Suncoast Business Forum; Sherill Hudson

This. Is a special presentation of W E Do you Tampa St. Petersburg Sarasota. Imagine you've just retired. What would be on your priority list. Perhaps a Golf. Tennis perhaps a bit of travel maybe some community work. And of course spending more time with your family and your grandkids. Oh and did you have on your priority list becoming chairman and CEO of one of Florida's largest public companies. No. Well get ready to meet Cheryl Hudson the teco energy who did just that and is perhaps the busiest ex retiree in Florida. If your idea of fun is managing a public company with 5000 employees

and more than two and a half billion dollars in revenues then you've got a lot in common with Cheryl Hudson chairman and CEO of TECO energy. For the past year he's been leading the company as it emerges from one of the most challenging periods in its 100 year history. Cheryl welcome to the Suncoast business form. Delighted to be here with you Jeff. It's great to have you. Now a little over a year ago you took over as chairman CEO of TECO and it was a challenging period as we said it was a period of transition. How did you perceive the company when you joined. You know I asked. I told our people from day one that acid Tico is a great company with great history and great people. We used to have great financial results and with the team that we had there I felt confident that we could get back in fairly short order to having great financial results and that's been our focus to get back to where we want to be. Now over the past decade or so the whole electric utility industry's been going through a lot of

changes. Diversification deregulation these things all impacted Tico. How did that affect eco And how have the company dealt with this period of transition. Well we like a lot of other companies and utility industry tried her hand at diversification. And just as for most of them it didn't work. It didn't work as well as we would have liked and we have decided we're going back to being what we call Tico classic. And one of the areas we invested in was merchant power and we basically completed our exit from that and and we're well on our way to being the old Tico no merchant power perhaps a number of our viewers don't know what merchant power is. People know Tico as you know Tampa Electric Company the power plant company also known. People's Gas merchant power is what exactly was really were you build a power plant and sell the power only open market. Where is Tampa Electric has a customer base here. We are regulated by the Public Service Commission

and so we have a steady group of people that we sell our power to and merchant power basically in other ways is independent power producers and you build it and you assume in what people assume in a country was moving to deregulation and they thought that was going to happen and of course the debacle in California. The Enron situation and everything. So the deregulation came to a screeching halt and there was an open market sales of power like like the telecommunications business you know the telephone business got deregulated and people kind of thought that that model was was going to happen for the electric industry and certainly as I said with everything it happened it didn't happen so we're back to you know business as we used to be and for the most part around the country is a regulated business and Tampa Electric is just a great business. That in that you know regulated industry. Now in order to. It moved through a period of challenging times like that.

What kind of skills what kind of strategies have to implement to lead a staff of people who are you know 5000 employees within the company. How do you get hold as a leader as a manager of a workforce this fast going through transition and then redirect this large battleship if you will into a new direction. Well you know I had been on the board before I took this job and I had a reasonably good feel for the company and its people. And my you know first and foremost job was to was to really get out and interface with all of our people and I have now visit all locations and and visited with almost all of our people in small groups and to tell them the message that you know that I said earlier about what a terrific company we were and that we were going to get back to that to the fundamental basic business that we've been in for in case a stamp collector you know for almost a hundred years so it's it's really not anything new it's just getting back to the basics and making

sure that each of our people each day do the best that they can and when you take the collective input of 5000 people doing that we've had some pretty positive results I am very proud of our people and what we've accomplished in this last year. And the markets capital markets have seen that and appreciate it as well. Now prior to coming to Tico you were actually semi-retired am I right. Well for about 18 months I was I was doing a little consulting and I was on the board of directors of a few companies but I was having a good bit of time with my family and on the golf course and reading and so forth. I thought I had kind of the ideal life at that point in time. And has it gotten better. Well from a professional standpoint I've told our people this was the most satisfying year of my life and it's to join a company like Tico and to be part of a of a story of you know getting back to the fundamental

companies and by the way we do have five very successful companies I know and in Tampa people think of us as it is Tampa Electric but we have people's gas which is statewide we have Pico coal. We have to transport and we have to go Guatemala five very very great businesses. Now after you retired you joined Tico. And which is you're doing now but prior to your retirement which I guess you weren't so successful at remaining retired. You actually had a very long and successful career with the Lloyd and Touche which is one of the leading public accounting firms in ited States and you you had a long career in Miami and before that you were in Dayton Ohio. What were some of the lessons you learned and what were some of the the pass that you took to becoming a successful manager within the late into. Well you know I had a personal philosophy is it has to be the best you can be. And I I really started that early in my career and I felt that

I've had really been blessed with a lot of opportunities. Fairly early on in Dayton I became partner and had an opportunity to grow that and be a part of growing that office. And then came to Miami at a very good time and watched it with participated in significant growth through that practice also. But I've always been a student of people and a student of other companies and and what those companies have done to be successful. And one of the things the great things about public accounting is over my 37 year career I work with literally hundreds of companies and some of the biggest and best companies in the business world and so in each one of those situations I tried to observe what worked and also what didn't work and kind of build a business philosophy. And they say the key to a business philosophy is really a tremendous focus on people. Achieving with a sense of urgency you know knowing what you want to do and really focus on getting it done and then making

sure as a leader that you do everything humanly possible to make your people successful. Because I believe that people that are in it have a positive attitude and feel good about themselves. They're the most productive people in the world and that's what makes a great organization is wonderful people doing their best every day. Is it hard to instill that in a situation where you don't find it is that there's a long lead time and perhaps turning a culture. You know I think people and as I would say this especially the teco people have been tremendously responsive to the things that we wanted to get done. They've been on board right from day one they've been they've been very excited. And they have worked extremely hard and one of the things that I got a first hand demonstration of that last year is we fought through three hurricanes in a period of seven weeks our people literally work seven days a week. Many of them you know. 10 12 14 hours a day and some even longer. So I really got to

demonstrate first hand what this company is made of and and I have one. I knew this when I knew they can handle these hurricanes the way they did. I knew that any of the financial challenges we could would would be secondary to that. And hurricanes came within the first month or two of your taking over as CEO. One of my good friends colleagues said Why what did you do. We said you know we we don't think any CEO has ever faced three hurricanes in their in their first few months and I said well I don't know what I did but I said I will get through it and and I'm really proud of what our people did. Let's go back to your career at the Lloyd. You're responsible for a very large region your territory was not just a public accounting office. You had a pretty sizable region am I right. When I came to to Florida and in Miami I had Florida in Puerto Rico and for a number of years I was kind of the liaison partner for our practice and South America. And so I had some exposure to you know not only just Florida but some international flavor to it but I was it was a

challenge but it was us as I said before it was it was really interesting work just working with different companies and different people all the time that it's just a lot of fun. Well I imagine a lot of people have an image of public accounting is not very glamorous or very exciting but the way you're describing it it certainly is because of the exposure that you have. Yeah I think. You know I think any career a lot of it is is how what kind of attitude you bring to it. If you feel good about it and you're committed to making it good it kind of things work out that way if you're negative it's going to be there's going to be negative but I think that public accounting is we think of it now after a lot of the financial debacle that happened I think in the business community and public accounting all had somewhat of a of a little bit of a tarnish involved. But I think this is it. It is a profession it's vitally important to the financial markets because investors invest in companies they expect the financial statements to be right and they're fact they expect the

CPA firms to to do their job and when they when they give their opinion on the financial statements they expect them to be reasonably correct and and so it's a it's a profession it provides a vital role and it also as I said it gets you exposure to just literally the top executives across a whole broad section of companies and. And there's nothing better than that learning experience in my and my experience. What are some of the things that you think you picked up from. If you think back upon some of the clients that you served and they were for dozens or hundreds of companies and and top CEOs you're dealing with you know there are some that really stand out as having given you a sort of inspiration or you know lessons that you take away that that you're applying today. When I think back of my involvement with the with Florida Power unlike where I was advisory partner there for 1000 years and I saw really how well that company was managed and and led. I

learned there there was a company law NAR one of the biggest home builders in Miami there was a guy named Leonard Miller who just had an incredible amount of ability and drive in and just a commitment to get things done. Very hard worker so I could go on and on I learned a number of things one is I think good that there's no substitute for hard work. I know a number of the best and brightest CEOs today shared with me the fact that first and foremost a little bit like the Edison quote Edison said the harder I work the luckier I get. And so I believe in hard work and I also saw that the companies that were quite frankly the most successful really had an ironclad commitment to people. They lived it every day they didn't just talk it in a CEO. You know people do what they see you do and so you have to if you're going to be you know the committed to people you have to live that every single day. So I saw that commitment in the companies I saw that were most successful. They had a game plan and they had a sense of urgency

about getting things done. And so I learned that fairly early because it's easy to talk about things and it's easy to put it put them off but you're to be really goal oriented. And that's why NG's I think is vitally important. To be successful you need to have goals they need to be in writing. You need to monitor those and you need to when you need to be. You need to set them high. And what I've said if you set high goals even if you fall a little short you're going to be way ahead of where you would have been otherwise some very much in the goal setting and and is a key factor in the success of a company. Not all the companies you observed you probably saw some some pretty big mistakes and or failures were companies trying to do all these things stub their toes made some big perhaps very expensive errors. How about mistakes or failure as a learning tool. I think that and looking at companies over my career Deloitte I think the ones that were sent out is where they got into business is that they didn't know anything about

and so I am very much a believer and used to do the things that you really do well. One of the things I believe in if you if you do that and really focus on operational excellence excellence you're going to get really good solid results assuming you have the right people in the right spot. Let's talk about before you joined the lawyer you were just out of college actually Right right. You got a degree in accounting and you join Deloitte. What made you choose accounting in the first place how old were you were you just getting out of college and you know in Ohio and that you were married Am I right. Yes right. Got married in college met married my high school sweetheart and we've had a wonderful 40 plus years together but you know my choice of public accounting as a profession goes back my uncles in Mississippi were in the used car business and they had a CPA that came in once a week and and did their they would call it did their books and prepared their tax returns and. And I think he

charged me that time $35 a week and they thought this was back in in the late 50s I thought this was just the greatest business in the world I said you've got to be a CPA you've got to be a CPA. And so I had that kind of drilled in me so I when I went to Ashland university from day one I said. Signed up and committed to major and in business with accounting it being my field of study. And so I've started and it's it's it's been what I've really loved and enjoyed and I'm very happy with my choice of fashion. Now let's talk about about your life up to before college you went to Ashland University in Ohio. You also graduated high school in Ohio but you really spent most your time growing up in Mississippi I spent the first 17 years and and you know I'm very proud of my of my background I was. My dad was curable or two.

And so I was raised by my mother and my grandparents and. How old were you at that time. Seventeen months when my dad was killed. And but they were farmers which are crops and sharecroppers and so I learned thinking oh this is what you learn learn firsthand from from the time I was knee high almost to the value of hard work and I had great admiration for my grandfather who was was a farmer but he was a he really was a good role model for me. My grandmother and mother. One of the things they shared a lot of love on me. So I never felt deprived of anything. I would have obviously loved to have had had a father but I did. I was really blessed by having a loving family relationship and I think that is is really my mother always had a big belief in me as she always talked about that I was the first member of our family to ever go to college. But she talked I remember as a little boy talking to me about that son you're going to go to college. And it was just so I just went on

and and against bats West one of the things I think she had high expectations for me and I tried my whole life to live up to those. And that's why I believe in dealing with people set high expectations and believe in them. And I think you'll be amazed at how well they respond. Now you were valedictorian of your high school class you were valedictorian of your college class. You were married in college and had how many kids while you still in college to Dubois while still in college. Yes you were able to become valedictorian of your class. You went out and joined Deloitte and Touche and you became a managing partner by the age of 33. You seem kind of driven. Some people might say an overachiever. And again I think it goes back to you know having high expectations from my mother from from day one and and the this philosophy of being the best you can be. And I've never tried to compare myself to others I've said I've said you'd be the best you can be and let the

results speak for themselves and you know we. Speaking of being married because you have three boys Richard Michael and Robert I sure you we have no sure old juniors in the family. Growing up I want to questions I get from time to time house as it do grew up with a name like Cheryl I said you need to have broad shoulders to have that name. Well how did you get the name. Well it was my my mother's brother was in the Navy and his best friend was had it had the name Cheryl and then he wrote her a letter from the Navy and said here's a great name and my mother loved this brother. And so I think she did it to please him so. But I it's a it's a good conversation starter having a name like this it breaks the ice and situations where that otherwise can sometimes be tense. Well I imagine and correct me if I'm wrong as a young kid it's tough very very tough name to have. And you probably wish you had a different name at different points in your life

when you were young. But I I would think that as you get older you develop a different perspective. Yeah you know I think you've summed it up pretty well. I am very happy to have the name now. I say one thing people. It it's pretty easy for people to remember that name and that. So there is some advantages to it. But I as I said we don't we don't have if you're old you're in a family because I had that it was enough challenges I wanted everybody else to avoid that. Now you are active in the community in terms of community organizations in which you volunteer during your but you've only been in the Tampa Bay area a short period of time and still you're active during your career in Miami you are very very active played a leadership role. Chamber of Commerce. A lot of community organizations Florida International University not just board member but leadership on a board level. What drives you to to do this to get so involved and in community. I've always had a personal philosophy that that those that give the most get the most

and then really the right tied in with that is I believe that as a leader in a community you have an obligation to give back to the community to make the community to make the community good. And if the key leaders in the community do not focus on giving back to that community and working very hard to make it caring concern community who else is going to do it so. And I think that I've always tried in that area to do the best I can do again and to be a role model which when you do that it it I think it spreads through your organization it go white we had a lot of people involved. We have a tremendous number of people involved in this community. So you know you can expect your people to do it. If you don't do it yourself so that. But I've had so much enjoyment I met some of the most wonderful people in the world from all walks of life. And you know my. You just think you know the very things United Way goodwill Chamber of Commerce just just a

broad spectrum of of organizations and so I've just been amazed at the good that is done from organizations that really care and reach out to the to the less fortunate. How do you see now. Being here for you how do you see the Tampa community evolving from that standpoint terms of community involvement compared to say your years in Miami. Or shall I tell you I love being in Tampa. I think this is a wonderful community. It's a very cohesive business community. And I've been pleased with the organization. I think that the business community works well together that the public officials work well together I think there's a there's a commitment that Tampa can be it's achieved a lot there's a lot to be proud of. But I think everybody feels that you know the best is yet to come and I think I'm very pleased with what's going on it with his farmers community organizations and a commitment to do more. Do you think the corporate leadership in the community is rising to the occasion. Well certainly we hope we are Tico. I am certainly committed to that

and I think our people are and and from every indication I say the people I meet you know the community leaders I meet they seem to be very committed also. Let's talk about your relationship with your wife. She has been with you since college. My high school sweetheart. Yeah. What's her name and talk about the dynamic of your relationship and how that has played a role in your success. Her name is Marianne and she is a beautiful blonde. And you know we fell in love with her almost from day one. At the time I did she was was going with another guy but I kept asking her one of my beliefs is you you take you know don't give up on when you see something you want to achieve and so fortunately she did say yes and we started dating and then the rest is history. She has a heart to go. She's very involved in our church she's involved in community and she's one of the most giving people that I've ever met in

my life and so she's been very much of an extra inspiration to me. She encouraged me to take this job talking about coming out of retirement she said. But when I ask retired things are going well I won't do this unless you're that you think it's something and she talked it through and she said look if this is what you want to do I really think that you should chase your dream. And so she's been tremendously supportive and in our transition it's can't tell you how helpful that's banned. But she has a true helpmate to me in every way. In the minute and a half or so that we have left if you would a summary summarize a couple of key points that you think are vital to be successful in business and also to be successful in your personal life. How do you sum it up. While I would say first of all walk the talk be what you say you are. Be the best you can be.

Be concerned about others that talked about a leader. Work real hard to help those around you be successful. Be be goal oriented Be positive be enthusiastic and you know I work hard and in my final thing I love the quote by Abraham Lincoln said things may come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle. And that's kind of the sum of my life I've every day try to do the best I can. Well Cheryl it's been a pleasure spending this time with you and I thank you for being here. And I thank you for joining us for the Suncoast business for us.