Table 19. Business Model – Utility Company

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has focused on the delivery of information to employees, in order to both raise awareness about the importance of environmental protection and support the use of environmental indicators for process monitoring.

Table 19 presents a summary of the influencing sub-factors and environmental practices found in the Business Strategy of Utility Company.

Table 19. Business Model - Utility Company

esa factor category main features

Business model

Stable * Lobbying capabilities in conjunction with industry associations to buffer the impact of regulation over the industry. * Technological know-how for the development of power facilities intended to achieve business efficiency. * Alliances with government to socialize and foster electric mobility strategies, which is their main business. * Stakeholder management to establish relations with communities in order to achieve social license to operate, by constructing win-win deals offering communities access to electricity

c) Manager´s perspective:

The CEO is a Bachelor in Business Administration and holds a Master’s Degree in Management. Since 1997, he moved on to Colombia to work for the Utility Company, where he has held the following positions: Comptroller, Planning Manager, General Manager and CEO. Finally, CEO has more than 20 years of experience in financial investment, planning, control and management.

Influencing factors observed in the manager`s perspective were associated with the individual characteristics of the CEO, which cover his personal values, perspective towards ESA and leadership style.

- Personal values The CEO spoke about the restrain of actions and impulses and respect for the norms when asked about the most important characteristics of a good leader. In acknowledging his concern about self-restrain and respect for the norms, the CEO exhibits conformity and tradition as his main personal values. Traditional modes of behavior become expressions of the CEO’s focus on a body of customs taking the form of norms of behavior:

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... “A good leader must have the following attributes: patience and communication… sometimes you want to implement things immediately but those things take time ... it is important, then, to process all the information you hear and always to have a lot of patience ... the most important things are: do not act hastily, know how to listen, reflect before you act and surround yourself with a trustworthy team including collaborators known to be as people of integrity “...

CEO defines himself as a patient person, a good listener with common sense for making decisions and a very intuitive person to build a team work for his company (M. Rodriguez, 2017)

In an additional statement, the CEO enunciated:

“[…] Our way of working is based on ethical principles, transparency, inclusion, [workers] safety and respect for human rights […]” (CEO, 2016).

The previous statements fulfill the motivational goals of conformity and traditional values exposed by Schwartz (1992), such as respect (e.g., respect for human rights), commitment (e.g., worker safety and propending for a satisfactory work environment) and acceptance (e.g., inclusion).

Recently, in an interview with a journalist from a local newspaper, the CEO mentioned, when asked about the reasons to work in sustainable energy sources (Semana, 2018):

“[…] the company has defined three major work objectives to apply worldwide: one has to do with growing urbanization; the second one focuses on decarbonization and the third one is related to the demand on electrification, which seeks to use more and more electricity in industry, in the transportation matrix and in homes” ...

“[…] In those three goals, renewable energies play a transversal role” ...

The previous statement shows that the CEO totally supports the parent company´s guidelines in sustainability matters. Besides, the personal characteristics of the CEO instituted a mechanism for the adoption of parent

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company´s strategies and have allowed him to keep a smooth interaction with the firm´s cultural rules. Furthermore, the CEO hasn’t been affected by the last three changes of investors that Utility Company has had during the 20 years of the history of the Company in Colombia.

- Perspective towards ESA CEO’s perspective towards ESA focuses on compliance, which implies the satisfaction of environmental advocates such as regulators and communities. For example, the CEO specified in one of the local newspapers: “We accept that we must work on the decontamination of the reservoir… but what we do not agree on is that they sanction us and impose measures to carry on a solidarity that does not correspond to us”.

Additional practices included the support of environmental practices related to ecological restoration plans. Finally, in relation to those environmental practices the CEO expressed the following sentiment:

... “Companies can make investments to improve the quality of life from communities where the projects are to be developed ... I always look for ways to make the development of these projects compatible with the care of natural resources and the protection of communities”… (M. Rodriguez, 2017).

Interviews conducted by the researcher confirmed that the manager has a compliance attitude towards CSR. Specifically, the respondents mentioned their mechanisms of compensation for the communities nearby:

“[…] One of the practices is related to the search for an alternative use of the river duckweeds… The company involved single mothers in a social project, in order to use the duckweeds as inputs to produce paper […]”

- Leadership style The leadership style of the CEO corresponds to a transactional one, because he manifests reciprocity between agents through an exchange process. For example, the CEO mentioned in a recent interview: “[…] it is necessary to develop a clear regulation for the referendum of the projects, so that they are not impeded by communities [...]” The former quote reflects that it is required,

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by the CEO, a clear set of rules to facilitate the exchange process between the company and the influenced communities.

Recently, in an interview with a journalist from a local newspaper, the CEO mentioned, when asked about their current activities with nearby communities (Semana, 2018):

… “In each project it is posed, in a very specific way, how to mitigate the impacts that can be created, because each project is different […] We have programs aimed at the resident population: we gave them a house and five hectares to develop productive projects […] Besides, for the people who worked in the area, an initiative was developed to train entrepreneurs and deliver a seed capital […] These initiatives occur because [we want to run] a sustainable business in the long term” …

Specifically, this type of leadership emphasizes the clarification of goals and desired outcomes, maintaining the status quo for as long as requirements are being met. For example, the CEO defines his responsibility model as successful because “… it is based on the deep and real knowledge of the communities and stakeholders they work with …” (Gerente, 2014).

According to different statements from the CEO it is observable that his transactional leadership style institutes a mechanism for the development of social responsibility plans, to be able to do business and introduce power solutions. For example, the CEO mentions about the management of relations with communities: “The electrical development is totally compatible with the environmental care and the development of communities” ...

Finally, leadership style of CEO reflects his favorable support of operational efficiency, improvement of quality in services and acquisition of up-to date technology:

“…We expanded the coverage of the electricity market in Bogota after the merger of our company with a local regional Company and reached more than 3 million customers [...] Another achievement is the improvement of the quality of the service. Last year we closed with ten average interruptions (820 minutes), a 13 percent improvement, which is a significant advance with respect to the indicators of 2016 [...] In terms of generation, I would highlight the modernization works in the plants, which have resulted in better levels of quality and care for the environment” ...