By Andrew Price, President & CEO
At the start of each year, it is important to take a moment to reflect on the past, celebrate accomplishments, evaluate setbacks and set goals for the new year. Senior leadership at Competitive Energy Services has a tradition of sharing year end reflections through a year-end letter. The following is an excerpt from our December 2024 letter to colleagues at CES.
Several events made 2024 particularly notable for Competitive Energy Services.
It was our 25th year in business. Only 10-15% of businesses survive as long as CES has. Of course we are not just surviving; CES is thriving and has strong momentum and new prospects for positive growth heading into 2025.
Why has CES outlasted more than 85% of companies?
Much of the credit goes to our steadfast adherence to our three pillars: independence, market expertise, and our focus on being a long-term trusted partner to our clients. Our company values continue to resonate with clients and make us uniquely qualified to fulfill our company mission of enabling clients to achieve their energy and sustainability goals.
Our values, of course, are just an extension of the employees at CES. Your collective talent, integrity, curiosity and hard work is what makes CES so unique and successful. We have found ways to improve each year, even as we expand into new states, offer new services and onboard additional clients. We ended 2024 with 42 full-time employees and 4 close collaborators. We are big enough to work with multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies, but still small enough to work with local school departments. CES is greater than the sum of our individual parts and we could not be more optimistic about our capacity to continue identifying opportunities and delivering results for our clients in the future.
Another milestone in 2024 was the completion of our first full year after Richard Silkman’s retirement on December 31, 2023. [Note to reader: Richard Silkman was a CES founder and long-time CEO]. After leading the company for 24 years, it was hard to imagine not having Rich available to tackle complex challenges faced by our diverse client base. Working together, however, we met each challenge and did not miss a beat last year. We are grateful for Rich’s continued guidance and expertise as co-chair of our Board of Directors in 2024 and in the years ahead.
From our origins advising ~100 large electricity consumers in Maine 25 years ago, CES has grown to serving about 800 clients located in 29 states from California to Atlantic Canada. Our work has expanded far beyond strategic electricity procurement; today we are truly a full-service energy consultant offering a comprehensive suite of energy and sustainability advisory services. Today, our client map covers well over half of the United States.
2025: Looking Forward
We will continue to thrive in 2025 and beyond if we do what we have always done:
· Focus on our pillars. The CES Pillars of Independence, Expertise and long-term Trusted relationships with clients have been integral to our identity from the day the company was founded.
· Have confidence that we can do big things. We must continue to think proactively and act boldly when opportunities arise for our clients. Some initiatives will fail - and that is ok - if we learn from those failures and move on quickly.
· Continue to cultivate a collaborative academic culture at CES. We are at our best when we are constantly being challenged and encouraged by smart, interested colleagues who feel empowered to contribute and work well together as a team.
· Stay curious. At CES we should always be asking Why? How? Are you sure? These questions may not be required to complete the immediate task at hand, but they transform “work” from being a job into being a profession and create the expertise that really sets CES apart.
The opportunities in front of us are significant and we are very confident that CES will continue to think boldly and creatively about how to create value for our clients in 2025 and beyond.
We are very excited about the year ahead and we look forward to working with each of you in 2025.
Best wishes to you and yours in the year ahead.
Sincerely,
Andrew Price, President & CEO
Matt Gamache, Chief Operating Officer
Eben Perkins, Chief Strategy Officer
Photo by Mirzamlk