Personal notes:

 

 

 

What has been the most successful or challenging experience of your career?

After a 26-year career working across a lot of different industries, from supermarkets to finance and technology, Ovo Energy is without doubt the most challenging and rewarding.

It’s also the place where I’ve had to most rigorously apply the motto of ex-General Electric chief, Jack Welsh: ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’.

Doubling your customer base in less than six months provides the ultimate test of whether you’re really communicating across a company or not. When you’re growing that quickly, it only takes one or two small mistakes to set you off course. Making sure everyone knows what’s important at that moment, and what’s changing daily (in Ovo’s case often hourly), makes the difference between executing well or not at all.”

Which five people you would invite to your dream dinner party and why?

Johnny Ives – he’s an Essex boy done good, and I’m also an Essex boy. Ives is the driving force behind some of the very significant innovations which have put Apple where it is today. His self-belief and drive means he’s willing to take risks, but he also has a genuinely brilliant intuition for what’s going to work in his market.

Malcolm Gladwell – we’re always trying to do things differently at Ovo and this is an approach Gladwell has pretty much cornered in his field. Whether it’s marketing, crime, education or race, he is always guaranteed to present a view that challenges accepted understanding.

Malala Yousafza – aged 17, she’s already done more for education, poverty and women’s rights than most people do in a lifetime. She is eloquent, dedicated and incredibly brave.

David Attenborough – he’s one of the UK’s most brilliant scientists, but he’s also a national treasure because he’s made the extraordinary things he has experienced accessible to everybody.

Kylie Minogue – a guilty pleasure I’ll admit, but I love her music and I bet she’d be the life and soul.

Name four items you keep on your desk/with you at work that reveal something about your interests/personality.

It’s so easy to get distracted by ‘stuff’, and a clear desk makes me feel like I’m in control, so during the day there’s nothing in front of me apart from my laptop, iPhone, pad and pen. And occasionally a mug of peppermint tea.

The main event

Find out more about the 2nd Annual Utility Week Congress at: http://utilityweek.co.uk/news/speaker%E2%80%99s-corner-jason-sharpe-managing-director-ovo-energy/1050342#.VBfqe_ldUZk