Dr. Ali Al Khouri’s Presentation, Dubai, 2014
In the first day of the Strategy Leaders Forum, held at The Address Hotel Dubai Marina, Dr. Ali Al Khouri has provided a presentation about ‘Implementing clear strategic vision and world-class corporate excellence programs to deliver outstanding efficiency, outputs and quality of customer service’. This day of conference was related to strategy selection.
Dr. Ali Al Khouri is the General Director of Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) in the United Arab Emirates. His presentation followed these key points:
- Strategy architecture and its components;
- Communication and human resources development;
- Reasons for strategies failure;
- Change in the organizational culture.
Discussing the differences between public and private organizations, Dr. Ali Al Khouri has characterized the private sector as being adept to change and dynamic, while the public sector as being inert to change and bureaucratic. In terms of the 2007-2010 strategy execution in Emirates ID, he pointed out that the beginning was chaotic, mostly because the strategic objectives were unclear, which determined an imprecise journey for the organization. Their learning experience for the 2010-2013 strategy execution led to a 97% objectives completion rate.
The strategy architecture and components are represented in the image below. It includes the inner circle, the foundation activities, seen as the ones creating a differentiation, and the circle of communication.
Source: Ali Al Khouri, Strategy Leaders Forum, Dubai, 2014.
In terms of human resources development, Dr. Ali Al Khouri recommended giving attention to the following steps:
- PLAN: develop strategies to improve performance;
- DO: take action to improve performance;
- REVIEW: evaluate and improve performance.
In order to transform an organization into a learning medium it is essential to push people to think outside the box and take a double loop approach to situations. At the same time, the culture change entails a context where people don’t pass the blame. The focus should be on leadership and the ability to put puzzle pieces together, as an analogy for long term organizational context.
How to manage changes in a governmental context?
Dr. Ali Al Khouri’s answer is: Changes in a governmental context can be managed with clear results pertaining to employees underperforming, and with a clear and strong vision tied to the national level. The recommendation is to allow open communication and publish data in order to emphasize actual problems.
Source: Ali Al Khouri, Strategy Leaders Forum, Dubai, 2014.
One of the key points of the presentations has focused on the reasons for strategies’ failure. Dr. Ali Al Khouri mentioned 10 reasons for strategy failure: execution, resistance, awareness, poor communication, non-compelling goals, team involvement, many goals, goals clarity, culture and KPIs. Most of the reasons are communication-related, and this aspect is considered to be the main source of failure.
Image source:
- Al Khouri, A. (2014, April). Implementing clear strategic vision and world-class corporate excellence programs to deliver outstanding efficiency, outputs and quality of customer service. Presentation conducted at the Strategy Leaders Forum, Dubai, UAE.
Tags: IIRME, Performance in Dubai, Performance in UAE, Strategy Leaders Forum, The KPI Institute
