Growth
Clear as water
How Peter Nelson grew Cal Water by improving customer service
By Leslie Stevens-Huffman
Smart Business Northern California | November 2008
Page 1 of 4
When Peter Nelson was applying for
the president and CEO job at California
Water Service Group back in 1996, he
wanted to learn a little bit about his
potential employer. He decided to drop
in for an unannounced visit at one of the
local offices.
“I received a call from a headhunter
about the opportunity here at Cal Water,
but I really didn’t know much about
them,” Nelson says. “So I walked into the
local office and said to the service representative, ‘Hey, I’m applying for a job
with this company. What’s it like to work
here?’
Over the next 45 minutes, the representative gave him a copy of the annual report,
and three other people in the office came
out to speak with him about the company.
He also asked what the rep would change
about the company, and the man replied
that he’d like to have more tools to service
customers. The board of Cal Water was
searching for a CEO who could grow the
company through acquisitions, and for
Nelson, the local office visit cemented the
deal, because it validated his ideas on how
the company could grow. The only way for
Cal Water to expand would be through
improving its service image. In order to
acquire municipal or independently operated water districts, Nelson would need a
compelling value proposition for the local
customers, and that value is most often
created by one thing — improved service.
In order to do this, Nelson had to create a
plan, involve his employees and then work
to improve.
