Driven By Purpose: John Larsen on the Power of Values-Driven Leadership

Electric Perspectives (EP): What are some of your proudest accomplishments from your decades of service in the electric power industry?

John Larsen (JL): As I look back on my career, I feel a strong sense of pride being part of a company that lives its values and purpose. I was fortunate to have many roles during my career. Each one helped me develop new skills and provided me with opportunities to collaborate with new members of our team.

Our purpose—“serving customers and building stronger communities”—is simple, yet it is very powerful. These six words say so much about the work that we do and the difference that we make. When we live our values and are guided by our purpose, good things happen for our customers, communities, and each other.

As I moved into the role of CEO, I wanted to prioritize my passion for our purpose while charting a course for a sustainable energy future, which we call our Clean Energy Blueprint. It serves as a roadmap that guides our renewable generation strategy, helps to shape our customer-focused investments, creates a healthier environment, and encourages innovation. Our goal is to provide customers with more choice, convenience, and control of their energy future.

I also am proud of our employees and retirees, who are amazing ambassadors for our company and our industry. They live, work, and play in the communities that we proudly serve. It is only through their dedication and passion that we succeed, and their connection to customers is incredible. Simply put, I am proud to say, “I work for Alliant Energy.”

Larsen (second from left) meets with response crews following a derecho that damaged large sections of Alliant Energy's service territory in 2020.

EP: Can you speak to the importance of this customer- and community-first mentality, for Alliant Energy and for the broader industry?

JL: At Alliant Energy, each day starts and ends with the customer in mind. Starting by deeply understanding our customers and their unmet needs, the team at Alliant Energy develops new products and services designed to deliver value to customers. We are focused on powering beyond the challenges of today, thinking about the futures of the communities that we proudly serve.

I am proud of our employees’ dedication, passion, and creative thinking as we shape the future of energy for our customers across Iowa and Wisconsin. Prioritizing customers also is the reason we established our charitable foundation, to support programs in our communities that address hunger and housing inequities, environmental stewardship, workforce development, and community safety and wellbeing services. Creating spaces where people and families can come together and create community through our corporate giving has been a hallmark of our work.

Our industry played an instrumental role during the pandemic in keeping our customers and communities connected with safe, reliable, and resilient energy. When so many elements in the world were uncertain in all our lives, our industry rose to the occasion, just like we do during extreme weather events. We cared for our neighbors and ensured everyone had the energy resources they needed, all while keeping our employees and customers safe.

EP: Alliant Energy has scaled up investments in wind and solar generation and embraced forward-looking emissions-reductions goals as part of its Clean Energy Blueprint. Do you see a connection between the delivery of resilient, clean energy and Alliant Energy’s efforts to prioritize its customers and communities?

JL: The energy sector is quickly becoming an industry driven by customer choice and preference. Building cleaner energy infrastructure, focusing on customer affordability, and investing in a seamless and personalized customer experience are a few of the core strategies our employees are working on each day.

As we developed our approach to diversifying our energy generation resources, we did not want to be driven by policy—instead, we wanted to remain guided by our customers. Putting our customers at the center of our planning enables us to shape policies that make sense for them. We strive to stay ahead and look over the horizon, because I am a firm believer that there is a cost to doing nothing. Sitting idle is not a strategy.

Our Clean Energy Blueprint is helping us diversify our energy generation mix while making smarter investments in our energy grid, including into battery storage systems. Our customers have asked us to keep clean and reliable energy top of mind while balancing the need for affordability, and we’ve heard them. In addition, our investments have delivered sustainable benefits by creating new jobs, providing new sources of local revenues, and fostering economic development.

Being in the Midwest, we are proud to partner with the agriculture community and many farmers across Iowa and Wisconsin. We are working with these groups to bring renewable energy projects to life—delivering economic benefits to our communities while delivering clean energy to our customers.

We know and understand the importance of being good stewards of the land. Serving rural customers for more than 100 years has kept us keenly aware of the need to coexist with our environment. It is one of the many reasons that Alliant Energy is investing in agrivoltaics—the study of crop or livestock production underneath or adjacent to solar panels. We are working with Iowa State University (ISU) and the University of Wisconsin on innovative projects that will advance research in this field.

As an example, one project with ISU near Ames, Iowa, is designed to demonstrate the types of crops that can grow—and thrive—under or near solar panels. This study will examine variables including panel types and mounting heights, and it will give us more information on the connections among energy output, crop production, and impacts on pollinator habitats.

“The energy sector is quickly becoming an industry driven by customer choice and preference.”

EP: You helped lead EEI’s CEO Task Force on Broadband. What role can electric companies play in helping to bring broadband to unserved and underserved communities?

JL: I was honored when Tom Kuhn asked me to lead EEI’s Broadband Task Force. My work on broadband was centered on the second part of our purpose: building stronger communities. I grew up in a small town, and I can recall how important it was to have strong schools, strong community pride, and strong services.

While the internet did not exist in my younger days, the principle of access to services like virtual healthcare, online education opportunities, and innovation with technology is now foundational. It is quite clear that communities need and expect Alliant Energy to help them build stronger communities. Chairing that task force was an easy fit and very enjoyable.

As energy companies with strong connections to our customers and a long history of efficiently constructing essential infrastructure, our industry is well-positioned to help address the middle-mile challenge.

Many companies, including Alliant Energy, have begun investing in technology to enhance connections between electric facilities and devices to make the energy grid smarter, more resilient, and more secure. With proper planning, electric companies can use available capacity on their fiber facility infrastructure—in partnership with last-mile internet service providers and economic development stakeholders—to make internet service more accessible and more affordable, to the communities and customers we serve.

With more than 800 miles of fiber facilities across Wisconsin and Iowa, we have and will continue to partner on mutually beneficial efforts to help connect our communities and customers with reliable and affordable internet and fiber services.

EP: You started your career as an engineer before advancing through the ranks at Alliant Energy and its affiliate companies. Given your background, what perspective can you offer on how our industry can continue to develop the careers of promising young professionals?

JL: When I started my career, I had ideas of the type of work I wanted to do. I wanted to solve problems and design systems that would help people connect to the safe and reliable energy they counted on. Throughout my career, I have found myself at what I like to call intersections.

Each intersection brought a new opportunity that did not always look like I thought it might—whether that was the project assignment, the state the work was in, or the size of the team with which I would be working. But, my openness to change allowed me to walk into each of those opportunities with curiosity to learn new things and to use my abilities to solve problems and grow. This led to new and larger opportunities along the way.

I have learned so much from others—people of all backgrounds and at all different points in their career journeys. Especially in the role I have now as Executive Chair, many people come to me for answers or advice. My job is to listen to the challenges that our teams are facing and help employees find answers. Most of the time, they already know.

My role today is to enable and to unleash the talent in others. As a leader, it is important to remember that you cannot do things alone. You must leverage the power and strength of the team.

EP: Extreme weather events are impacting large swaths of the country with increasing intensity and frequency. During your tenure at Alliant Energy, you helped guide the company through Winter Storm Uri, the 2020 derecho, and other natural disasters. What can you say about Alliant Energy’s and the industry’s need to prioritize reliability and resilience in the face of extreme weather?

JL: One thing I have learned about the uptick in storm activity over the years is that, while the Midwest was not built to withstand hurricane-force winds, its people are built to withstand anything. I was reminded of this after visiting several Iowa communities as the clouds lifted after the 2020 derecho windstorm, the largest storm event in our company’s history. While the devastation was greater than any picture could bring to life, the resilience I saw in our crews and customers was nothing short of remarkable.

We were proud to receive EEI’s Emergency Response Award for working collaboratively with mutual assistance crews to restore electricity following the derecho. Looking back, I am proud and grateful that we conducted this work safely and with the gracious support and patience of our customers.

Similarly, in 2021, after Winter Storm Uri, which brought extreme cold temperatures and record snowfall to parts of our service territory, our amazing employees came together to serve customers. As a result of their efforts—coupled with smart investments we’ve made to ensure reliability and resilience and proactive planning by our energy markets team—we not only weathered the storm, but we continued to supply reliable and affordable energy throughout the storm and shielded our customers from significant rate increases.

These storms, and the increased frequency of them, illustrate why continued, proactive grid investments are needed to provide the reliable and resilient energy that our customers and communities count on.

Our customers have seen the benefits of our forward-thinking investments, including our undergrounding efforts. We have now placed more than 25 percent of our distribution grid underground, with plans to continue this work across our service territory in the coming years. Our communities are counting on us to plan ahead and to keep the lights on and the natural gas flowing, allowing them to focus on what matters most to them when Mother Nature is having a bad day.

“These storms, and the increased frequency of them, illustrate why continued, proactive grid investments are needed...”

EP: Thomas Edison once said, “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” What, or who, have been some of your greatest sources of ideas, inspiration, or creativity throughout your career?

JL: My ideas have typically come from listening to employees and our customers. I have always enjoyed spending time at field locations—interacting with employees and our customers—and hearing how we can improve how we deliver our product and better serve our customers and communities.

As I would reflect on their words, it was clear to me that the foundation of great ideas came from common-sense comments. I felt that our success would be enhanced if our plans were simple to understand and execute. Our employees are so committed to customers. I have always enjoyed spending time with members of our team, and this is something that I will miss dearly in retirement.