Vision and Strategy

At CenterPoint Energy, our vision is "To be recognized as America's leading energy delivery company ... and more." To us this means more than just doing business, it means being guided by a set of core values that define who we are and what we believe. At CenterPoint Energy, we're committed to doing business every day with integrity, accountability, initiative and respect - respect for our customers, shareholders, employees and the communities we serve.

Our vision explained ...

Since the launch of CenterPoint Energy as a stand-alone company in 2002, our corporate vision has remained constant: To be recognized as America's leading energy delivery company ... and more

We are:

focused on domestic energy delivery businesses in the continental U.S. market:
- regulated energy delivery
  - electric transmission and distribution
  - local natural gas distribution
  - interstate natural gas pipelines
- natural gas field service (gas gathering)

"... America's Leading Energy Delivery Company ..."

pursuing carefully targeted growth opportunities including value-added mergers and acquisitions

pursuing complementary businesses that leverage our core businesses and business skills
- competitive natural gas sales and services (CES)

"... and More"

Our strategy is...

Just as our vision has remained constant, so too has our company strategy, which can be summaried as "One Company, Get it Right, Grow."

One Company	Create a single, high-performance culture Refine business model and remove barriers between business units Leverage scale and synergies Share common systems and processes Continue to build name recognition and a single brand identity
Get it Right	Achieve top quartile service reliability, customer satisfaction, operating and cost performance Embrace continuous productivity and process improvements Maintain constructive, responsive and credible relationships with elected officials, regulators and community leaders Use a disciplined approach to defining, evaluating and pursuing investments to create shareholder value
Grow	Maintain focus on domestic energy delivery Enhance and expand existing core businesses Build and expand complementary and synergistic businesses Acquire additional energy delivery assets

To build a domestic energy company with a balanced portfolio of electric and natural gas businesses, we seek to:

Pursue geographic, economic and regulatory diversity
Capture robust organic growth in our electric and natural gas footprint and seek opportunities to acquire other regulated electric and natural gas businesses
Take advantage of our strategically located interstate pipeline assets and their access to active natural gas supply basins and attractive end use markets
Invest in gas gathering and processing assets in attractive gas producing areas
Expand our competitive natural gas sales and services to select commercial, industrial and utility customers
Remain committed to our original investment thesis of producing predictable and growing earnings and cash flow with a competitive dividend