The sea is the same for everyone; what changes is who is at the helm
What a voyage from Menorca to Barcelona has to do with energy governance in your company
There’s something you discover when you sail a boat. I’ve told you before about my experience on the Barcelona–Menorca route.
The wind is the same.
The weather is the same.
The distance doesn’t change.
And neither does the sea.
However, not all boats make the crossing the same way.
Some arrive with efficient fuel consumption, a steady course, and a calm crew.
Others arrive with unnecessary detours, forced manoeuvres, and the feeling of having been reacting the whole time.
The difference isn’t in the sea.
It lies in how the helm was handled and the decisions made along the way.
And that has a lot to do with how companies are managing their energy today.
Energy is not an operational matter. It is a decision about how the ship is steered.
In many executive committees, energy is still treated as just another category: it is delegated, negotiated, signed off on, and filed away.
As long as there are no surprises, no one questions it.
But when you analyse the evolution of the energy market, as reflected in ERA Group’s technical reports, you realise that this is not a stable expense.
We are dealing with a variable that has a direct impact on margins, financial forecasts, and competitiveness.
And when a variable can alter your margin in a matter of months, it ceases to be merely operational.
It becomes a matter of governance.
Because it is not a technical problem.
It’s a strategic decision about how much risk you take on, what criteria you use to buy, and who is accountable when the market gets tense.
Price isn’t everything.
On a voyage, it’s not the most expensive ship that wins, but the one that knows how to read the wind and adjust its sails at the right moment.
Something very similar happens in the energy sector.
The decision isn’t simply to set a price or go with an index.
The decision is how much risk you are willing to take and under what criteria.
Because setting a price without a strategy can be costly.
Indexing without control can be too.
What’s truly dangerous isn’t choosing the wrong model.
It’s not having a defined policy before the market moves.
When you decide without a prior framework, without taking the helm, you’re reacting.
Taking the helm means taking responsibility.
It is the consequence.
Taking the helm in energy means establishing a clear policy before the market moves.
This involves:
- Defining a procurement policy consistent with the company’s risk profile.
- Setting explicit exposure limits.
- Measuring which portion of the cost depends on the market and which on consumption.
- Monitoring deviations with data, not intuition.
- Integrating energy into the financial and sustainability strategy.
No contract can do any of this on its own.
It is the people who run the company who do it.
On a sailboat, you can have the best equipment, but if the captain doesn’t decide on the course, adjustments, and manoeuvres, the boat doesn’t sail—it drifts.
In energy, exactly the same thing happens.
A compass doesn’t sail for you, but without a compass, you sail blind.
In cost optimisation, having a global and detailed view is neither a luxury nor a gala dinner on deck; it is a necessity to have the criteria to choose and take control.
Information is not a decision-making tool.
If you don’t know:
- Which part of your cost depends on the market and which on actual consumption.
- How your consumption curve evolves over time.
- What deviations are accumulating quarter by quarter.
- What impact a sudden price increase would have on your margin.
Then you are not managing energy.
You’re just accepting whatever comes your way.
And accepting whatever comes your way in a volatile market is not neutral.
It means taking on risk without having decided to do so.
Measuring doesn’t eliminate volatility.
But it allows you to anticipate scenarios, adjust your strategy, and prevent the market from dictating your bottom queue without your consent.
The compass doesn’t navigate for you.
When the wind shifts, you can tell who’s in charge.
There are times when the energy market becomes tense.
Prices move quickly. Decisions are made faster. Pressure on margins increases.
At such times, each company’s exposure changes.
Those that have defined their energy policy react with a margin of safety.
Those that haven’t, improvise.
And improvisation, in volatile environments, is rarely neutral.
And improvisation, in volatile environments, is rarely neutral.
It’s not about predicting the market’s next move. It’s about having decided beforehand how you’re going to act when it happens.
Because when the wind changes direction, there’s no time to devise a strategy.
All that’s left is to execute the one you already had.
The question isn’t how much you pay, but who’s at the helm.
If energy represents a significant portion of your cost structure, the conversation should no longer be limited to:
“Did we get a good price?”
It should be something else.
- Do we have a clear energy policy in place?
- Do we know what level of risk we’re taking on?
- Is energy integrated into our financial planning?
- Do we continuously measure exposure and deviations?
- Do we have defined scenarios for sudden market movements?
Because price is a consequence.
The real decision is whether energy is governed or simply negotiated.
And negotiating without a strategic framework means relying on the moment.
To govern is to decide before the market decides for you.
The sea makes no distinction between companies.
The energy market is the same for everyone.
The rules are the same.
Volatility is the same.
The pressures are the same.
What changes is not the environment.
It is the level of preparedness.
There are companies that understand that energy is a strategic variable that impacts margins, forecasting, and market positioning.
And there are companies that continue to treat it as a contract that is signed and then forgotten.
The market does not reward intention.
It rewards structure.
And trusting that the wind will be favourable is not a strategy.
It is hope.
A company cannot build its bottom queue on hope.
It can do so based on judgement, policy, and systems.
And that’s where you see who took the helm… before setting sail.
