Simon Lyons Talk: Aggreko Nov. 15th 2011 305PM

Fig. 1:  Goal is for relatively happy customers (high NPS) and profitable ops

1. Many thanks to Simon for this talk.  It was very informative and helped to put management decisions into context.
2. Simon's main focus was on evaluating the firm's performance based on the Net Promoter Score, or the likelihood that customers would recommend Aggreko to friends or businesses.
1. NPS tracked two types of customers to a 1-10 experience rating.
2. 6 or less were tracked
3. 9's and 10's were tracked
4. anything in between was not tracked
3. Aggreko was introduced as a being rooted in the B2B (business to business) sector.  He had just returned from Jinga Dam in Uganda where electric generators were loaned to the government to provide power to the country.  Aggreko has the ability to rapidly deploy and pull out of regions with poorly developed infrastructure.
4. Regarding the need to quantify business decisions, Simon said:  "Finance always won because they always had numbers".  "We needed live information" to support "strong propositions".
1. The primary proposition that was mentioned:  focus on "good profits" that come when the customer is satisfied.  This will ensure revenue growth in the long run.
5. Customer data started as a 2005 initiative in which a new IT system was brought online by outsourcing a new customer database to CA based Satmetrix.  This new system didn't impede the existing architecture in any way, and allowed effective benchmarking.
1. costs for the system were 100k, decreasing over time to 40k
2. competitors can offer these services now for around 20k
6. Aggreko's assets were 5/6ths intangible and 1/6 tangible (such as generators and moving equipment)
7. Typical charges to UK customers are around 2,500 to 3000 pounds per week for container housed diesel or natural gas generators.  Contracts are negotiated for other regions.
8. Resources were shifted so that customers were not too happy.  In other words, diminishing returns on investment in customers were avoided to remain in the profitable region in Fig. 1