Across the U.S., safety and reliability have never been as pressing when it comes to utility infrastructure, from power lines to the wider grid. In fact, an early July report from the Department of Energy warned that blackouts could increase by 100 times by 2030 due to existing generation retirements, delays, and heightened demand across the country.
The rapid expansion of economy-driving industries, such as artificial intelligence (AI), and their subsequent data centers is pushing the utilities sector to modernize. This raises the question: Can innovation and technological advancement coexist with uncompromising safety and reliability?
But while some have assumed a reactive approach to a potential looming energy crisis in the U.S., Think Power Solutions has decided to take a proactive stance in simultaneously prioritizing safety, innovation, and long-term reliability.
The tech-enabled utility infrastructure company welcomed Daniel Helman as its new CEO in late July, taking over its mission to provide safety, inspection, and technology services to companies across the U.S. Headquartered in Texas, Helman now leads a team of 300+ employees and brings more than 35 years of operational experience to Think Power Solutions.
Helman spoke to StartupBeat about his proactive and safety-first leadership approach and how he doesn’t compromise on innovation or growth while embracing these challenges.
What core principles have guided your career, and which ones will you continue to leverage as CEO of Think Power Solutions?
My guiding principle is to work hard and play hard. In every role I’ve held over the past 37 years, I’ve seen firsthand the importance of balancing dedication with personal well-being. I make it a priority to ensure that our employees understand and embrace this balance.
When working in the utility industry, the responsibility is constant, as we must keep the lights and power on 24/7, 365 days a year. That’s what makes work-life balance so important. It’s something we continually communicate, not just from me, but across the executive team. Being fully remote makes this even more crucial: when interacting with employees and clients, you must be fully present and engaged; distractions aren’t an option.
Another core principle is always planning for the future. We live and work in the present, but I also focus on both short-term and long-term strategies, thinking about how we can build sustainably for the years ahead.
When planning for the future as a leader, how do you manage anxieties from your team?
Earlier in my career, in my global and international roles, I know now that we didn’t handle this well. But from those experiences, I learned that communication and transparency are critical.
At ThinkPower Solutions, we connect with our employees on a weekly basis in formal communication sessions, where we openly discuss our growth strategy and any current company developments, including discussions about potential acquisitions.
Communicating with our employees and being open and transparent about what we see happening in the geopolitical environment and the utility industry specifically is key. Keeping our employees informed about factors that may impact our decisions helps them understand the context behind our actions. I believe that transparency provides our employees with comfort and alleviates any anxiety. They’re part of a small company, and by keeping them updated and involved, they can feel that they’re a part of everything we do.
How do you define operational excellence within the utility infrastructure industry?
I’ve spent 35 years working in operations, learning from numerous experiences and excellent mentorship. So for me, operational excellence comes down to organizational discipline.
Organizational discipline, and specifically a strong safety culture, is the foundation of operational success. If you don’t get the foundation right on organizational discipline regarding promises and execution and have a culture where employees feel like they’re on board, that operational excellence will be very cyclical in terms of success.
At ThinkPower Solutions, we go out of our way to ensure we have detailed protocols for all our client work, especially since our clients are major utilities, because human error can have significant consequences. That’s why we have a human performance improvement program in place to ensure that all protocols are adhered to by our employees in the field. Leadership, safety, and management teams maintain regular touchpoints with all employees to monitor adherence at all times.
We also track and score protocol compliance. From an operations standpoint, providing both qualitative and quantitative feedback is crucial for maintaining standards and driving improvement. We oversee large construction projects, so we can’t afford to make errors. Having procedures, the right training, and consistent monitoring in place so that what is planned by the engineering team is precisely what’s executed in the field is essential to maintaining operational excellence across every utility project we tackle.
How do you plan on leveraging current growth momentum for Think Power Solutions?
We plan to grow organically. We recognize that utilities are growing, so we aim to be the preferred vendor. At the same time, we’re also looking to expand our services and capabilities, in addition to our construction oversight work.
We’re looking to broaden this expansion in two ways: building new capabilities internally and pursuing strategic acquisitions. We completed an acquisition 10 months ago and we’re planning a second for this year, all focused on extending our services beyond our core bread-and-butter offerings while maintaining the quality and reliability our clients expect.
What does “organic growth” mean to you?
We want to expand with our existing clients; they’re growing and we want to grow with them. Next, we aim to offer new services and capabilities, which we’re currently developing. This should then also lead us to acquiring new clients.
For example, if we work with five of the largest utilities in the U.S., we also want to work with the next five. We’re looking to gain new business by showcasing our pricing structure and getting in front of new clients.
You’ve also spoken about safety being one of your top priorities. What does safety-first leadership mean to you?
One thing that sets me apart from other operational leaders and CEOs is that I spent the first 35 years of my career in risk management, covering the fields of environment, health, safety, sustainability, and security within operations. I’ve always worked at the CEO or COO level, so I have firsthand experience working with some of the best executives in the field, and I’ve learned what they did right and perhaps didn’t.
Being a safety professional first makes it a natural transition for me to serve as Chief Safety Officer as well. At ThinkPower Solutions, I can communicate safety not just as a priority, but as a value, very naturally, without having to write notes or deliver a prepared speech. This is something that many executives struggle with. They can talk about finances, but many struggle to talk about safety from an authentic perspective.
Each client has its own safety program that we’re obligated to follow, but they vary. To maintain consistency for our employees, we have our own environment, health, safety, and sustainability program, with our requirements generally being more stringent than the clients’. Because of this, we can adhere to one plan instead of juggling different utility safety programs, ensuring reliability and consistency.
Would such a safety-first philosophy set Think Power Solutions apart from competitors moving forward?
It does already. If you look at our track record, we help clients mitigate risk. We’re a very low-risk contractor, which our clients love, as they don’t have to micromanage or oversee us the way they would with others.
Since the company’s founding, we’ve had zero injuries and one minor injury: a tick bite in the field. That remarkable track record isn’t an accident. It reflects our commitment to the right programs, rigorous training, and consistent auditing, and we’re very transparent with our clients about that.
How can other companies foster Think Power’s zero-incident culture?
We’re focused on minimizing potential errors in the field, and we utilize various tools to educate, train, and audit our employees. By taking a proactive approach, we can help minimize or mitigate any potential risks in the field.
For example, we have “stopped work authority.” So, if we see a contractor taking a shortcut or a workaround in the field, we can immediately stop, have a “job pause,” and recalibrate with both the contractor and the client to ensure that when work resumes, it’s back up to standard. On a frequency basis, we execute a “stop work authority” once a month across our entire portfolio of clients, and they’ve really appreciated it because it prevents events or injuries from happening and prevents significant downtime and disruption of electric power.
We also encourage our employees to report on “near misses”; these are incidents where no one is hurt, but lessons can be learned. These are documented and shared internally and with the client.
In addition, we also promote “good catches,” which relates to whether an employee sees something in the field and reports a potential hazard. Unlike other companies, which use what I call a “blame game,” we, on the other hand, incentivize proactive behavior and financially recognize our employees who report “good catches” or “near misses.”
What other metrics do you use to assess both operational performance and safety?
On the safety side, we track traditional environment, health, and safety Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so we can benchmark against other companies. These include our “total recordable injury rate,” which has been zero since our founding. We also track our “dart rate,” which accounts for injuries that require days away from work or restricted work, and we’re at zero there as well. We also track the “experience modification rate,” which quantifies the business cost of workplace injuries over a specified period.
Because we have a large fleet, we also track vehicle accidents. While other drivers have caused 99% of the accidents in our fleet, we can always learn from those incidents.
Leading indicators are also important. We track the number of touchpoints we have in the field. Whether with the executive team, operations team leaders, or our safety team, every interaction is an opportunity to mitigate risk. And finally, we track “good catches,” internal employee training, and safety meetings, as we require 100% attendance at all the training.
On the operational side, each one of our seven or eight business units tracks costs. Each has its own profit and loss statement, allowing every client manager and operations leader to track their expenses, costs, and revenue.
Employee turnover is another crucial operational metric for us. We have a very low turnover rate, which is a testament to our strong company culture, and it’s also a significant cost-saving for us. We monitor this holistically for the company, and also for each client.
Given your eagle-eyed view over operations and safety, how do you encourage the innovative spirit that has also characterized the company?
ThinkPower Solutions has always been an entrepreneurial company; our founder set that tone. We even incentivize employees to contribute to our growth. Whether it’s an employee in the field or one of our operations leaders, if they identify a new business opportunity or acquisition target, they receive a financial reward. Every one of our 300 employees is a salesperson in one way or another, helping us grow organically.
Innovation also comes from how we use technology. For example, we utilize AI for field reporting, which enables us to mark up diagrams for our clients, connect to their databases, and enhance efficiency. The same AI platform also integrates our field hours into our invoicing and billing system, allowing these processes to be completed in real-time.
Staying current with new technology for fieldwork is also key. For instance, AutoCAD tools enable us to work faster and with more precision. We also use aerial drones for inspections on telephone poles and transmission lines. This used to be done on foot and took up to a month. However, we can now complete it in a week with our technology.
Of course, there’s some risk to using new technologies. Using the drone, for example, if a mishap were to occur and the drone came into contact with a power line, that would result in an unacceptable power outage. That’s why we pair innovation with rigorous safety protocols, ensuring that new tools improve our performance without increasing unnecessary risk.
Considering these innovative, safety-first, and operational considerations for your leadership, what are your top priorities in the following year?
Our priorities are two-fold. We aim to grow with our existing customers, both within our current core business and by expanding our services and capabilities, and we also seek to acquire new clients. That’s why we have incentives to help us grow in the next 12 months.
We want to increase both our field service headcount and revenue growth by 50% in the following year. To achieve this, we have three key avenues: organic growth, introducing new service capabilities, and acquiring new clients.
We’re also currently in the process of getting a master service agreement with three new large utilities, and then it’s the acquisitions. We completed an acquisition 10 months ago and are planning another one soon. Ideally, we’ll then complete another one before the end of the year, and all of that will be within my first six months as CEO.
Where is Think Power Solutions going to be in the next five years?
Today, we’re majority-owned by private equity, with our founder as the second-largest shareholder, followed by the executive team, who are also shareholders.
We’ve designed a three-year strategic plan in collaboration with our private equity partner, and we’re aligned on what it will look like. It includes 25% growth in the first year, followed by 25% growth in the subsequent two years.
In the longer term, our strategy is to scale the company to a level where it becomes marketable for acquisition, whether by another private equity firm, a larger company seeking to integrate our services, or an outright sale.