Introduction
There are many methods managers can use to succeed in developing their businesses regarding a number of external and internal factors that many affect the growing and prospering abilities. Strategic planning is one of the possible management tools that aim at ensuring managers and their employees that they work properly to achieve the same goals and consider the changing environment (Bryson, 2011).
The success of strategic management depends on how soon a manager is able to notice the need for change and take the actions that can promote the change.
Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID) offers an example of how a federal government organization may develop a strategy that can affect organizational performance and introduce a company as a powerful strategic planning figure in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Al-Khouri, 2012).
The current paper aims at discussing the background of the strategy, its missions, objectives, and outcomes that can prove the effectiveness of the chosen ideas.
Emirates ID approach is defined as successful due to several factors, and one of them is the company’s intention to be the first federal organization that can implement the customized strategy development framework, analyze its lifecycles, and promote the cooperation of different departments under the control of a single team called a Strategy Support Office (SSO).
The problem statement is connected with the immediate and long-term problems that can take place while implementing the strategy because Emirates ID should know if they have enough sources to cope with the challenges caused by mass enrollment or e-services improvements.
Situation Definition
There are many reasons for why a governmental organization should focus on developing strategies and involving a number of people in the chosen practices.
In 1998, Ahoy introduced the concept of a ‘trap’ a number of organizations can find themselves because of the inability to anticipate and get ready for unexpected change and the necessity to spend their organizational time on reacting and dealing with the already occurred changes (Al-Khouri, 2012).
Between 2010 and 2013, Emirates ID introduce a strategy with a properly identified mission, vision, and several strategic objectives that help to achieve success and deal with the external challenges.
Performance, Mission, Objectives
Emirates ID is the UAE organization that contributes the development of a central population database that is able to save all biometric and even biographic facts of people, who live or visit the UAE. The success of the company may be explained by several values and intentions of the company. Customer orientation is promoted by the development of trustful relations and the abilities to share feedbacks.
The necessity of teamwork makes employees share their experience and knowledge to achieve organizational goals. The attention to innovation is the requirement that helps employees focus on different aspects of their work. Regarding the needs of the company and the expectations of the customers, Emirates ID offers the strategy 2010-2013 with the help of which the company can meet the external changes of the identified period.
The mission of the strategy is to make a considerable contribution to individual and national security by means of improving personal identity of the citizens and visitors of the UAE, providing a population registration, and promoting innovating e-services. Managers have the vision to become one of the principle references that can establish personal identity and contain population data across all regions of the UAE (Al-Khouri, 2012).
The company makes a decision to prepare its managers for any possible changes that can take place on the basis of mass enrollment or e-services improvements and make sure the members of a new SSO are able to promote communication and execution in terms of the strategy offered. Several clear goals are developed to underline the importance and necessity of the strategy.
For example, the enrollment of a new population register may be regarded as a crucial contribution to National and individual security. The attempt to establish ID cards should help to facilitate the delivery of e-services. The possibility of safe and easy data access helps to simplify transactions.
Finally, the development of a new world-class organization becomes possible with properly developed high-quality services offered in time. All these goals and intents are offered as a basis of the strategy discussed in the case.
Corporate Governance
The meaning of corporate governance has been changed during the last centuries. Tricker and Tricker (2012) admit that corporate governance should be defined by the way according to which it is possible to identify and comprehend the power that is spread among different corporate entities.
In other words, corporate governance should describe the relations that are developed among the company’s managers, the representatives of the board of directors, and other people, who may be involved in the development of an organization.
The people of Emirates ID understand how crucial and irreplaceable their work can be for the country. The citizens of the country trust in the achievements of the company and realize that their work improves the quality of life.
The relations that are developed among the employees of Emirates ID may become a good example for other organizations to be followed because its people are able to combine knowledge, trust, and experience to help people informing them about all changes and improvements that are necessary.
For example, the Corporate Governance Office promotes a number of training courses that are available to employees that get involved in customer services centers and asks people not to neglect this chance of personal excellence and quality (Emirates Identity Authority, 2014).
Employees, who can train and improve their qualities, learn new concepts and comprehend the goals of the company regarding the current opportunities and the impact of the internal and external factors. The criteria offered to all UAE international and local organizations make Emirates ID work hard and consider the expectations all the time.
Societal Trends
The future of governance also depends on the way of how employees and managers of Emirates ID can understand the importance and worth of societal trends developed by the company. First, the fact of the increased number of tourists cannot be neglected. That is why the questions of demographics and economic development should be constantly discussed.
Besides, such trends as multi-cultural relations, social tensions, and sectarian conflicts may influence the development of the strategy under consideration. Finally, the general concepts like the conditions of privatization, globalization, migration, and digital passion are considered by the SSO to promote a successful future of the company with the chosen corporate governance and custom-oriented policies.
Industry Opportunities and Threats
The success of a strategic developmental process depends on a proper identification of the industry threats and opportunities as a part of the SWOT analysis that has to be developed in regards to Emirates ID.
Due to the fact that the company was awarded as the Best Federal Authority according to the UAE Federal Government Excellence Program (Al-Khouri, 2012), it is expected that the company should meet the requirements set by the Federal Government Vision 2021 within the frames of which the UAE organizations can understand how to treat possible future initiatives and external factors.
The SWOT analysis is a chance to look at the external environment and identify the threats and opportunities of the industry and possible reactions of the company.
The main opportunities Emirates IA can use are the burning need to create comprehensive statistics concerning the population growth and the changes that can be observed among native citizens and visitors of the country. E-services have to be improved because of the governmental intentions to move to e-government possibilities.
There is also a necessity to explain the importance of registration to as many applicants as possible. Emirates ID has a chance to analyze the strong and weak aspects of its previous strategy and continue approving its practices in regards to the global expectations and competitions.
As for the threats that are not pleasant to the development of the strategy, it is possible to mention the lack of the required awareness and comprehension of customer needs. Though the company declares itself as a customer-oriented organization, the gaps in services and cooperation with customers are evident in the chosen industry.
It is necessary to focus on legal improvements that can control the roles and duties of different local and national entities. Finally, the evident technological improvements are expected, and the company should be ready to use its potential and meet the requirements set.
Internal Strengths
The SWOT analysis aims at identifying the main strong aspects of the company that can be used in the chosen industry. The internal environment is strengthened by means of the production of a unique ID card that can be used by the citizens and visitors of the countries for different transactions. Another peculiar feature of Emirates ID is its leaders, who are ready to promote changes and analyze the results.
The company may also use the connection with various federal and local entities that want to promote a reengineered process as a chance to register population, control the changes, and cope with the challenges based on the complexity of enrollment processes and poor mechanisms for sharing information (Al-Khouri, 2012).
In other words, the strengths of the strategy are explained by the ability of the company to identify the governmental needs and introduce fast and credible solutions to a variety of governmental problems.
Internal Weaknesses
However, there are several weak points that can put the strategy under a threat or create some challenges in the process. A poor promotional plan and the inabilities to ensure employees to follow the same activities may challenge the strategy. Performance challenges are also observed in the strategy because it is difficult to introduce performance indicators and explain them reasonably using the available resources only.
The needs of the UAE federal government require more time to be met than it is expected. There is also a weakness in the internal communication that leads to the challenges in connection with external entities. People do not understand how they can use their resources and abilities to create good working conditions. All these aspects have to be better articulated by the managers and the leaders of the company.
Strategic Factors
The strategic framework helps to combine several key success factors with the help of which the team may understand how to take the activities in order to meet the goals set (deWit & Meyer, 2010). Al-Khouri (2012) identifies success factors as the strategic enablers that can help to guide the progress that is expected as soon as goals are identified.
More than ten factors are offered within the frames of the strategy under consideration. The most successful are leadership commitment, analysis of possible outcomes, the development of simple thinking models, the abilities to change management plans, and the possibility to upgrade a registration process in order to meet the customer expectations, respond to them in time, and enroll a comprehensive population register.
The promotion of data exchange, it is necessary to improve the level of security and promote interactions with different entities. Finally, any kind of activity and goal set by the company should be accomplished by such factor as the awareness of its employees about the intentions of the company to promote changes.
In other words, the success of the goals and strategic factors is predetermined by the level of knowledge developed by employees and the desire of the managers to involve their employees in an organizational change.
Immediate and Long-Term Problems
Strategic planning is an attempt to make decisions and choose the activities that can help organizations achieve success. However, not all companies are able to succeed in planning. Therefore, managers and leaders find it appropriate to spend their time and efforts on trying to change something.
Such intentions cause one of the immediate problems, the inability to get ready for a new, unexpected change in time. There are also several long-term challenges Emirates ID may face with and has to overcome in a certain period of time. For example, the company may not cope with a mass enrollment that is caused by the presence of many tourists and visitors in the country.
The UAE gains popularity quickly; therefore, its government tries to follow the activities of its native citizens and guests to the required extent. Another long-term problem is a coming infrastructure expansion. As soon as people start mentioning their requirements and expectations, organizations start expanding their services. More people are necessary to provide the necessary number of services.
Expansion cannot be avoided, and Emirates ID should know how to solve this problem. However, it is not enough to consider the threats of possible long-term problems. The attention to be paid to the immediate problems that can decrease the quality of services and products offered by Emirates ID.
For example, e-services facilitation is the immediate problem as soon as some global changes and improvements take place. Emirates ID has to understand what steps can be taken to overcome the challenge of e-services’ importance.
Critical Analysis
The critical analysis of the case study should help to identify the problems the company faces, clarify the steps that are taken according to the strategy offered and the challenges that may be associated with the activities, and understand if Emirates ID can cope with the challenges and succeed in the implementation of the government organization strategy.
In the concluding remarks, the author informs about the necessity to review the strategy, underline the adjustments that can be offered to the developed department activities, and use the key success factors (Al-Khouri, 2012). The importance of such evaluation is explained by the necessity to create a connection between the strategic objectives and organizational activities that can be developed regarding the KSFs.
Symptoms vs. Underlying Problems
Upon the analysis of the company, it is observed that Emirates ID’s strategic management approach may be defined as a successful attempt, but it is not perfect. Before 2010, the company demonstrated the abilities to introduce new ideas and involve more people in using its services and thoughts.
Emirates ID used the preliminary development practices as the possibility to address the current infrastructure, analyze the technological aspect of the work, and evaluate the organizational requirements.
However, all these activities were good as a part of the beginning strategy. It was necessary to develop a new approach on the basis of which the evolution of the company could be possible. A new strategy is created to provide leaders of the company with the information about the company’s development and the requirements that have to be met by its employees.
From the very beginning, the development of the strategy could be defined as successful because the managers start with defining directions regarding the vision and missions of the company.
Besides, the developers of a new strategy, the representatives of the SSO, introduce the strategy as the chance to think what can be done with the gaps between what can be achieved, what has been already achieved, and what should be actually achieved by the company.
The main symptom of the strategy offered can be observed in the company’s intention to cover a huge number of customers and offer them the services that have to be implemented gradually. A certain space and explanations are necessary to meet the goal and prove itself as a customer-oriented organization.
In other words, Emirates ID provide the government with the guarantees; however, it is not able to prove that it can meet the goals and time deadlines.
The chronology of the initiatives shows that the SSO representatives take care of each aspect of the work including operational plans, performance management, reengineering process, enrollment processes, and information delivery details that can be offered to stakeholders such as managers, customers, and the government.
Though the author of the case study does not introduce the list of all advantages and disadvantages of the strategy because it has not been completely performed when the article was created, it is possible to predict that the positive impact of the activities is evident for the strategy.
The main problem of the strategy is the necessity to meet the goals and time frames set. Emirates ID has to introduce a successful execution of the strategy. The SSO used its position to monitor the changes and promote initiatives.
Besides, this department should take responsibility for advising managers and leaders, communicating with stakeholders, and explaining what can be done. Much responsibility is taken by a new department that is not able to develop appropriate relations with all departments that have been already created in the company.
Another crucial problem is a serious issue for consideration because it is created on one of the main benefits of the strategy. Such proportionality can be explained the following way. The process of development of a corporate strategy is progressive and slow. Its developers regard the past experience and evaluate the current resources in order to choose appropriate solutions in the future.
All activities are perfectly described in the each stage identified in the plan. However, as strong the description of the activities is as weak the relation between the departments become.
The department teams could follow the requirements and instructions identified by the SSO; however, people could not discuss their discontents or offer their ideas because of poorly developed communicative activities. There is no quality in the relations between the departments.
Facts of the Case
To prove the urgency of the problems and weaknesses of the strategy, the author of the case study introduces several facts and adds several statistical tables.
For example, it is stated that the SSO helps to develop several initiatives within the frames of the corporate strategy in order to improve the communication between stakeholders and manage the leadership activities. It is not enough to develop the strategy and explain its urgency. It is necessary to explain how to use the ideas offered in the strategy and prove that the implementation process makes sense.
One of the first steps that are offered is the development of operational plans. These plans introduce the activities and timelines with the help of which all participants can understand their duties. For example, the achievements of the plan can be depicted in the possibilities of the leaders to get a clear picture of what can be achieved in the next six months (Al-Khouri, 2012).
The following initiative is connected with the promotion of performance management and the possibility to ensure buy-in indicators. The strategy execution is also incomplete without an appropriate reengineering enrollment process. Due to the existing problem such as the rapid growth of citizens and tourists and poorly developed technological mechanisms, Emirates ID should introduce ID cards quickly and effectively.
Al-Khouri (2012) explains that the strategy can succeed in process efficiency and cost optimization as soon as the company can improve the experience customers get with the company. Poor delivery mechanisms lead to the impossibility to produce the required number of cards. In the middle of 2011, only from 5,000 to 7,000 ID cards are introduced (Al-Khouri, 2012).
It is expected to double increase the results in a half of a year and involve more employees in the work of the company. They should learn their customers better and try to develop interpersonal relations in a proper way. As soon as these goals are met, there is a possibility to create a plan according to which the delivery mechanisms can be improved from a technological point of view.
Recognition of Important Factors
One of the main recognitions made during the evaluation of the strategy is connected with the recognition Emirates ID as one of the first and best UAE federal entities that have managed to implement the strategy in its office.
The offered strategy is a perfect combination of the qualitative and quantitative factors of the company and the possibility to improve the mistakes or shortages that have been made before the development of a framework.
The main point is that Emirates ID has not made significant mistakes or challenged its employees. The problems are connected with the inability to cope with a number of citizens and guests that appear in the UAE in a short period of time and the necessity to have high-quality services and mechanism to develop and deliver the cards that contain all necessary facts about a person.
Time Frame of the Case
The case study discusses the corporate government strategy that is developed between 2010 and 2013. The author wrote the article in 2012. It means that the evaluation takes place at the moment of the strategy execution, and the author offered his personal guesses and the ideas on how all planned activities could be accomplished.
Though not all innovations and activities were evaluated, there were many lessons that could be learned from the strategic implementation in terms of functional and technical aspects of the work and managerial achievements
Alternative Assessment
Feasible Alternatives
Regarding the existing challenges and positive aspects of the successful government organization strategy Emirates ID experienced between 2010 and 2013, several feasible alternatives can be offered to use the same company and develop new situations under which some new qualities and achievements can be observed.
Alternative One
For example, it is possible to pay more attention to the development of interpersonal relations in a company. Leaders may use the services of the SSO and focus not only on the technological aspects of the work. Several approaches should be developed to influence the relations between the departments.
It seems to be enough to add one more goal to the already developed strategy and add several aspects of an effective interpersonal communication strategy.
The leadership team should focus on hearing its employees and evaluating the ideas offered during the discussions. Leaders should learn how to hear and analyze the information but not simply give the orders and set the requirements. In their turn, employees should learn how to share their ideas in a proper way.
The main risk of such strategy is poor training offered to leaders and employees. That is why it is necessary to calculate possible costs that include the costs to educate and train employees and communicate with leaders. Two-times-per-week courses should be enough for both groups of people. The company spends about $30,000 per month on such courses.
The main positive aspect of the alternative is the possibility to underline the importance of a person in a work of a huge system. The main con of such idea is the attention to a human factor and the possibility to provide people with the rights that influence the quality of the work.
Alternative Two
Another alternative that can be offered is the development of business relations with other organizations that can improve the delivery period in regards to the requirements set by the government. The implementation of such alternative requires many efforts and more time.
However, the results of such cooperation should be twice beneficial. On the one hand, Emirates ID can get access to the resources of other organizations and their experience. On the other hand, there is a need to divide the benefits and achievements of the activities developed. People like the idea of new relations and fresh ideas.
Still, they should also learn how to share their experience with other people. The time that is necessary for such alternative implementation is about one or two additional months to investigate the options and make a choice and to develop the relations that can be fruitful for both parties.
The main price that should be paid is the division of the success. The company can hardly be called as the only one organization that succeeded in implementation the strategy.
Alternative Three
The third alternative that can be discussed in terms of Emirates ID and its necessity to introduce ID cards with biometric and biographical data is based on a technological aspect of the work and the development of the system that can save, store, and analyze information about people.
For this strategy, it is not enough to create the SSO and provide it with the rights to organize the team and set the goals. It is necessary to create the department that investigates the technological and informative resources of the company and unites them with the abilities of the employees.
Such alternative is the most expensive due to the necessity to pay salary to the technical experts, their communication with ordinary employees of the company, and reports to the leaders of the company.
The timing aspect is beneficial because the creation of such department should shorten the period of accommodation to new requirements. It is expected to spend more than $500,000 on the development of such department in addition to the already offered strategy.
Recommendation
Taking into consideration the possibilities and the current achievements of Emirates ID, it is possible to provide the company with the following recommendation. The UAE is a highly developed country that has already proved its global impact and technological ideas (Toledo, 2013). It is wrong and useless to give some technical suggestions.
However, Emirates ID has a chance to be improved with the help of a human resource initiative. More attention should be paid to the employees of the company and their cooperation with their managers. Leaders should not take care of their abilities to give orders and analyze the achievements.
The necessity to support e-government (Westland & Al-Khouri, 2010) and underline the importance of a person in the registration process is the task that has to be complete. The promotion of ID cards should not underline the importance of technical aspects. This promotion should be the opportunity to facilitate human efforts in exchanging information, searching for people, and developing contacts.
Implementation
The implementation of such idea is possible in case Emirates ID promotes the creation of a new department that aims at the development of the relations between people and technologies. Employees should learn how to use technology and benefit with it without becoming addicted or dependent on technologies. The implementation plan should consist of the following stages:
- The analysis of the current situation in the company;
- The evaluation of the current technological achievements in the UAE;
- The distribution of free courses where employees can ask questions and receive information about the latest innovations and their possibilities;
- The development of online tests and evaluations where employees are able to share their opinions about the work of the company;
- The analysis of the responses given by employees and the identification of the similarities and differences;
- The improvement of cooperation between leaders, managers, and employees by means of common entertainments and meetings.
Control
The control of such recommendation should take place in two main stages. First, managers pay attention to the activities taken by employees to improve the results of their work. Managers look at the situation and introduce the ideas of how the work can be done in another way if any. Second, the statistic department introduces the numbers according to which the quality of the work can be evaluated.
Until the numbers are positive, the work of the chosen recommendation can be defined as effective. As soon as the actual numbers are below the expected number, there is no necessity to adjust some improvements. The only solution is to introduce a new approach for Emirates ID.
Conclusion
In general, Emirates ID with its corporate government development is one of the best examples of how the needs of the company meet the needs of the government and improve the quality of life of the UAE citizens. The intention to provide all citizens with special ID cards and help the government to take control over its people with their permission in a short period of time is a chance that is not available to all countries.
The benchmarked 2010-2013 strategy proves the possibility to overcome the challenges of strategic planning and high expectations of customers using the strategic directions, key success factors, missions, and objectives of the company. The SSO’s working model is one of the best solutions made by Emirates ID to involve stakeholders and underline the role of each department.
Though the creation of value is not as successful as it is expected, the offered alternatives and recommendations may be considered to improve the situation and help the organization to achieve the goals that have not been achieved before.
References
Al-Khouri, A.M. (2012). Corporate government strategy development: A case study. Business Management Dynamics, 2(1), 5-24.
Bryson, J.M. (2011). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Emirates Identity Authority. (2014). Emirates ID’s corporate governance organizes training courses for service centres employees. Web.
Toledo, H. (2013). The political economy of emiratization in the UAE. Journal of Economic Studies, 40(1), 39-53.
Tricker, B. & Tricker, R.I. (2012). Corporate governance: principles, policies and practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Westland, D. & Al-Khouri, A.M. (2010). Supporting e-government progress in the United Arab Emirates. Journal of E-Government Studies and Best Practices, 1-9. Web.