WHAT ONTARIO HYDRO NEEDS
The two big general solutions that the government and media bring up are Privatization and Competition.
Privatization: fine, we should go for it, but it probably doesn’t make that much difference who owns Ontario Hydro. Everybody wants a return on their investment.
Competition: most definitely, and much more important than Privatization. Competition is not strong in Hydro’s managed life, and really will make Ontario Hydro stand up. Many of the activities that Hydro Management get up to would simply not be possible under a competitive environment. For example, you simply can’t funnel large sums of money to your buddies for no real reason under competition.
There are also a trio of Hydro-specific changes we should make (and have made), and these can be defined as "Management, Management, and Management".
New Code of Ethics. Just read this case if you want to find out why.
Re-negotiate the Memorandum of Understanding with AECL Chalk River Labs, or more generally, eliminate all the sweetheart deals that Hydro has signed over the years. These are usually made for "political reasons", not for business reasons. Fortunately, the MoU to Chalk River has been canned, in effect. We seem to have managed this, partly due to common sense, and partly public pressure. This agreement truly hurt the OH Nuclear program by bleeding off R&D funds for no results.
Improved Communications. It seems unbelievably hard to get a message to Management, and I don’t have any concrete suggestions, except to ask Management to switch to "receive".
