on during the shorter term to ensure we align our actions to achieve our mission and longer term strategic direction. We performed exceptionally well in core business areas and effectively met targets across each perspective,” said Chief Strategy Officer Theresa Williams.
Key accomplishments
Out of the 33 targets, 27 were rated green. Western’s performance in essential core operational and organizational areas was excellent throughout the year.
Embracing Western’s core values, employees followed through effectively on the fiscal year goals. Targets associated with safety, cyber security, electric regulatory compliance, reliability compliance, reliable service and maintenance management and for our high-performing workforce were met. A few targets of particular note include Western’s accelerated efforts to establish a fully integrated and comprehensive Asset Management Program; ensuring a Sustainable Funding strategy that is sufficient to sustain our power and transmission assets; and completing the construction of the Electrical District 5 - Palo Verde Hub under the first contract terms.
Planning matters
Planning the agency’s strategic targets requires ongoing effort. Although FY 2013 targets measured tactical progress, milestones and accomplishments, the FY 2014 targets take a strategic approach and focus on seven key areas. “Strategy by itself is not enough to drive action; we are getting specific about what we are doing in the near term. Our Strategic Roadmap 2024 will provide the context for our strategic targets going forward,” said Williams.
The strategic targets and associated success factors, key performance indicators and metrics are mechanisms to gauge progress toward the roadmap. Western will continue to use the same four perspectives, which will help to keep a balanced focus on key dimensions of our business performance to ensure we succeed from a variety of points of view. They are:
Customer: What directly affects our customers and customer satisfaction?
Financial: What is important to oversight entities or shareholders?
Operational and Managerial Excellence: What processes must we excel at to achieve our roadmap-critical pathways and destination?
Organizational Capabilities: What human capital, tools/information technology systems and organizational alignment do we need to be successful?
Where Roadmap fits
The Roadmap Critical Pathways and 2024 destination provide us a basis for near-term and annual planning of our targets and other business goals. The destination to “Power the Energy Frontier” helps us recognize that we will be operating in a much different environment in 10 years. The pathways help us focus on next steps to be successful in that environment. Williams explained, “This process will help Western prepare to meet our mission in a changing business environment. The Business and Organizational Excellence critical pathway is a foundation for the destination. Although Western has focused on business and organizational excellence all along, we will be paying even more attention to this dimension through our Strategic Roadmap 2024.”
