Rising Stars of the Profession: Graham Dickson

Graham Dickson is a director at Guidehouse and leads the firm's Business Strategy and Transformation team within the Energy, Sustainability and Infrastructure segment. To date, Graham has developed and executed strategies impacting 50+ million utility customers in 10 countries, spanning North America, Europe, and Australasia. Specifically, he has designed customer transformation strategies to help utilities transform their traditional "energy efficiency", "demand-side management" and "meter-to-cash" businesses. Prior to starting his consulting career, Graham has worked in a range of utility roles across generation, distribution and retail, including within Policy and Public Affairs, Customer Transformation, and latterly as a direct report to a utility CEO, helping to co-ordinate pan-European activities.

What do you consider your greatest personal or professional achievement?

Working on a team with a strong feedback culture. I love tennis. And in tennis, I can't imagine Roger Federer coming off the court and asking his coach to tell him how great his forehand was. Instead, he asks what he needs to do better to win and win faster in his next game. Feedback, and working in organizations with a strong feedback culture, has been the single biggest factor in shaping who I am as a consultant.

When I was first offered a job in consulting, the partner at the interview told me that "feedback was like a birthday present–you aren't always going to like it, but what you choose to do with it is entirely up to you!" As a newcomer, this piece of advice was hugely refreshing and has really set the tone for my consulting career.

Feedback is something I have been keen to engrain in the culture of my projects and my teams. I find time each week to speak 1:1 with my key client contact, project partner, and workstream leads. Openly and candidly sharing feedback both upward and downward has allowed me to build teams where we all know where we stand and we trust each other. These weekly feedback sessions aren't about the "what" of our project, but rather the "how". How can we be working more efficiently? How can we give or receive more support? How are we developing our most junior consultants?

What have you loved most about your consulting career?

Diversity of team, and in turn, diversity of thought. Outside of work I've always loved traveling–learning about new places, people, and cultures. I was also that "cool kid" from high school on the debate team!

I'm not sure there are many careers where you can work with and for teams and clients that span the globe, coming from such a divergence of personal, academic or extracurricular backgrounds. And where you are consistently forced to challenge your own biases, based on new or different ways of thinking or doing things? I've often thought the best projects I've worked on, for both for me and the client, have brought people from all walks of life together to solve a set of client challenges. Not only does a diverse team more accurately represent the customers our clients serve, but a diverse team can often challenge "how things are done" by offering a perspective from another part of the world.

My clients are almost exclusively in and around the utilities industry. Electricity as a commodity isn't that different if you are in Berlin, Brisbane, or Boston. But when I think of my most recent project, being able to bring real-world experience from Europe, Australia, and the UAE, forced our mid-west US client (and me) to challenge ourselves to think about things differently.

What's the best advice—personal or professional—you've ever received?

Good, better, best. My mum was a math teacher and my dad an English teacher–in theory my genes should be the best of both! My dad had a mantra in the classroom: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest. 'Til your good is better and your better is best." He would tell his pupils that working hard, trying their best, and striving for excellence are all within grasp. There may always be someone that gets higher grades, but when all is said and done, if you can look back and say "I've tried my absolute best" then that is the real metric of success. This is something I have carried into my consulting career. In consulting, I frequently manage teams of serious overachievers! And occasionally projects don't always go perfectly. An assumption may not be right in a large model or a stakeholder might object to the proposed strategy. When these occasional hiccups do happen, it can be hard on teams with individuals who have both high standards and come from a background of academic excellence to accept a mistake has been made. Reminding these colleagues, and often myself, that if our client knows we have done all that we can to help, and we have done everything in our power to find the truth and answer the problem, then there isn't any more we can do. We are all human after all!

What does being honored as a Rising Star mean to you?

I feel really proud, particularly given the last 18 months. The last 18 months have been a test of character for everyone. When the pandemic hit, I had to relocate to the UK as my visa for the US was processed. US embassies around the world closed, and over the last 500 days, I have been working US hours from the UK. In practical terms, this means starting my day at around 1 p.m. local time, and working until 3, 4 or 5 a.m. each and every night. I can't remember my last Friday night, but I can remember seeing the sun rise multiple times in the last couple of months. I don't write this for sympathy, but simply to provide context to what I have done under some of the most challenging of circumstances. I take great pride in knowing that this award recognizes my unwavering commitment to and impact on my clients despite some of the most difficult of circumstances.