Hugo van Nispen is on quite a run. Since joining Kema five years ago, van Nispen was integral to the launch of Kema's management consulting practice and helped grow the new operation to about 30 percent of Kema's overall revenue in just two years. He was the top-producing consultant for the firm four years running. "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," he says with a laugh. And last year, he was named president and managing director of the Americas, a region that includes North America, the Caribbean, Latin and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Since he took the reins, the practice has grown about 15 percent, but that's just the beginning, he says.
Kema's business is
focused exclusively on the energy and utilities sector, and, "I have a dramatically different view than my predecessor of what the market is able to bear," van Nispen says. "I think our market is ready for our core product, content differentiated management and technical consulting services. Our business model is to have deep, deep industry content and tailored solutions."
Currently, the practice is about $60 million in revenue and 350 billable consultants—figures that van Nispen says will double over the next five years. "Energy is a great place to be right now," he says. "No other service is so paramount to quality of life and standard of living, and it's in such desperate need of attention. There are challenges facing the industry—convergence of new technologies, digitization, more empowerment by the Internet—that make energy a much more interesting place than it's been in a long time. We're seeing things emerge that could fundamentally change the industry."
The challenge, van Nispen says, is to seamlessly incorporate new technologies into a legacy infrastructure that "we've under-invested in to the tune of about one trillion dollars," he says. "There's incredible pent-up demand for building new capacity and enhancing existing services, but many of these things are putting pressure on consumer pricing, and consumers are pushing back."
Converting an analog grid that was designed in the 1940s into a digital grid that can meet the demands of the 21st century is no easy task. Which is why, he says, the focus is shifting to energy efficiency and renewable energy. "I can see a day when we'll have portals in people's homes to make them much more aware of what their consumption is, where their consumption is going and what it's costing them," van Nispen says. "I think that move to real-time information and real-time pricing will cause behavior to change in a positive way."
In addition, making the shift to more a mainstream use of renewable energy is key to curbing our consumption. "How do we integrate wind, solar and [ocean] wave energy for real-time responsiveness?" he asks. "I actually think we'll start to see renewable energy penetrate into residential and commercial buildings."
The other challenge for van Nispen is internal. In order to double the business over the next five years, he's going to need to hire 350 consultants. "Our business model relies on expert consulting services and finding qualified people is, without a doubt, our biggest challenge," he says. One of his solutions? He launched Kema University as a way give employees a high-level education in the energy and utility market.
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