Principles of the Strategy-Focused Organization

DEWA strictly adopts the Five Principles of the Strategy Focused Organization (based on the book of the same name written by Kaplan and Norton in 2000) to successfully implement DEWA’s Strategic Plan. These principles are:

1) Leadership drive & commitment

For any organization’s success, leadership’s commitment is a core driver to mobilize change. DEWA’s vision—A Sustainable World-Class Utility—clearly shows its strategic direction.

2) Translating DEWA’s Strategic Plan to operational levels

Strategy must be broken down and described in basic terms so that it can be acted upon at all levels of the organization. DEWA adopts the third generation Balanced Scorecard to achieve this as a management and measurement tool that contains themes, strategic objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and perspectives that have been translated from the core vision and mission developed by top management.

3) Aligning DEWA’s Strategy to Divisions or Departments

This principle involves the implementation of the strategic direction (vision and mission), which have been translated into strategic objectives and KPIs through the first two principles. It mainly involves deploying DEWA’s strategy to operational Divisions; by establishing strategic linkages through cascading and aligning Divisional Balanced Scorecards to DEWA’s overall corporate strategy and Balanced Scorecards, using the contributory approach.

4) Making Strategy everyone’s job

This mainly involves motivating, communicating and aligning all employees with DEWA’s overall strategic direction and ensuring that the strategy is embedded in every day jobs. One example of how DEWA accomplishes this is by linking its strategy to incentives through employees’ performance in strategy; using an established Employees’ reward system called the ‘Corporate Strategy Excellence Award’ (CSEA). Similarly, incentives are tied to the employees’ performance appraisals through internal awards. Another example is the way it fosters a stronger culture of strategy through strategic communication and awareness; as understanding is the basis for running an effective strategy.

5) Making it a continual process

DEWA firmly believes in continuous improvement, sustaining its achievements and promoting a strategy-focused culture to achieve breakthrough results.