Gap to First
Quartile Performance
Transform Benchmark Insights into
Tangible Operational Improvements
The Moment of Recognition
At some point, benchmarking reveals a meaningful
opportunity to improve. The question then shifts from
How are we performing? to What should we do about it?
Are you solving the right problem? What options should
you consider? What tradeoffs should you make?
What have other utilities learned from similar challenges?
Which direction best fits your specific organization?
This is where Gap to First Quartile Performance begins.
What Two Decades of Utility Benchmarking Have Taught Us About High Performance
For more than 25 years, we've analyzed utility performance, identified the practices that distinguish high-performing organizations, and helped utility leaders turn those insights into measurable improvements.
Our experience demonstrates that superior performance isn't simply the result of more spending, more programs, or more initiatives. It comes from understanding what drives results, making informed operating decisions, setting clear priorities, and executing consistently.
We help utilities understand where they stand, what drives the performance gap, and what actions will make the greatest difference.
How We Help
We work alongside utility leaders to define the problem clearly, evaluate potential paths forward, and understand the tradeoffs behind each choice. Rather than applying a generic playbook, we facilitate a process that draws on your team’s operating knowledge, First Quartile benchmarking, and lessons from across the utility industry.
The goal is more than a recommendation. We help your team understand why a direction makes sense, build alignment around it, and develop the capability to execute it.
Gap to First Quartile Performance Helps Your Leadership:
Define the problem that matters most
Evaluate alternatives and tradeoffs
Align around a clear direction
Translate insight into practical operating changes
Build internal capability to sustain
improvements
Explain and defend key decisions to
boards, regulators, and customers
1
Independent Benchmarking
identifies exactly where
organizations perform
differently.
2
The First Quartile Peer
Community explains why those differences exist by exploring the operating decisions and tradeoffs other leaders made.
Where Our Perspective Comes From
3
Gap to First Quartile
Performance helps you determine what those lessons mean for your specific organization.
Our perspective is not built from a single consultant’s experience, but instead grows from a continuous cycle of learning developed over 20 years of working with utilities across North America.
1
Independent Benchmarking
identifies exactly where
organizations perform
differently.
2
The First Quartile Peer
Community explains why
those differences exist by
exploring the operating
decisions and tradeoffs
other leaders made.
3
Gap to First Quartile
Performance helps you
determine what those
lessons mean for your
specific organization.
Our team brings decades of utility leadership and operating experience. We've faced the same challenges as the leaders we advise – from competing priorities and resource constraints to emergency response and day-to-day operational demands. We combine that firsthand experience with deep benchmarking expertise to identify practical improvement opportunities and develop solutions that fit each utility's operating environment.
Turning Proven Practices into Sustainable, Real-World Improvements
Customer Service
If you feel the need for more staff in the contact center, we help you define
the customer experience you want to create.
We determine if your current operating model and work design naturally
produce that experience.
The conversation shifts from improving a department to improving the
model that supports it.
Reliability
When a leader wants to improve reliability, the first instinct is often to increase maintenance or capital investment.
We help you understand how planning philosophy, investment strategy, work management, and risk tolerance combine to produce performance.
You gain confidence that you are improving the decisions that produce reliability.
Customer Service
If you feel the need for more staff in the contact center, we help you define
the customer experience you want to create.
We determine if your current operating model and work design naturally
produce that experience.
The conversation shifts from improving a department to improving the
model that supports it.
Storm Response
Instead of just looking at restoration plans, we help you understand that
performance is largely determined before the storm arrives.
We focus on preparation, leadership decision making, and organizational
coordination so you can perform under pressure.
Budgeting
When facing budget cuts, we help you understand which operating decisions drive costs and which outcomes you must protect.
Cost becomes a result of better organizational decisions rather than a simple reduction exercise.
Strategic Growth
If you are preparing for growth, we help you determine if your current governance and leadership systems are prepared for tomorrow’s business.
Growth becomes an organizational readiness discussion rather than just a capacity-planning exercise.
You notice the difference
Reliability
When a leader wants to improve reliability, the first instinct is often to increase maintenance or capital investment.
We help you understand how planning philosophy, investment strategy, work
management, and risk tolerance combine to produce performance.
You gain confidence that you are improving the decisions that produce reliability.
