Posts Tagged ‘agile’

Embracing Agile Strategies for Organizational Success

Written by Kimberly Tilar on August 15, 2025. Posted in Agile Strategy, Strategy

Amidst the dynamic shifts in today’s organizational landscape, the traditional notion of a one-size-fits-all strategy is being challenged. To align with diverse factors such as culture, structure, goals, and external influences, a reevaluation of the traditional or accustomed strategy becomes essential. In this interview, Dr. Eng. Malek Mohammed Ghazo shared different ways that organizations can align their strategy with the organization’s specific needs, aiming for resilience, adaptability, and sustained success.

Aligning strategy with culture is akin to solving a jigsaw puzzle due to the involvement of different perspectives and factors. As a management consultant, what advice would you offer organizations and professionals when fitting these intricate pieces together?

To align strategy with culture, cultivate leadership buy-in at all levels. Ensure that leaders embody and advocate the organization’s values and strategic vision. Encourage open dialogue, recognize diverse perspectives, and foster an environment of trust and collaboration. This holistic approach ensures that culture and strategy are interwoven, driving unified progress.

What cultural nuances do you think will shape the strategic landscape in 2024?

In 2024, cultural nuances like inclusivity, agility, and continuous learning will shape the strategic landscape. Organizations that value diversity and adaptability to change and are committed to upskilling will be able to effectively navigate the dynamic environment. Ethical considerations and sustainability will also play pivotal roles, reflecting a broader focus on societal values in strategic priorities.

Trends

In light of global economic shifts and geopolitical uncertainties, how can organizations create resilient strategies that can withstand external disruptions?

Organizations should integrate agility into their DNA, leveraging excellence frameworks and ecosystem mapping to anticipate changes. Embracing adaptive planning and fostering a culture of innovation ensures resilience. Investing in robust risk management and nurturing strategic partnerships can buffer against uncertainties, enabling a proactive stance in volatile environments.

What do you see as the most promising ways artificial intelligence (AI) can further impact corporate strategy, and what steps should companies take to remain at the forefront of AI-driven strategic advancements?

AI’s potential lies in predictive analytics and decision-making enhancement. Companies should invest in both talent and infrastructure to integrate AI insights into strategic planning. Staying ahead requires a culture of continuous learning and ethical AI use, ensuring that strategies are data-informed, agile, and attuned to evolving market dynamics.

Does your organization use strategic foresight to enhance future readiness? If not, please detail the organization’s approach to planning in the short, medium, and long term.

Our organization prioritizes strategic foresight, aligning with practices like Dubai’s 50-year vision. We employ future foresight planning to balance immediate adaptability with medium-term trend analysis and long-term vision creation. This approach ensures sustained relevance, innovation, and resilience in an ever-evolving global landscape.

Strategy and Performance Management Practices

Do you see any application of AI to facilitate strategic planning or performance measurement? Is your organization using any such tool, possibly in certain areas of the organization?

AI significantly enhances strategic planning and performance measurement through predictive analytics and data-driven insights. Our organization employs AI tools, particularly in market analysis and operational efficiency, leveraging AI’s capability to forecast trends and optimize decision-making processes with Future Foresight (FF) tools.

How are strategic objectives defined in your organization, including the research process, involved stakeholders, and other pertinent details?

Our organization defines strategic objectives comprehensively, integrating stakeholder insights via a robust mapping system. By employing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach, we ensure that objectives are well-rounded—aligning financial, customer, internal process, and learning perspectives— to foster a holistic and forward-thinking strategic framework.

How do you balance long-term planning and short-term priorities?

Balancing long-term planning with short-term priorities involves a dynamic BSC framework approach. We continuously align short-term actions with our long-term vision, ensuring that immediate objectives support overarching goals. Regular stakeholder engagement and performance reviews allow agile adaptation, maintaining equilibrium between immediate results and strategic future aspirations.

In your experience, what is the most important tool for managing strategy, and why?

In my experience, an agile resource allocation system is the most crucial tool for managing strategy. It allows swift adaptation to market changes and enables resources to be optimally distributed to high-impact areas. This agility fosters resilience, maintains a competitive edge, and ensures that strategic objectives are met efficiently.

How do you communicate strategy to different stakeholders within the organization to ensure a high level of awareness of priorities for both frontline employees and management positions?

Effective communication of strategy involves clear and consistent messaging tailored to different stakeholder groups. Utilizing a variety of channels, we ensure that frontline employees and management understand priorities through regular updates, workshops, and dashboards. This strategy fosters alignment, engagement, and a shared commitment to organizational goals across all levels.

What key elements is your organization using to ensure effective strategy execution?

Our organization facilitates effective strategy execution through an agile project management framework, a centralized project management office (PMO), data and benchmarking offices, and dedicated process and governance teams. This integrated approach streamlines execution, ensures data-driven decision-making, and maintains alignment with strategic objectives, driving consistent and impactful results.

What approaches or methodologies have you found effective in fostering cross-functional collaboration and ensuring that all departments work cohesively towards strategic goals?

Leveraging automated tools and platforms has proven effective in fostering cross-functional collaboration. These tools facilitate seamless communication, project tracking, and data sharing across departments, advancing alignment and synchronized efforts toward strategic goals. This tech-enabled approach enhances transparency and accountability to drive cohesive, organization-wide progress.

What critical skills and competencies should professionals develop to excel in strategic management?

Professionals should cultivate agility-related skills such as adaptive thinking, strategic foresight, and resilience. Competencies in data-driven decision-making, effective communication, and collaborative leadership are also essential. These skills enable professionals to navigate complex environments, drive innovation, and lead teams toward achieving strategic objectives.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Performance Magazine Issue No. 29, 2024 – Strategy Edition. The practitioner’s bio has been updated to reflect his current achievements and credentials.

About the Practitioner: Dr. Eng. Malek Ghazo has over 14 years of experience in management consulting. He has trained more than 1,500 people and spearheaded organizational excellence and sustainability projects across the UK, Jordan, UAE, KSA, and Qatar. Ghazo holds a Master of Science in Engineering and Management and a Ph.D. in Circular Economy, Sustainability, and Excellence.

Indonesia’s bureaucratic reform initiatives: How to be an agile government

Written by Kartika Putro on August 4, 2024. Posted in Agile Strategy, Strategy

Image Source: Geisteskerker | Pixabay

What is an agile government, and how can it be achieved?

Agile is a well-known approach in the IT industry, where teams create deliverables in small incremental value within an iteration to achieve one big final goal or a product. This approach supports continuous development and allows teams to shift quickly when necessary because clients may ask for drastic changes.

Given the kind of results produced by the agile approach, it has attracted not only the IT industry but also the public sector and governmental institutions. To better understand the agile principles, let’s take a look at how Indonesia is reforming its bureaucratic system and implementing new strategies.

Bureaucracy in Indonesia

Indonesia is one of the countries in ASEAN that already put some effort into being agile by reforming its bureaucracy. President Joko Widodo expressed this intention in his speech at the Sentul International Convention Center on July 14, 2019. He recommended structural reform “so that institutions are simpler, more agile.”

Indonesia has a total of 217 government agencies, 31 ministries, and 98 statutory agencies as of 2014, based on the data of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. In the World Bank’s Mapping Indonesia’s Civil Service report, Indonesia’s civil service has increased by 25 percent from around 3.6 million in 2006 to over 4.5 million in 2018.

Bureaucracy bleeds several problems, ranging from corruption to low performance. The study “A Structural and Mindset Bureaucratic Reform Agenda for Jokowi’s Second Term.” published in May 2020, cited data from the Commission of Corruption Eradication (KPK) showing that in 2018, out of 2,357 civil servants who had committed corruption, only 891 were dishonorably discharged and 62 percent have not been fired and are still receiving salaries.

Indonesia’s six strategic steps

The bureaucracy culture of the Indonesian government can be traced back to its history of colonialism. But the country continues to aspire for reforms to give the public quality service. Its bureaucratic reform initiatives will be implemented according to the Grand Design of Bureaucratic Reform 2010-2025.

Bureaucratic reform, according to Indonesia’s “Regulation of Minister of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform Number: PER/15/M/PAN/7/2008 concerning General Guidelines for Bureaucratic Reform,” refers to a systematic process and carefully planned fundamental changes in government organizations that aim to achieve high performance in carrying out duties and efficiently implementing services, development, and governance.

Widodo instructed his cabinet to implement bureaucratic reforms based on the “Regulation of the Minister of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform number 25 year 2021 regarding Simplification of Organizational Structure in Governmental Institution.”

It consists of instructions in the form of a Circular Letter, which presents six strategic steps for every government institution as they reform their bureaucratic system.

Identifying which echelon can be simplified according to each organizational structure;
Mapping which structural role for echelon III, IV, and V in each unit that can be converted into functional roles;
Mapping the functional roles needed by each institution to replace the structural roles;
Adjusting the budget according to the new organization’s structure;
Communicating the results to internals;
Submitting the results to the Minister of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform.

Indonesia’s bureaucratic system is loosening up to give way to an agile environment. An organization that is flattening its organizational structure is aiming for a more agile, adaptive , according to the paper “Cultivating Agile Organizational Culture: Addressing Resistance to Change in Bureaucratic Government Organizations.”

The study states that in organizational flattening, “leaders allow subordinate units to operate with minimal higher level control, and prefer more collaborative interactions.”

Going agile: analysis and recommendations

Bureaucratic reform, when done right, could transform organizations and public services. For instance, the One Stop Service at the Investment and Integrated Licensing Service Agency (IILSA) in Puruan City is a result of reforms made in the administrative services licensing process.

For a country to exhibit agile governance, it has to listen to its constituents in an efficient manner. According to the article “Agile: A New Way of Governing” written by Ines Mergel, Sukumar Ganapati, and Andrew B. Whitford, agile administrations must welcome reforms and adapt to the changing environment, public values, and public needs.

The authors stressed that agile governments must choose adaptive structure over hierarchies and silos and individual discretion over bureaucratic procedures. They also emphasized that consensual decision-making and trial-and-error approaches must take place for a government to be agile.

To be adaptive, governments must introduce an approach where their decision-making structure is decentralized and bottom-up, according to the paper “Adaptive governance: Towards a stable, accountable and responsive government.”

Indonesia launched its decentralization process in 1999, encouraging participation in community and regional planning and involving citizens in local governance. However, Indonesia has yet to experience the full effects of decentralization.

For example, in the area of public finance, decentralization is not being carried out properly due to two concerns, as stated in the report “Government Decentralization Program in Indonesia” released by the Asian Development Bank.” The first issue refers to “the capacity of subnational governments to produce public and private goods, increase productivity and employment, and promote economic growth in their jurisdictions, was not increased.”

The second concern is about the lack of training of financial managers, as required by the new laws of public treasury and auditing.

To address those issues, the government must demonstrate flexibility. Mergel, Ganapati, and Whitford suggest that flexibility is crucial because agile is not confined to one finished product, service, or process and prioritizes continuous improvement instead.

This is applicable in contracting processes. Traditional governments apply the waterfall model, but agile “requires a contract management approach that is flexible and stretches beyond a fixed-price, one-time project.”

Lastly, these public management reforms can only happen under a new style of leadership. In the IT industry, developers in an agile environment are expected to collaborate with business users. The same is true for agile governments, where leaders must serve and empower people.

To learn more about how governments can measure and improve performance at all levels, visit The KPI Institute’s Center for Government Performance.