Global award for record achievement by Ministry of Works

The accolade - awarded by Palladium Group Inc., a US-based specialist in systems and processes to improve the execution of business strategy - recognizes and admits the Ministry to the Balanced Scorecard 'Hall of Fame', where it stands proudly among some 120 other leading inductee organisations from 19 countries worldwide.

The honour was accepted by H.E. Fahmi Bin Ali Al Jowder, Minister of Works at a gala event held as part of the European/Middle Eastern/African Balanced Scorecard Summit, which is currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain.

"It is an honour to be one of this year's recipients of this prestigious award, which endorses the performance and abilities of the Ministry of Works," said H.E. Al Jowder. "It confirms the soundness of our approach to strategy management, which guides the direction in our vital role in providing public works services to citizens and residents of the Kingdom, and in contributing towards achieving sustainable economic and social development. It is also integral to our capability of achieving the goals of the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030 and our national development strategies."

The Palladium Group is the global leader in helping organisations to execute their strategies by making better decisions. Its expertise in strategy, risk, corporate performance management, and business intelligence aims to help its clients achieve an execution premium. Its services include consulting, conferences, communities, training, and technology.

The Balanced Score Card is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor an organization's performance against strategic goals.

Palladium's Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame for Executing Strategy recognizes organizations that have achieved an outstanding "execution premium". The Palladium Execution Premium Process — based on the seminal work of Professors Robert Kaplan of the Harvard University Business School and Dr. David P. Norton founder of the Palladium Group — is a proven framework used by hundreds of organizations worldwide to link strategy and operations to achieve performance results.

Strategy management and business planning are key competencies of the Ministry. By diligently progressing its strategic intentions and directions it has been achieving breakthrough results since adopting strategy management. During 2007 for instance, the Ministry accomplished projects worth more than ten times the projects it achieved in 2004 using almost the same number of staff. The Ministry's strategic intent and direction was validated as being in accordance with the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030 which also acknowledged that its strategic objectives are also in full alignment with all relevant national objectives.

The strategy management tools deployed enable the Ministry to translate strategy into action, to align resources to strategy and form the basis to report and track execution through regular reviews. Strategies are managed through participative management with a majority number of professional staff actively involved in strategy management along with full support from the entire organization.

Through its strategy management tools, the Ministry has also achieved enthusiasm and buy-in from staff and intra-department collaboration and external cooperation and communication are at an all time high. Transparency & knowledge sharing have also increased and this has created a level of flexibility that allows it to swiftly align with any national strategic direction, such as with the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030 and the Center of Excellence model.

"Our strategy positions us as leading professional organization embracing the principles of fairness, competitiveness and sustainability and this fits our role as a key planning player in all national strategies and as a leader in public-private partnership and project management practices," said H.E. Al Jowder.

To be eligible for induction into the BSC Hall of Fame, an organisation must have implemented the Balanced Scorecard as defined by the Kaplan/Norton management system; exemplify the five principles of a Strategy-Focused Organisation; earn media recognition for its Balanced Scorecard implementation and present its Balanced Scorecard case at a public conference; achieve breakthrough results over a period of 24 months or longer; and provide a testimonial from a senior executive attributing the organisation's results in part to its Balanced Scorecard.

"The Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame judges, led by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton, were impressed with the quality of applications from Europe and the Middle East this year," said Robert L. Howie, Jr., Managing Director of Palladium Group and Director of the Hall of Fame program. "Beyond the actual breakthrough performance results of the Ministry of Works, the judges were most impressed by the Ministry's measurement of employees' strategic awareness, the consolidation and standardisation of measures, and its ability to link strategy with operations."

"Our induction is a tremendous achievement for Bahrain and for the Kingdom's global aspirations as recognition is a powerful testament of the strength of strategic management practices and quality of employees, and by implication, of Bahrain and its attractiveness to those with an interest in the Kingdom," added H.E. Al Jowder.

"I would like to take this opportunity to dedicate this award to His Majesty, King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of the Kingdom of Bahrain; His Highness, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and His Highness, Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Bahrain Defence Force, and extend my appreciation for their continuous encouragement and wise leadership, kind directives, and support for our work for the benefit of Bahraini citizens," concluded H.E. Al Jowder.

The principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:

- Mobilize change through executive leadership -- Executive leadership, driven by a need for change, supports the effort to establish a new way of managing based on a performance-oriented culture. The single most important condition for BSC success is the ownership and active involvement of the executive team. A successful BSC program also begins with the realization that it is not a "metrics" project; it's a change process that will lead to establishing strategy execution as a core competency within the organization. Change agents provide guidance and act as role models for a new approach to strategic management.

- Translate the strategy into operational terms -- The Balanced Scorecard is used to translate the strategy into a language that everyone understands. It is a framework to describe and communicate strategy in a consistent and insightful way. A strategy map is the most powerful way of communicating the cause-and-effect relationships that show how intangible assets are transformed into tangible, often financial, outcomes. The scorecard's use of quantitative lead and lag measures allows value-creating processes to be described and measured - and, ultimately, managed - rather than inferred. This logical management architecture creates a common and understandable point of reference for all employees.

- Align the organization around its strategy-- The scorecard is used to cascade the strategy to all parts of the organization and align resources needed to accomplish the strategy. Business units and shared service units become linked to the strategy through the common themes and objectives that permeate their scorecards. Often, ad hoc organizations emerge to focus on strategic themes described in the scorecard. Successful organizations use their Balanced Scorecards in a coordinated manner to ensure the whole exceeds the sum of the parts.

- Motivate to make strategy everyone's job -- The reward and recognition system is used to align individuals to the performance objectives called for by the strategy. Strategy-Focused Organizations require that all employees understand the strategy and conduct their day-to-day business in a way that contributes to the success of the strategy. Executives use the Balanced Scorecard to communicate and educate the organization about the new strategy. Where possible, successful organizations link incentive compensation to the Balanced Scorecard. They use business unit and division scorecards as the basis for rewards and stress the importance of teamwork in executing strategy.

- Govern to make strategy a continual process -- Strategy execution is linked to the budget, and a reporting system - based on scorecard measures - is used to provide feedback on strategic performance. As the organization begins to use the scorecard for management reporting, it also uses it to test its hypotheses about the strategy's effectiveness. If necessary, modifications can be made to improve performance outcomes. New approaches are adopted for management meetings that place emphasis on strategy. Ultimately, strategy becomes a continual process, and other components of the strategic management system - budgeting, strategic investments, external reporting - are integrated into this strategic governance approach. Advanced organizations create an office of strategic management to firmly establish this competency.