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Objectives and strategy
Relationships
We have a diverse range of external stakeholders including employees, suppliers, customers, regulators, government and local communities. We strive to be open and constructive in our dealings with external audiences.
Our relationships with stakeholders are critical to our future success. Our strategy involves improving these relationships by focusing on the areas that are important to them, such as the quality of service we provide to customers, the quality of information we provide to regulators and the way we address the concerns of, and interact with, all our stakeholders.
| Customer service | Our objective is to impress our customers with the quality of the services we provide, with our responsiveness when things go wrong and with our dedication to continued improvement.
In addition to our plans to improve reliability, in particular of our US electricity distribution networks, we plan to improve the way we interact with our customers by enhancing or replacing the systems we use, through providing our employees with the training, empowerment and support they need to deliver and by improving the quality of our communications with customers and internally.
We use business-specific service quality KPIs to measure our performance in this area. |
| Regulatory relationships | Our regulators' primary responsibilities are to electricity and gas consumers. Hence the foundation of our relationship with regulators is based on the safety, reliability and efficiency of our operations and the quality of our customer service. Our strategic focus on operational excellence and on customer relationships plays a critical part in improving relationships with our regulators.
The other critical element in our regulatory relationships is in building trust. This involves being responsive to the need of our regulators for high-quality information, complying with rules and regulations, operating in an ethical way and, most importantly, delivering on our promises. |
| Suppliers | We aim to work in partnership with our suppliers, developing constructive relationships and working together effectively. Our objective is to develop contractual arrangements with our suppliers that align their interests with our own as far as possible and share financial risks appropriately.
We expect our suppliers to be as equally committed as ourselves to safety, reliability and efficiency and to acting responsibly. In turn we aim to respect the capabilities and views of our suppliers and to treat them fairly in all our dealings with them. |
| Community involvement | National Grid's role as a good corporate citizen supports our strategic ambitions, and is delivered through a sustained and consistent approach.
In all our community investment we aim to develop our business, support our employees, support communities and enhance our reputation. Our approach is based on two principles: ‘Investment in our Communities, Investment in our People’, and continues to be centred on three key themes: energy and environment; education and skills; and community development.
Sharing of best practice across our business and working collaboratively with key partners and stakeholders enables us to maximise how communities benefit from our activities. |