{"id":3503,"date":"2018-01-05T19:29:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T19:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.signium.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=3503"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T15:55:00","slug":"what-will-you-do-for-an-encore-id-like-to-electrify-africa-leadership-lessons-from-a-global-leader-in-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.signium.com\/fi\/news\/what-will-you-do-for-an-encore-id-like-to-electrify-africa-leadership-lessons-from-a-global-leader-in-renewable-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;What will you do for an encore? I&#8217;d like to electrify Africa&#8217; &#8211; Leadership lessons from a global leader in renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">Eddie O\u2019Connor, a world leader in the renewable energy sector, shares some of the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his remarkable career. And his remaining ambition \u2013 to electrify Africa.&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">Eddie O\u2019Connor has been at the coalface of industry for four decades. Hmm. Perhaps \u2018coalface\u2019 isn\u2019t quite the word. Because O\u2019Connor has been leading the charge to replace fossil fuels with clean energy from the sun and wind. In so doing, he has built and sold a \u20ac1.8 billion company from scratch, before building an even bigger one from scratch and nearly losing it. He is a man who, when he speaks on business and leadership, does so with some considerable authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">O\u2019Connor started his career in Ireland\u2019s Electricity Supply Board, before turning Bord na Mona from a \u20ac20m lossmaking semi-state peat processor into a \u20ac5m profitmaking company under his stewardship. When he left the semi-state sector (\u2018the customer was often seen as the enemy\u2019) and founded Airtricity, to become Ireland\u2019s first global renewable energy company, his career went into overdrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">In 2008, a mere eleven years after founding it, Airtricity was sold to E.On and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) for \u20ac1.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later that year, O\u2019Connor founded Mainstream Renewable Power and has built a truly global business across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia with a portfolio of projects generating 9,000MW per annum to become the number one in its space.<br data-aos=\"fade-up\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">From \u2018Lightbulb\u2019 Moment to \u2018iPhone\u2019 Moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">Like all good entrepreneur stories, Eddie\u2019s contains a \u2018lightbulb\u2019 moment, when he realised the scale of both the problem and the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">The lightbulb moment came during a difficult time as Managing Director of Bord na Mona (a peat processing company that supplied electricity to the Irish national grid), when a board member said to him \u2018You know, Eddie, this CO2 thing is very bad, it\u2019s causing global warming\u2019. His response was \u2018That can\u2019t be, sure the whole electricity business is based on sending up billions of tonnes of CO2\u2019. His colleague suggested that he should read up on it. And he did. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">To O\u2019Connor, a Chemical Engineer by training, what happened next wasn\u2019t a gamble \u2013 it was just logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cThat\u2019s when I came across the Tyndall Effect, a discovery by a fellow Irishman in 1861, that when you pass radiation through a series of gases, it passes through most gases, but not carbon dioxide -that gets absorbed. We had increased the CO2 content in the atmosphere by 50% over pre-industrial times. So, to me, it was science. It was a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong>\u201cThe atmosphere is absorbing the equivalent of 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs every second\u201d<\/strong><\/p data-aos=\"fade-up\"><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cIt\u2019s very hard to appreciate, just how much energy we are putting up there, until you see 50 inches of rain falling simultaneously in Baha, California and Houston, Texas and then Irma comes along and you begin to understand why this is happening. We are absorbing the energy equivalent of 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs in the atmosphere every second. It\u2019s this massive amount of energy that\u2019s lifting up this quantity of water and depositing it. And that\u2019s costing America, what, \u20ac100 billion? And someone has to pay for that. Which is why we have the Paris Accord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cThe renewable energy industry itself is accelerating at a great rate. There was 161,000 MW of renewable energy installed in the US last year. We\u2019re now about half the price of coal, two thirds the price of gas, one tenth the price of nuclear; so I don\u2019t see any reason why anyone would install coal, oil or gas in the future. Solar has collapsed in price by about 85% since 2009, so that gives this industry massive momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cWhat we aimed to do when we set up Mainstream was to recognise that every country has to make this kind of transition &#8211; so we wanted to build the competencies, get the staff together, get the finance organised and pick a certain number of countries where we were going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cIt\u2019s just taken off. Remember Nokia? I think it had a 60% worldwide share and then Steve Jobs came along with the iPhone. Nokia got bought a couple of years ago by Microsoft for a pittance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cSo, we\u2019re there now at our iPhone moment &#8211; and I\u2019m very happy to say that Mainstream is number one now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">The Hardest Ten Years<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cBut, this isn\u2019t triumphalism. This has been the hardest ten years I\u2019ve ever done, trying to get Mainstream going, because we came through a period that was just north of the Great Depression. There were times in Mainstream when we were delayed getting payments from South Africa and I had to dip into my personal account or I would have lost the company. We came that close about three years ago to losing the company. That said, I was quite happy to do it because I had the money to do it and if we had to go to the venture people at that stage we\u2019d have lost the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cBut when it looks like you\u2019re not going to be able to achieve your life\u2019s work, it can be pretty devastating and that\u2019s what can keep you up at night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u2018Managing Culture is the Greatest and Most Interesting Challenge\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">O\u2019Connor\u2019s accumulated global experience has given him a unique perspective on leadership.&nbsp; Ultimately, he says, it\u2019s all about people, and that managing culture is the greatest and most interesting challenge of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cOur business is about people. It\u2019s just about people. If you have the best people you will win every time. The first function we set up in both Airtricity and Mainstream was our HR function. You have to select the right people and then agree targets with them and keep them motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cBut working with different cultures is the really interesting bit as far as I\u2019m concerned. Human beings are all the same, but they are vastly different in culture. The assumptions that an American makes, versus the assumptions that a Chilean makes, versus the assumptions a South African or an Irishman makes are completely different. And it\u2019s been going on for hundreds of years, so it\u2019s very hard to talk to people like this \u2013 to build plant on their land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/-KK8wTdkknI\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe data-aos=\"fade-up\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">The importance of luck<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">O\u2019Connor concedes readily that he has enjoyed a lot of luck along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cSetting Airtricity up in the beginning. When I left Bord na Mona, John Lavery, a pal of mine, asked me what I was going to do now. I said I was thinking about doing the wind. \u2018How much do you need?\u2019 he asked me. I didn\u2019t expect the question. \u2018I suppose half a million would do it\u2019, I said. He rang me five days later and said, \u2018I have that now, Eddie\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cWe also got lucky with deregulation. Europe had a directive that opened up the electricity system. The plan was to let the top 240 customers \u2013 huge outfits like Intel and so on \u2013 to let them have chunks. We managed to work with the Dail (Irish Parliament) and we got five clauses inserted into the Electricity Regulation Act and that allowed us to set up a supply business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cAnd I got lucky with getting Tom Roche on board as an investor. He was making a lot of cash through National Toll Roads at the time and his investors said to him \u2018You should be doing something with that cash instead of giving it back to us as dividends, which we have to pay huge tax on.\u2019 So, he invested \u20ac3.3m with us in equity and \u20ac6m in debt instrument and we took it from there. That was a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">Values in Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cTo me, ethics in business makes an awful lot of sense. We place a lot of emphasis in our business on establishing a set of values. When you set up a company you want it to last beyond the current set of leaders. So, you try to get people to buy into a set of values. Cultures are so different, but you have to respect these cultures. We\u2019re entrepreneurial and innovative and that\u2019s a value in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cWe talk to our people at least eight times a year by video conference and we select a \u2018Person of the Moment\u2019 who exhibits these values. Often, it\u2019s safety as that\u2019s a key value to us. Recently we passed 1.5 million man-hours with no lost time incidents on one farm in Africa, despite recruiting thousands of people who hadn\u2019t worked before. That doesn\u2019t happen by accident. Forty years ago, there would have been 20 people dead there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cThey say it takes 7 years to establish culture, but if you achieve that then you shouldn\u2019t be arguing about things. In business, one of the key destroyers of things is people debating endlessly and not having a set of basic things they agree on. So, we talk about our values an awful lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">Motivation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cShare options motivate nobody. They\u2019re too long-term. You will not stop people speeding if you send them a speeding ticket two years later. You hit them now, they pay the money now and they stop speeding. So there has to be a much more direct cause and effect in terms of motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI let people draft their own targets and I review them with them. Rather than you setting out \u2018Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll do\u2019 &#8211; it\u2019s always better that way. We pay according to the achievement of those targets, But I believe in the motivation hygiene theory. Money, above a certain level, doesn\u2019t motivate people any more. Money motivates hugely if you have to buy your house, feed and educate your family. But above a certain level it\u2019s job satisfaction that really matters. It\u2019s whether the boss actually appreciates me. A boss has that effect on people. If you ever want to get rid of someone out of a company, just remove the love. It\u2019s that simple. They\u2019ll leave. If you want to hold onto them, appreciate them deeply every day and find new ways to do that. And it\u2019s much better if you mean it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cYou\u2019re the leader and you\u2019ve got to lead. And that can mean absorbing a huge amount of your own difficulties. You can\u2019t share them with people who report to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI\u2019d like to Electrify Africa\u201d- Ambition and The Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">O\u2019Connor has recently stepped down as Managing Director of Mainstream, to become Executive Chairman. He will continue to be highly involved on the fundraising and partnership side of the business, but his real ambition is one that might daunt a man half his age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI\u2019d like to electrify Africa\u201d he says, as though it was the equivalent of executing a round of fundraising. \u201cThis is the greatest intellectual, cultural, commercial, massively big challenge in the world. I want to set up an institute now which will electrify Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI\u2019ve found a correlation between the degree of electrification and the wealth of a country. I\u2019ve plotted it on a graph and it\u2019s knock for knock. The more electrification you have the wealthier the country. Interestingly, this is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he ran for election in 1932. The Rural Electrification Act brought electricity to every small town and hamlet in America and the country grew from 1940 to 1970 at 8.6% per year \u2013 and that created America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">On Resilience and Purpose in Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of genetic stuff involved in becoming resilient in business. It\u2019s good to be in a good marriage and to have children. But, if your sense of purpose is strong and if you are \u2018on purpose\u2019 then resilience comes to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cIf you want to do something, if you really believe something, it doesn\u2019t matter what knocks you get.. I know that the world is strangling itself with the energy in the atmosphere that comes from too much carbon dioxide, and I know we have the solution to that, so there\u2019s nothing going to stop me from trying to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI\u2019m a great believer in doing things. Doing things helps all the time because you say to yourself \u2018Well, I did that and nothing can take that away\u2019, so next time you face into something and its keeping you awake at night and things look tough, you can say I faced a situation a bit like this before and I got through it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/cwYZ8Nze9-M\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe data-aos=\"fade-up\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">On Change Management and Authenticity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">In 1988, O\u2019Connor had to let 2,400 people go from Bord na Mona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cI had to let them go. And I learned a lesson in that. The way I do change management is to listen very carefully to the people in the company. The people who know most in any company are the workers in that company. I had 24 meetings with the workers in groups, where I just sat down and listened and took notes. This happened to be the first time they had seen the Managing Director. Previous MDs lived in Dublin and all the work was done down the country. And then I talked to the Unions and said \u2018Listen, lads, you can have your policies or you can have your company, but you\u2019ve got to choose.\u2019 And they chose to go with an Employee Enterprise Scheme. In fact, the Unions embraced it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount of authenticity involved in leadership &#8211; about being with the people and not being afraid to listen to their hurt and their diagnosis of what\u2019s wrong. And there was a lot wrong. But they told me all about it. That was a big learning. What you try to do is find the natural leaders and try to influence them. There will always be natural leaders, but they may not be the shop steward. The shop steward is often the guy put up front by the natural leaders and is the mouthpiece, whereas the thinking is done in behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">On personal energy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">Remarkably, since the age of 27, O\u2019Connor sleeps every day at lunchtime. \u201cTo lead in business, you have to listen to people very carefully. And that takes a lot of energy. You can\u2019t do that if you are tired. I used to dread the 2-3pm lecture in University \u2013 I\u2019d be falling asleep as I wrote! So, I sleep for half an hour to an hour every lunchtime and that works for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">Advice you\u2019d pass on to a 30-year old looking to set up a global business?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cFirst of all, recognise that it\u2019s alright to be afraid. Everyone is afraid. Feel the fear and do it anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cFollow your dream. \u2018Enthousiasmos\u2019 is the Greek word for \u2018inspired by God\u2019 and enthusiasm gets you places, because people follow those who are enthusiastic. And you are far more likely to be enthusiastic if you are doing something that you like. That could be drawing pretty girls or writing poetry &#8211; but do it anyway, because that\u2019s the gift that you were given. So, follow your gift, no matter where it takes you. That\u2019s all I would say, really, because first of all, nobody is ever going to listen to advice. People always do what\u2019s right for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cTreat others like you want to be treated. There\u2019s a lot in the Confucian thing. I\u2019ve studied a lot about how China does things. I\u2019m fascinated by that no-God and \u2018we live in the now\u2019 culture. So, realise that this is not a practice run. You get one shot at it and you\u2019d hate to look back when you\u2019re 70 and say, if only I\u2019d done that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">\u201cSo follow your dream, and do it with enthusiasm and people will come with you, whatever it is. You may not make huge amounts of money, but what\u2019s money if you\u2019re not fulfilled?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p data-aos=\"fade-up\">Paul Holland \u2018The Signium Interviewer\u2019 thanked Eddie O\u2019Connor for his time and valued insights and reflected the mood in the room of senior business leaders when he said \u2018If anyone can electrify Africa, Eddie, I think it\u2019s you!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Eddie O\u2019Connor was in conversation at an event hosted by Signium Ireland. If you would like to speak about your Executive Search or Leadership Consulting requirements in Ireland,\u00a0contact us\u00a0at: +353 1 496 6500 or\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"mailto:info@signium.ie\"><em><strong>info@signium.ie<\/strong><\/em><\/a data-aos=\"fade-up\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eddie O\u2019Connor, a world leader in the renewable energy sector, shares some of the leadership lessons he has learned throughout his remarkable career. And his remaining ambition \u2013 to electrify Africa.&nbsp; Eddie O\u2019Connor has been at the coalface of industry for four decades. Hmm. Perhaps \u2018coalface\u2019 isn\u2019t quite the word. Because O\u2019Connor has been leading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3504,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","region":[60],"news_type":[19],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.5 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;What will you do for an encore? 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