Episode show notes
“I love seeing people grow and flourish. It’s fulfilling and quite humbling that you’ve been part of someone else’s success and growth..”
Bringing together the best of both worlds is a powerful procurement strategy for those with private and public sector experience – Divyesh Lad combines those in a challenging utility sector.
The Head of Commercial Services for United Utilities joins us on episode 76 of Talent Talks as we consider the skills gap in today’s market, how to manage teams & help them flourish, flexing your communication style, and much more.
This episode of Talent Talks covers:
- Challenges and opportunities unique to the utilities sector
- Filling the skills gap in the market
- Transferable skills throughout the profession & combining experiences
- Learning how to manage people effectively, and help them to evolve and flourish
Episode highlights
“Commercial’s always been there to help mitigate risks, protect your CEO, to make sure we’ve got robust contracts in place. Now it’s about actually, how do we strike more value? We’ve got to get the right balance between compliance and agility as well.” – 5:20 – Divyesh Lad
“For me, it’s about finding the right balance, but also working with organisations who’ve also got like minded objectives. Therefore you’re working unilaterally in collaboration to achieve, for example, your ESG agenda, whilst having a sustainable relationship between both organisations.” – 9:35 – Divyesh Lad
“You’re very compliance-orientated in the public sector, and procurements take months, or years to do. I’m now being charged to deliver procurement timelines in a much shorter window. So you need that private sector mentality to get through things a lot faster, but still make sure we’re compliant.” – 14:05 – Divyesh Lad
“It’s got to strike the right balance between incentivising my supply chain, to come up with innovative ideas. So we end up in an annual review which is a gain-share annual review, rather than a pain-share model.” – 18:25 – Divyesh Lad
“I love seeing people grow and flourish. Many of the individuals that work for me have gone on to do really well, and then flourish in their careers. That’s really fulfilling and quite humbling, that actually you’ve been part of someone else’s success as well in growth. For me, it’s a personal passion.” – 23:30 – Divyesh Lad
“Nothing is impossible. When you put your mind and hearts to it and you’ve got a collective goal, I think it’s achievable, so just keep believing.” – 30:50 – Divyesh Lad
Links & references
Divyesh Lad, Head of Commercial Services at United Utilities – https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyesh-lad-5449811/
United Utilities – https://www.linkedin.com/company/united-utilities/ https://www.unitedutilities.com/
Martin Smith, Founder & Director of Talent Drive – https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinsmith2009/
