No such thing as too many cooks: Driving deliverability in a multi-party utility joint venture 

The provision of utilities – electricity, gas, water – underpins our everyday lives, but the delivery of these services is highly complex. With a growing pipeline of infrastructure projects across Australia, shifting consumption patterns, and strong public and government scrutiny of utilities’ cost and delivery, providers must rethink their operating models, strengthen workforce strategies, and invest in leadership to support delivery of essential services on time, safely and at the required scale.  

A NSW utilities provider, responsible for delivery of a diverse range of infrastructure projects, engaged Nous to review its operating model and identify solutions that would improve project delivery across the KPIs of time, cost, and quality. 

The provider had to navigate a unique set of hurdles, including:

• a joint venture (JV) of multiple delivery partners, each with its own defined role, requiring tight coordination across all stages of project delivery;
• a continually expanding pipeline of infrastructure projects; and
• a previous review of the original contractual arrangements, which put pressure on the JV to improve overall performance.

Ultimately, a step-change in capability was required to improve client confidence in delivery and secure future work. 

Our goal was to provide the joint venture leaders with a set of tangible recommendations to improve performance. The client’s view was that timeliness of delivery needed greatest attention, then cost-effectiveness and quality of delivery performance. Drawing on a tailored and contextualised version of Nous’ Organisational Architecture Framework (NOAF), we identified gaps in key organisational components including structure, coordination and governance, rather than technical capability. Over eight weeks, we worked in close partnership with the executive team to move fast and stay focused on what mattered most. Here’s how we did it: 

1. Diagnosed current and required organisational maturity to identify gaps. We started with a 150+ staff survey, Executive and Board interviews, and on-site focus groups with a mix of delivery representatives and, most importantly, their client. This provided a clear picture of the current state - including strengths, pain points, and delivery challenges around time and budget. Using these insights, we assessed the JV’s current and target maturity across organisational components, highlighting the critical gaps impacting performance. 
2. Pinpointed five ‘priority’ areas that required further attention. Using insights from the diagnostic phase and maturity assessment, we identified five priority areas to investigate further, which were mapped against their client’s key priorities to ensure alignment.  
3. Co-designed recommendations that were anchored on improving time, cost and quality of delivery. For each priority area, we developed 2-3 recommendations, with clear activities, deliverables, owners, and timelines. These were sequenced and presented as implementation one-pagers to make it easy for the JV leaders to see what needed to happen, when, and by whom. 
4. Tested and refined solutions with those impacted, most importantly the client.  
   Every recommendation had a specific call out to show where, and how, it addressed the clients’ key concerns. The recommendations were tested with the Executive, Board and delivery representatives, to ensure they were grounded in operational reality.   
5. Supported the start of a change program and mapped out the journey ahead.  
   A dedicated Change Lead was appointed to coordinate the rollout and manage the broad change process. We developed journeys to summarise individual actions, including desired behaviours across different cohorts, such as the Board, Executives, and Delivery Representatives.     

“Working with multiple delivery partners creates a blend of unique cultures, systems and ways of working,” says Manager Musa Khan. “This naturally has its challenges. Success of a JV ultimately depends on trust and active communication, so everyone is on the same page from day one and throughout the partnership.”

Success in joint ventures depends on much more than contract settings. How clients, contractors, and subcontractors actually work together on a day-to-day basis is just as critical. On this project, we focused on the practical, non-contractual levers that build trust, transparency, and stronger performance, identifying clear opportunities to improve delivery. 

To support timely delivery and minimise disruptions for subcontractors and program outcomes, client approval processes need to be closely aligned with the joint venture’s delivery requirements. Early project planning should strike a careful balance between speed and accuracy, with all parties agreeing on objectives and acknowledging the trade-offs between generating quick estimates and conducting detailed investigations. This approach ensures that project costings remain realistic without sacrificing progress or the quality of outcomes. 

Effective governance across the joint venture is enhanced by establishing the appropriate cadence of program meetings at various levels of the hierarchy, clarifying which forums are responsible for strategy, operations, and delivery. At the same time, it is important to define how informal communication channels operate at each level, so issues can be raised promptly without undermining formal governance processes. Transparent and clear performance reporting is also essential, enabling clients to easily view delivery progress and risks, which supports faster and more informed decision-making. 

We ultimately delivered a set of actions that would position the utilities provider to move towards stronger timeliness, cost-effectiveness and quality of delivery performance. 

Our work articulated the current state of the JV’s delivery performance, clarified and brought to attention both the client and the JV’s concerns surrounding contract and relationship management, and developed eleven tangible recommendations across five priority areas to implement over the next twelve months. 

Priority areas included:  

• Leadership and governance of the joint venture. Ensuring leaders are equipped and supported to build the required capabilities for growing delivery, and ensuring that governance forums drive strategic decision making.  
• Project planning. Embedding an integrated and comprehensive approach to project planning that supports efficient and effective delivery.  
• Resource allocation. Developing processes to ensure people are matched to project delivery based on the complexity, risk and value of the project.  
• Program delivery. Realising quality, time and cost improvements by increasing focus on the delivery pipeline as an integrated program of work rather than separate projects.  
• Process and system improvement. Reviewing and strengthening key internal processes and systems to drive improvement.  

Our recommendations were supported by implementation and change management planning, including setting out the recommendations’ associated activities, deliverables, timing, responsibilities and outcomes. They were endorsed by the JV’s board and are currently being implemented.  

“Large infrastructure projects only succeed when partners move as one team," says Khan. “By cutting through complexity and focusing on how people actually work together, we helped the joint venture shift from coordination challenges to collective ownership.”