Chief Strategy Officers Forum, Dubai, 2014

Written by Raluca Vintilă on April 29, 2014. Posted in News, Strategy

14th of April, the first day of the Strategy Leaders Forum held at The Address Hotel Dubai Marina, included a roundtable about ‘Keeping Pace – The changing role of Chief Strategy Officers in the Middle East’.

The Chief Strategy Officers roundtable had 6 participants:

1. Adri Pols, Vice President Strategy, TAQA – Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, UAE;
2. Dr. Sami Alom, Chief Strategy Officer, Al Noor Hospitals Group, UAE;
3. Mansoor AlKhater, Chief Strategy Officer, Ooredoo, Qatar;
4. Ahmed Abdulsalam Kazim, Senior Director of Strategy and Corporate Excellence Department, Dubai Customs, UAE;
5. Omar Mehanna, Chief Strategy Officer, The Saudi British Bank (SABB), KSA;
6. Mohammad Absi-Halabi, Strategic Development Advisor, The Executive Council – Government of Dubai, UAE.

The discussion was about both the public and private sector, with focus on:

• the actual role of the CSO;
• key success factors in strategy implementation;
• best practices in the activity of chief strategy officers.

Nowadays, the role of the organizational strategy is expanding and, at the junction between internal and external interest, it is important to also be a ‘doer’, not merely a ‘thinker’.

Regarding key success factors in strategy implementation, Mohammad Absi-Halabi highlighted the value of studying and understanding the actual position of the organization. He mentioned the importance of a proactive attitude, of involvement and belief in the strategy, pointing out that simply staring at the strategic plan doesn’t bring progress. Omar Mehanna considers leadership, simplicity, alignment, miniplans and rewards as being the key success factors. On another note, Adri Pols states that it’s all about persistence and bringing everybody to the same level of understanding.

Regarding the best practices in CSO’s activity, they recommended sustainability and the use of 3Es. In terms of sustainability, it is important to make a test before implementing a strategy. This is the moment when you need to take into consideration surveys and project management skills. The 3Es come from:

• Educate: related to communicating the organizational strategy;
• Embrace: getting people to believe in the strategy;
• Eliminate: referring to people that resist the change.

Tags: IIRME, Performance in Dubai, Performance in UAE, Strategy Leaders Forum, The KPI Institute