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How to strengthen existing capabilities?
​By Mansour Baker, SHRM-CP
Posted: 29 May 2020     |     Revised: 15 March 2021
​Each area addresses the activities necessary to realize the desired future state.
  1. Organization has uniform standard of excellence and is employer of choice
  2. Comprehensive operational planning processes ensure successful department-level strategy implementation
  3. Organization-wide collaboration informs strategic decisions and mitigates risks
  4. Advanced vendor management tools and processes enable effective oversight and quality control for all outsourced activities
  5. Technology is leveraged to enhance services
Exhibit 1
The 5 series to strengthen existing capabilities
The 5 series to strengthen existing capabilities
​​​​​1 How to enhance company’s culture of excellence?
To develop a strategy and follow-on implementation plan for identifying and building desired capabilities that differentiate the company as the leading of its kind.
Objectives
  • To develop a uniform standard of excellence across company departments and differentiate as a leading institution.
  • To position the company as an employer for choice.
Near Term (1-6 months) Initiatives
  • Convene a cross cutting working group to identify desired attributes of company’s Culture of Excellence.
  • Leverage results of best-practice study tour to identify best in class attributes of similar organizations. 
  • Develop a Culture of Excellence strategy and implementation plan with identified initiatives related to business core activities.
Medium Term (6-12 months) Initiatives
  • Implement initiatives 
  • Create an incentives program to encourage innovative thinking among company’s staff.
Exhibit 2
Uniform standard of culture of excellence
How to enhance company’s culture of excellence?
Key Activities
  • Plan and carry out cross cutting workshops to identify desired attributes of company’s Culture of Excellence to encourage creative and innovative thinking and practices.
  • Incorporate feedback from international study focused on organizational structure best practices.
  • Identify desired attributes of company’s Culture of Excellence.
  • Develop Culture of Excellence strategy.
  • Develop implementation plan for identifying Culture of Excellence initiatives to be implemented in 7- 2 months.
Key Deliverables
  1. Working groups
  2. Conduct baseline study
  3. Identification of desired Culture of Excellence attributes
  4. Draft Culture of Excellence Strategy
  5. Finalized Culture of Excellence Strategy
  6. Implementation plan for initiatives
1. Working groups
  • Advance preparation and conducting of working groups to identify desired attributes of company’s Culture of Excellence
  • Summary report of working group findings
2. Conduct baseline study
  • Identification of relevant international best practice institutions 
  • Benchmarking exercise with focus on business core practices
  • Summary report of benchmarking finding
3. Identification of desired Culture of Excellence attributes
  • Summary report outlining desired attributes of company’s Culture of Excellence based on working group and benchmarking exercises
4. Draft Culture of Excellence Strategy
  • Draft key findings from working groups, benchmarking exercise, interviews, and data gathering efforts 
  • Finalize company future state for Culture of Excellence
  • Draft strategy with identification of prioritized implementation initiatives
5. Finalized Culture of Excellence Strategy
  • Finalized strategy report
6. Implementation plan for initiatives
  • Focused implementation plan that breaks each priority area into tasks, timelines, deliverables, resource requirements, and accountabilities
​​​​​2  How to strengthen planning and performance management?
​Establish comprehensive annual operational and strategic planning processes for company and all its departments. 
Near Term (1-6 months) Initiatives
  • Establish comprehensive annual operational and strategic planning processes, including performance management and budget formulation.
  • Develop and implement annual strategic and operational planning calendar.
  • Develop updated operational planning template for all departments.
  • Conduct operational planning workshops with department heads and key staff to facilitate development of operational action plans aligned to company strategy.
Medium Term (6-12 months) Initiatives
  • Develop and implement operational plans for all departments, aligning to company strategy.
  • Create KPIs for all operational plans, collect data and report performance on a quarterly basis.
  • Develop a performance management system that monitors company performance progress.
Exhibit 3
Comprehensive operational planning processes to ensure successful department-level strategy implementation.
How to strengthen planning and performance management?
Objectives
  • Ensure successful implementation of company’s strategy at the department level.
  • Align organization priorities and goals with metrics to monitor and track success across core functions and processes.
  • Enhance company’s ability to report on and manage performance.
Key Activities
  • Review baseline analysis for strategic and operational planning processes.
  • Facilitate workshop to brainstorm ways to align strategic goals and supporting operational action plans.
  • Develop draft annual comprehensive strategic and operational planning processes (to include alignment to budget and performance management processes).
  • Develop and finalize operational planning templates.
  • Plan and carry out operational planning workshops to facilitate development of operational plans for all company departments.
Key Deliverables
  1. Comprehensive annual strategic planning process
  2. Comprehensive annual operational planning process 
  3. Annual strategic and operational planning calendar 
  4. Updated operational planning templates
  5. Operational planning workshops
1. Comprehensive annual strategic planning process
  • Baseline of existing strategic planning process
  • Workshop to identify revised process and mechanisms to fully align process to operational planning cycle 
  • Revised annual strategic planning process
2. Comprehensive annual operational planning process 
  • Baseline of existing operational planning process
  • Workshop to identify revised process and mechanisms to fully align process to strategic planning cycle 
  • Revised annual operational planning process
3. Annual strategic and operational planning calendar 
  • Revised annual strategic and operational planning calendar that is fully aligned to the relevant standards of budgeting and reporting requirements
4. Updated operational planning templates
  • Standardized templates for developing department level operational plans
5. Operational planning workshops
  • Planning and convening of workshops to train staff on new process and templates and initiate planning within all company departments for annual operational plans
​​​​​3  How to institutionalize accountability and transparency?
Develop and convene collaborative forums to discuss and draft recommended new policies and processes within critical cross-functional areas.
Near Term (1-6 months) Initiatives
  • Identify company cross-functional activities that benefit from review and discussion in collaborative forums
  • Develop operating guidelines, including forum rules, procedures, membership, meeting frequency, etc.  
  • Pilot delegation of authority forum 
  • Roll out other forums (e.g. policies and procedures, budget processes, risk management) 
  • Undertake program evaluation assessment for forum effectiveness  
Medium Term (6-12 months) Initiatives
  • Train company staff on modified or new processes (e.g. new delegations of authority, budget formulation, etc.)
Exhibit 4
Organization-wide collaboration informs strategic decisions and mitigates risks
Institutionalize Accountability & Transparency
Objectives
  • To inform strategic decision making through the development of new or streamlined policies and processes in key areas 
  • To enhance collaboration and information sharing across the organization
Key Activities
  • Convene working group to identify cross-functional activities that require dedicated forums for discussion and development of new recommended procedures and processes
  • Develop operating guidelines for all company forums, including forum rules and procedures, membership requirements, meeting frequencies, etc.
  • Identify membership and forum scope of activities for pilot delegation of authority forum 
  • Convene delegation of authority forum 
  • Facilitate forum’s development of recommended redraft of company delegation of authority matrix
  • Roll out other company forums as appropriate 
  • Undertake program evaluation to assess forum effectiveness and mechanisms for improving their performance
Key Deliverables
  1. Workshop to identify forums 
  2. List of company forums 
  3. Operating guidelines for forums
  4. Set up of delegation of authority forum
  5. Revised delegation of authority matrix
  6. Roll out of other forums 
  7. Program evaluation assessment
1. Workshop to identify forums
  • Advance preparation and conducting of working groups to identify desired company forums 
  • Summary report of working group recommendations
2. List of company (chosen) forums 
  • List of issues requiring dedicated forums within next year
3. Operating guidelines for forums
  • Operating guidelines for all company forums, including forum rules and procedures, membership requirements, meeting frequencies, etc.
​4. Set up of delegation of authority forum
  • Identification of forum members
  • Preparation of forum guidelines and scope of activities
  • Convening of delegation of authority forum
5. Revised delegation of authority matrix
  • Forum review of revised delegation of authority matrix
  • Draft revisions to matrix
  • Finalized delegation of authority matrix
​6. Roll out of other forums 
  • Identification of forum members
  • Preparation of forum guidelines and scope of activities
  • Initial convening of forums
7. Program evaluation assessment
  • Interviews with forum members
  • Assessment of forum format and outcomes
  • Summary report with identified improvement opportunities
​​​​​4  How to enhance procurement and supply chain management capabilities?
​Refine procurement and sourcing strategies to coordinate and manage all company supply chain management functions based on an assessment of company’s procurement and material management capabilities and needs.
Near Term (1-6 months) Initiatives
  • Evaluate current procurement and material management activities and balance of centralized versus satellite procurement capabilities and structure.
  • Develop a supply chain management strategy to address warehousing, distribution, supplier partnerships, and IT infrastructure needs.
Medium Term (6-12 months) Initiatives
  • Set performance indicators and service level agreements (SLAs) to track performance and serve as a basis for issue identification and escalation.
  • Benchmark supply chain performance for specific high-impact categories.
Exhibit 5
​Advanced vendor management tools and processes enable effective oversight and quality control for all outsourced activities.
How to enhance procurement and supply chain management capabilities?
Objectives
  • Advanced supply chain management fully meets company diverse procurement, storage, and distribution needs.
  • Coordination and standardization of procurement and material management activities remove duplication of procurement efforts and create economies of scale.
Key Activities
  • ​Collect and inventory existing documentation related to procurement, material management, and applicable laws and regulations governing these functions
  • Evaluate documentation to identify gaps and/or redundancies
  • Develop recommendations on how to address gaps and/or redundancies 
  • Develop supply chain management strategy aligned to company strategy 
  • Align work plans/processes for individual functions (procurement, warehousing, distribution)
  • Draft initial high-level sourcing strategy
  • Assess capability of IT functions to support restructured supply chain functions
Key Deliverables
  1. Inventory of all procurement and material management activities 
  2. Evaluate existing documentation 
  3. Recommendations to address gaps
  4. Supply chain management strategy
  5. Aligned processes 
  6. High-level sourcing strategy
  7. IT functional assessment
1. Inventory of all procurement and material management activities 
  • Collection and inventory existing documentation and processes related to procurement, material management
  • Assessment of relevant legal and regulatory requirements
2. Evaluate existing documentation 
  • Report assessment existing documentation to identify gaps and redundancies
3. Recommendations to address gaps
  • Recommendations on best approach to close identified gaps
4. Supply chain management strategy
  • Summary of gap analysis and recommendations
  • Development of strategy for managing company’s procurement and material management needs
  • Identification of high-level requirements and action steps
5. Aligned processes 
  • Alignment of company procurement and material management processes to company supply chain management strategy
6. High-level sourcing strategy
  • Assessment of sourcing options based on outcomes of strategy development 
  • Development of strategy to guide sourcing decisions for procurement and material management
7. IT functional assessment
  • Assessment of company IT capabilities against functional requirements emerging from company supply chain management strategy
​​​​​5  How to use technology as an enabler?
Restructuring company’s IT organization and developing an IT strategy, road-map, and documentation of baseline business requirements to fully align company’s use of technology to its strategic and organizational business needs.
Near Term (1-6 months) Initiatives
  • Review current structure of company IT organization to ensure appropriate provision of strategic and operational oversight of technology initiatives.
  • Develop company IT strategy to support business strategies.
  • Identify and prioritize key business initiatives and align to IT initiatives.
  • Develop technology road-map that specifically addresses broad technologies and integration elements across company.
Medium Term (6-12 months) Initiatives
  • Analyze and document current business requirements and processes for key initiatives.
  • Document leading and emerging technologies relevant to company sector, in accordance with international best practices (e.g., interactive technologies, Web 2.0).
  • Create cross-functional planning and oversight teams for critical IT projects (e.g., SAP / Oracle roll-out).
  • Implement projects in line with technology road-map.
  • Conduct regular IT assessments:
    • Adequacy of current technology against requirements 
    • Projection of future needs
Exhibit 6
​Technology is leveraged to enhance services
How to use technology as an enabler?
Objectives
  • Enhance company technology capabilities to drive success in its overall mission 
  • Identify and prioritize all IT initiatives that align to key business initiatives and drivers
Key Activities
  • Assessment of IT operational and strategic role in the organization 
  • Redesign of company IT restructure 
  • Recruitment of key IT staff 
  • Development of draft IT strategy
  • Identification, development, and prioritization of key IT initiatives 
  • Development of IT road-map based on key IT initiatives
Key Deliverables
  1. Assess IT role
  2. Design IT organization
  3. Recruit key IT staff 
  4. Draft IT Strategy Document
  5. Identification and Prioritization of all key IT initiatives
  6. IT Road-map
1. Assess IT role
  • Review and identify IT strategic role within the company
  • Analyze role of outsourcing and implementations for IT structure and operations
2. Design IT organization
  • Design leadership staff structure 
  • Develop job descriptions for key staff positions
  • Review and agree draft structure with company leadership
3. Recruit key IT staff 
  • Identify and facilitate engagement with executive search and selection firms
  • Facilitate identification and vetting of candidates
  • Facilitate successful and timely on-boarding of selected candidates
4. Draft IT Strategy Document
  • Document that identifies company’s technology strategy to support the overall business needs of the organization. 
  • Draft strategy will be revised at the end of the initial 6-month period to assess if IT and business goals are in alignment
5. Identification and Prioritization of all key IT initiatives
  • Identification and prioritization of all IT initiatives based on business needs to support the organization
6. IT Road-map
  • Development of IT road-map based on prioritization of IT initiatives
  • Road-map identifies the sequence of initiatives to be implemented


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