Executive Newswire - Regional Newsletter for Middle East

JULY 2009 T h e O n l i n e E x e c u t i v e N e w s f o r C o r p o r a t e L e a d e r s
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Re-Creating your
Organization
Upgrade your Talent Pool
While reducing staff and consolidating
responsibilities is already a
widespread practice, companies
should make sure to address the
implications this has on the employer
brand, it’s internal culture
and external reputation in front of
the larger community.
Still, a crisis can offer a tremendous opportunity and – sadly so – an
excuse for companies to reduce the levels of redundancies or
rather duplications that were the initial result of over-hiring that
took place across the GCC in anticipation of market demand, opportunities,
expected growth and upcoming projects. This will
allow companies to rethink their organizational structures and their
effectiveness, and rebuild a tougher, more robust organization that
is capable of surviving and even triumphing during this tough
economy as well as having a springboard and model for a more
balanced growth once the economy begins its turnaround.
Re-Create your Talent Skill Set
Here is the key to the puzzle. In a
downturn and a crisis economy, a
new or different set of skills are required
in talent to drive continued
growth. The skill-sets that got you
here are not the same skill-sets
that will get you there – there
being through the maze of this
crisis. A new set of balanced hard
and soft skills are required and
that needs to be examined by each company based on its new objectives,
goals and strategies. The skills that you need to swim one
thousand meters or even rescue a swimmer in a swimming pool
are totally different than the skills required to swim to and rescue a
distressed near drowning person in a storm out in the ocean fighting
against 20 foot waves and heavy rain and winds.
Rethink your Learning
& Development Approach
Learning and Development is always
one of the first budgets to
be affected by such downturns.
Yet it seems that these situations
may be the best opportunity to
upgrade your already existing talent
pool by continuing to invest
in training solutions. This is a
dilemma that has a solution.
Companies cutting jobs should carefully maintain and rigorously
Executive
Newswire
How to Triumph through the Crisis of Middle East during Global Downturn
Wassim Karkabi is a Partner and Regional Practice Leader, Industrial Services sector
By Wassim Karkabi
protect training and development programs, as they are necessary
to provide your talent pool with the skills needed to perform redesigned
jobs that have bigger responsibilities and a greater span
of authority and control. One solution is to replace external trainers
with internal ones by offering the opportunity for internal specialists
and the company’s senior leaders to participate in your learning
programs and enhance their facilitating and coaching skills. This approach
can both reduce your cost of training and development
tremendously while at the same time redirecting the content of
leadership programs by tying it to decisions and skills affecting the
company’s current performance issues.
Leadership
A new set of competencies are required
by leaders in this turbulent
time. The key set of skills that the existing
CEO’s possess to drive through
this storm are not the same at all as
the ones they have been using so far
in what was the booming economy.
Unfortunately, some of those CEO’s
don’t even possess the skills, hard or
soft, for this adventure sport. According to Lowell Bryan and Diana
Farrell in their article on “Leading through uncertainty”, executives
need greater flexibility to create strategic and tactical options they
can use offensively and defensively as market conditions change;
they need a sharper awareness of their own and their competitor’s
positions; and they need to make their organizations more resilient.
Stanton Chase International is conducting a survey across the
GCC Region, engaging with Leaders and HR Heads in a variety of
industries to consolidate their thoughts on the key competencies
that their senior and executive talent pool will need to have to
drive or support the continued growth of organizations during
this crisis. Until the results are out, suffice it to say, there is definitely
a different set of skills, and without those skills, some companies
may not survive.
Here is the upside
The companies that manage to make
it through, will emerge triumphant as
others who don’t will fall. This is a
classic case of “survival of the fittest”.
Suddenly, companies that will
emerge will find themselves in a
more robust market with less competition,
more demand to meet their
supply, and in a stronger ship manned by a tough crew and lead by
a clear minded strategist at the helm, with a strong vision for
growth in the years to come.
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