Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s Strategic Options Coursework

Strategic options available to DEWA for future growth

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) public organization is a vivid example of sustainable development and ongoing advancement. Taking into account that it strives to support the government’s initiatives such as Dubai Plan 2021 and the UAE Vision 2030, DEWA has several strategic options for future performance. Based on the concept of the Fourth Generation recently integrated by DEWA, it is possible to suggest that achieving the vision is one of the most important goals along with innovation and enablers. The first strategic option to be proposed refers to strategic planning as a framework for innovation. Currently, the utility sector of the emirate of Dubai changes driven by the requirements of innovative technology as well as the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 that indicates the need for agile strategic planning processes. In this regard, the implementation of the strategic planning as a framework is likely to benefit the organization by promoting its rapid response to the mentioned changes (flexibility) and the subsequent reframing promptly (vision success). Along with the above pros, there are such cons as the complexity of this approach and its potentially costly nature.

Another strategic option that can be recommended for DEWA is such an action-related reaction to the environmental factors as leadership mobilization. Strong and effective leaders stimulate development and address the existing challenges, thus making the organization more stable to external threats and more open to new opportunities. For example, aligning the UAE journey from eGovernment to Smart Government, one may note that it is leadership that can facilitate this transition and contributes to its timely attainment. Serving as people who motivate others and promote proper strategy, leaders illustrate their commitment to change – the goal that is also identified by the UAE and Dubai 2021 strategic plans. Among the advantages of the recommended strategic option, there are change commitment, empowerment, motivation, and a clear organizational structure. In their turn, overwhelming decision-making and employee dissatisfaction as a result of the increased responsibility compose the disadvantages of leadership mobilization.

DEWA’s corporate-level strategy and restructuring options

DEWA’s corporate-level strategy may be characterized as rather effective and comprehensive. It seems that the organization follows the Harvard policy model to best fit the environment as well as the UAE national agenda and the UAE government strategy. In particular, the analysis reveals that DEWA presents well-designed patterns of purposes and makes every effort to accomplish them. The organization pays attention to its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to select the most relevant strategic options and align them with the country’s initiatives. By systematically reviewing and enhancing its corporate strategy, DEWA remains effective and competent despite the continuous change.

Among the strategic priorities set by DEWA, one may distinguish such points as operational and smart service excellence, strategic innovation, stakeholder involvement, and sustainable growth. Most importantly, it prioritizes the National Agenda 2021 and strives to ensure a competitive knowledge economy along with a sustainable environment and infrastructure. Since DEWA positions itself as a public organization, the fact that it supports the national issues cannot be overestimated. One more essential point is associated with the necessity to create a cohesive society and a preserved identity. With this in mind, DEWA performs as an organization aiming at the promotion of the country’s happiness index and the human development index. The recent report provided by DEWA shows that the mentioned indexes increased significantly within several years.

Even though the contemporary corporate strategy of the given organization seems to be rather successful, it is safe to assume that there is a need to restructure its position to some extent. Speaking more precisely, it is important to focus on the organization’s departments and ensure that each of them has comprehensible awareness of the common goals and objectives as well as properly understands what to be done and how it should be achieved. Accordingly, the review of domains would reflect some challenges and gaps that can be eliminated through reframing processes. The results are to be communicated to employees, so that each of them may realize the aims and ways the organization builds its corporate strategy.

DEWA’s resources and capabilities for future growth

Serving as a merger of electricity and water authority, DEWA possesses plenty of resources, including people, culture, competencies as well as natural, economic, and information potential. It is of great importance to emphasize that the organization aligns its resources with the overall strategy and budget to preserve them for future generations. In terms of using natural resources, it strives to act in an environment-friendly manner, thus transforming the very concept of the emirate’s infrastructure. For example, DEWA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Emirates National Bank of Dubai (NBD), which fosters digital advancement and innovation to improve investment opportunities. His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD, and CEO of DEWA, also accentuates the fact that the organization introduces distributed renewable resources generators, electric vehicle (EG) green chargers, smart applications, and a solar park.

As for people, DEWA employs the best specialists and skilled leaders to make sure that the strategy accepted by CEO would work well. At the same time, DEWA initiates training and conferences to encourage continuous development and learning and provide employees with the opportunity for both personal and professional growth. The happiness index that was already mentioned earlier in this paper proves that DEWA’s employees are happy to work for this public organization. Economic and information resources are also used conscientiously and properly. To build a strong economy, it applies the above resources to anticipate, analyze, and deliver information regarding both internal and external environment and respond accordingly.

The organization’s capabilities are great. It continuously engages employees and stakeholders, focusing on their satisfaction and needs. DEWA is capable of delivering world-class utility for the society members, thus making their lives easier and more comfortable. Also, it gathers stakeholders’ attitudes towards services and the organization in general, taking them into account while elaborating on the strategy. The last but not least, DEWA operates in terms of the national agenda and goes in line with the government’s strategies.

The degree of rivalry in the utility industry and DEWA’s relative position

The degree of rivalry in the utility industry of Dubai is moderate. Along with the national organizations, there are American and European competitors such as Prime Electrical or Powertech Electrical providing similar services. Several national private companies also operate in the given industry. In general, the utility sector is presented by large public organizations, which pursue the national agenda and customer satisfaction goals and focus on electricity, natural gas, and water. It should be noted that DEWA takes a leading position among the national companies and exceeds the excellence of those operating in the US and Europe. Such outstanding performance is caused by the reduction of power and water transition losses. DEWA received five Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) Awards for being the best entity. As noted by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, DEWA is the best utility organization promoting innovation and fulfilling the vision. The above reward was received by DEWA for the fourth time.

Strategy delivery through human capital

To deliver strategy through human capital, it is essential to align the vision with workforce planning. Specifically, DEWA utilizes Dubai model alignment, according to which several criteria should be taken into account. It seems essential to pinpoint the fact that service delivery stars and service improvement culture compose workforce planning strategy at DEWA. Several stages lead to the effective alignment of workforce planning and strategic goals. First, it is crucial to determine and analyze the organization’s strategic goals, thus specifying competencies required to achieve them in either a short- or long-term perspective. Second, a talent assessment should be conducted among employees, and a labor market investigation is to be performed. Third, the identification of the existing gaps between the workforce and the organization’s needs should be accompanied by the talent acquisition strategy. Examples of relevant workplace examples are DEWA, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and the Emirates Group.

Performance management may be used to optimize the workforce talent pool through motivation, inspiration, empowerment, and involvement. In particular, it is safe to claim that strategic goals should be translated into operational terms, so that employees may comprehend them and do their best to accomplish them as part of strategic performance. By reporting performance measures to staff, the organization is likely to equip them with the necessary information and promote further communication between employees and management. According to His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DEWA, in case employees understand that compliance with the organization’s strategies is crucial, success may be guaranteed. In other words, the role of human capital is rather significant. Also, it may be recommended to apply talent management as one of the best practices and focus on the employee lifecycle model, thus measuring and enhancing performance using training and communication. The second of the best practices refer to the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which may boost employees’ esprit de corps.

DEWA’s strategic issues based on analysis of internal and external environment

The Strategy Change Cycle is a powerful tool for organizations to plan and implement change. The analysis of DEWA in terms of the above strategy illustrates that for structuring the process of strategic management, it uses a range of steps. To begin with, DEWA management plans the process of change, paying attention to all internal and external factors and resources. After that, it establishes mission, vision, and mandates and assesses internal and external capabilities. By elaborating on an effective and achievable organizational vision of the future, DEWA aligns with the goals stated by the government in Dubai Plan 2021 and the UAE Vision 2030. The subsequent stage of the identification of strategic concerns (problems) demonstrates the areas requiring change. The formulation of strategies and action plans seems to be accompanied by the consideration and adoption of the strategic plan and its realization. Over a certain period, DEWA reassesses the existing vision and strategy and initiates transformation to fit the contemporary requirements, needs, and expectations. Thus, a new cycle begins.