June 18, 2012

Why is the Piedmont Pride culture so important to Piedmont Natural Gas's long-term performance and success? Chairman, President and CEO Thomas E. Skains shares his insights on leading the culture transformation at the utility in this view from the top conversation with Nick Neuhausel, Senn Delaney partner, executive vice president and energy practice leader.

Skains says the culture is the single most important factor in achieving stellar financial results, improving customer satisfaction and providing a Thriving work environment that engages workers and attracts the best talent.

“Since Piedmont entered into a relationship with Senn Delaney to focus on the cultural health and transformation of our organization, over the nine years that I've been CEO, we have doubled our asset base. We have increased by 100 percent the value of our market capitalization, the total value of the equity investors in our company, and we've delivered total shareholder returns over that nine-year period of 161 percent compared to 147 percent for the median of our peer group and about 69 percent for the S&P 500. This financial performance would not be possible without the transformational shift that we've embarked on for a healthy, high-performance culture,” says Skains in the video interview. “You can't get those kinds of financial results without the teammates across the company pulling together in a healthy way that's focused on high performance. This is not something that occurs by itself. This is an intentional strategy that we've had with a lot of dedication and commitment and resources focused on the health of our organization.”

In operation for 60 years, Piedmont Natural Gas is a natural gas provider for more than 1 million residential and business customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Skains has been chairman, president and chief executive officer since 2003. He serves on the board of directors of the American Gas Association and Southern Gas Association,  BB&T Corporation, the Gas Technology Institute, and on the Boards of Trustees of Johnson & Wales University and the American Gas Foundation.

Watch the video interview. This video is best viewing on a high-speed internet connection.

Listen to the interview podcast

Download the article version of the interview

This view from the top video interview with the CEO of Piedmont Natural Gas is part of Senn Delaney's thought leadership video series highlighting best practices in organizational culture shaping. Visit SDTV to view this and other interviews, including interviews with Yum! Brands CEO David Novak.