Five Years, Four Chairs and One Clear North Star

The traditional gift for a 5 year anniversary is wood-and as I celebrate reaching 5 years in the CEO role here at BECBC that feels very apt as I look back at photos of the first Awards dinner I delivered in 2022 with it’s beautiful wooden awards. 

From 2021 to now the UK has had 4 Prime Ministers and I’ve coincidentally worked with 4 Board Chairs, whose transition has thankfully been somewhat less chaotic than that of the PMs. My chairs have all brought different strengths and working styles to BECBC and added to my knowledge and understanding of leadership. Every one has been a pleasure to work with. 

Ivan Baldwin’s focus on sustainability of the organisation heralding the change in operating model really transformed how we worked. 

He was followed by Lee Grears with a focus on a strong SME voice on the board. 

With Paul Pointon’s experience we saw a concentration on building the right level of process to help us run efficiently

And now I’m working with our newly appointed Chair Tom Scaife who has volunteered for BECBC in various roles for over a decade. 

So what’s changed over the last 5 years in BECBC?

We’ve got a really clear strategy that is shared every single month with members at the Energy Networx meetings. That’s important because BECBC belongs to them & they should hold us as a team accountable for delivering against it. They may also see an opportunity to deliver against it that we miss. This gives us our “North Star” with clarity for everyone on why we’re here. 

The team, across employees, contractors and volunteers, is more connected. Having full-time resource means we can share, in a simple weekly update via email, what’s happening. 

We have an organisational structure that reflects how we work-we’re not a hierarchical organisation & it’s really important to me that everyone feels comfortable to contribute their ideas & thoughts. It also helps everyone understand how they fit together in the organisation. 

Our Awards are now delivered in-house and have gone from strength to strength. 

We have new Sector Groups with Organisational Performance and Green Energy joining the previously existing groups on Nuclear, Professional Services and Social Value. 

We’ve got clear reasons for each of our meetings. This matters because it has to be clear to members who from their team should attend which meeting and what they should expect to come away with. 

We’ve built on the amazing work that our Tender Opportunities Consultant, Liz Bowe, does for members. We’ve provided a curated tender opportunities page on the website for members for some time but now we’re also able to offer an hour of Liz’s time and that’s incredibly value because of her expertise in procurement. The feedback from members tells us how much value they get from these meetings. 

With the support of Zeitgeist Communication followed by Natterjack Marketing and 32 West I’m really proud of how our PR and Comms has progressed in that 5 years. Their expertise has been invaluable not just to BECBC but also to me personally. 

I’ve been blessed over the 5 years to work with amazing volunteers, some of whom are still with us and others who have now moved on from BECBC. They share a love and passion for the organisation that brightens my days and helps drive me to constantly look to improve the experience of members and the team alike. 

I’d love to hear from you what you’ve seen change in BECBC over the last 5 years?