Bob Timmerman is quick to acknowledge that Sarbaines-Oxley has been a tough adjustment for his company, SCANA. But he is even quicker to attribute the problem to one thing more important than the increased costs caused by the new accounting regulations: people. Standing before an auditorium of MBA candidates at The Citadel, Timmerman, chairman and CEO of SCANA, the holding company of S.C. Electric and Gas and the only Fortune 500 company in the state, was here to talk about people.
“Who’s going to work for you? How are you going to get things done,” he asked at the beginning of his talk, the first installment in The Citadel School of Business Administration’s spring Leaders on Leadership series.
Timmerman is aware of the importance of people, both customers and those serving them. SCANA, through its various subsidiaries, provides electric services to approximately 600,000 customers and natural gas services to approximately 1,100,000 customers. Over 5,500 employees work for SCANA and own 12.5 percent of SCANA’s outstanding common stock, a feature that he claims as integral to its success.
However, employees offer challenges that confront SCANA each day. The company has a diverse work force, Timmerman said, making it important to adhere to the idea that “leadership is followship.”
“You can’t move an organization any faster than the slowest person,” he said, so it is integral to be able to inspire employees while meeting their human needs. This doesn’t mean being a leader that is first in line, makes all the final decisions, has all the answers, or gives orders. It is about “pushing accountability and decision-making deep in the organization.
“Leadership is about the process of inspiring people, inspiring an organization, to reach an outcome,” he said.
Timmerman was the first speaker this spring of the four-part series that takes place each semester at The Citadel. The Leaders on Leadership forum was started to provide MBA candidates interaction with business leaders, and to enforce leadership and ethics, the two core values of the business school’s mission.
