When a local government entity in Saudi Arabia needed support in the development and execution of its new strategy, its officials turned to Caliber Consulting for guidance.
Facing a rapidly changing environment, with demands from both inhabitants and businesses in flux, the local government entity set out to update its vision, strategic direction and transform its operating model.
To support the transition, officials engaged the support of Caliber Consulting, a boutique consultancy with a notable track record in the public sector strategy and execution domain.
“Advising clients on strategy and organization design, with focus on the public sector, is our bread and butter,” said Rani Salman, Managing Partner of Caliber Consulting.
As a first step, Caliber Consulting’s team conducted a diagnosis of the client’s business goals and objectives. This helped the team understand to what extent current practices are in alignment with what the organization wanted to achieve.
The next step was focused on defining the new vision, mission, and values of the enterprise, which then cascaded down into the formulation of the business plan including strategic recommendations for short and mid-term goals.
How did the firm deliver this piece of work? The lead consultant on the engagement: “It was an in-depth process which spanned desk research (gathering, reviewing, and analyzing existing strategic documentation), surveys of executives, trends analysis (external and internal environment) and benchmarking (based on international and national best practices). Bringing all this information together, we were able to channel it into the new strategic direction.”
With a clarity of where the government entity envisioned itself in the next few years, Caliber Consulting was then asked to remain on board to guide the ‘how’ part of the change. The firm used a two-step process for this phase, first translating strategic objectives into key performance indicators, and then plotting those onto a Balanced Scorecard for measuring and tracking progress.
The aim of the Balanced Scorecard was to motivate managers and employees to successfully implement the business unit’s strategy and embed a culture of continuous improvement.
Over time, the entity internalised this new strategy, adopted new ways of working, and departments and teams started reaping the benefits from the planned advancements. Meanwhile, Caliber Consulting’s team ensured fine tuning of initiatives, alignment of actions across the organization, and kept track of benefits management.
“With the strategy execution protocols becoming more prominent, the organization still had to develop other crucial aspects of the organization. Most notably, the operating model,” explained one of the consultants on the team.
Paramount was to bring decision-making and governance in sync with the operating model. “Through an in-depth analysis of the organizational model and structure, our team was able to define mandates for key divisions, develop a resourcing model along with the spans of control, and build a technology and IT blueprint which was future focused.”
With the KPIs of the organization clear, and the operating model more aligned, key initiatives from the strategy were translating into daily activities. However as with any major change effort, there are risks involved. To this end, Caliber Consulting helped design the enterprise risk management framework. “We helped identify risks that should be monitored, and developed a framework to help monitor, mitigate and action upon these risks.”
Six months following the start of the project, Caliber Consulting’s work came to a successful close. “We’re delighted to have been able to make an impact, and a positive contribution to the entity and hence the community it serves,” concluded Salman.
Sourced from Consultancy.me.com