First published at: Performance MagazineMay 25, 2015

Republished by Orchestrator Magazine December 2015

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Performance Magazine’s

Expert Interview with

Eng. Ahmed Ragab

Principal Partner of Resilience& Middle East

Written by Diana ZărnescuHead of Publishing | The KPI Institute – Romania

Orchestrator MagazineBusiness Magazine by Resilience& | Middle East

December 2015

Performance Management is the

upcoming Organization

Orchestrator!

As Performance Management is continuously growing in popularity and maturity, any advancements in the field cannot be achieved without the collective support and insights of academics, practitioners and consultants.

What does the term Performance Management mean to you?Optimization! Many companies are wasting hundred thousands of USD annually in order to satisfy their clients or to achieve their targeted annual goals,

however some performance management frameworks could help in optimizing the costs vs. returns. Performance Management, to me, means the Organization Orchestrator.

What drives interest in Performance Management?Cost saving, people engagement, stakeholder’s evaluation, and organizational governance!

37| www.resilienceand.co.uk

What are the 2015 key

trends in Performance Management from your point of view?In order to position the “Organizational Orchestrator”, I see the following trend could change the equation in terms of the products’ design, consulting approaches as well as implementation methodologieshow to softly automate the entire organizational performance management topology covering the following contexts: people performance, technology applications, support operations, regulatory compliance, customer engagement management, investors’ relationships, and suppliers’ engagement.

Which are the main challenges in today’s Performance Management practice?Lack of awareness about the value of such practices for business owners, as well as the lack of certified professionals in this domain who could advise different industries.

What do you think should be improved in the use of Performance Management tools and processes?Any attempt to have different languages’ tools/applications interfaces would greatly impact idea spreading in the Middle East. Also the ease of using and filling the dashboard details, so people can be encouraged to participate in such tools/processes-automation.

What would you consider best practices in Performance Management?PDCA, Six-Sigma (for processes improvement), as well as benchmarking as per industry relevance.

Recommended: The KPI Institute

is an international independent research institute specialized in business performance.

View point:

Performance management isnot only an HR job. It is awhole corporate mission

Orchestrator MagazineBusiness Magazine by Resilience& | Middle East

December 2015

What are your thoughts on the relationship between Performance Management at organizational, departmental and individual level?

Any organizational strategic dimension shall be cascaded down to departmental goals/targets. The more this departmental goal can be linked to the individuals’ tasks/roles, the more traceable and achievable that goal is. Accordingly, the simple insight about this relationship is a top-down strategy for setting individual performance indicators. And a Bottom-up approach in evaluating these indicators and getting the organizational cumulative ones!

What aspects of Performance Management should be explored more through research?

Supplier performance management, Regulatory Compliance Operations’ Performance Management, and Processes Benchmarking.

Which companies would you recommend to be looked at, due to their particular approach to Performance Management and subsequent results?

As per my coverage of the Middle East, especially the Gulf region, I’d highly recommend following the performance management practice of Retail Industries, as this sector has the majority of diversified operations that could be under one retail umbrella, and some of the market leaders started to seek operational excellence awards. And this, by itself, will bring more insights bout new approaches to the performance management culture in Middle East.

Which aspects of Performance Management should be emphasized during educational programs?

Different types of KPIs design, and understanding the nature of organizational business processes as there are dramatic differences between private sectors and the

governmental ones.

Which are the limits in order to achieve higher levels of proficiency in Performance Management among practitioners?

(a) Awareness and Advanced Programs’ availability (lack of outreach), (b) Clear learning and accreditation paths, (c) Back-to-community contributions from the practitioners, and (d) Lack of published articles with tangible frameworks, tools, and case studies.

If you are to name, in a few words, the main aspects governing Performance Management today, what would they be?

Balanced Scorecard, KPIs, Process Analysis/Mapping, Processes Automation, and Improvement.

What is your opinion on the emerging trend of measuring performance outside working hours?

I can agree, only if the way of doing this is interesting (I mean using interactive technology programs/interfaces) and the results are directly mapped to the employee’s work improvement in a SINCERE manner.

As a consultant, what are the most common issues that your customers have signaled, related to Performance Management?

Lack of clear goals identification (to be more aligned with corporate strategic dimensions) and weighting the objectives in a relatively reasonable manner.

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About Ahmed Ragab

Ahmed Ragab is the Transformation Practice Leader at Resilience&, a UK-based consulting network. Over 12+ years of hands-on experience, Ahmed Ragab has built vertical competencies in different integrated fields; Management Advisory, Technology Advisory and Processes Transformation. Ahmed is a business and motivational keynote speaker with numerous insights in international magazines. Named as a Business Architect by his peers, Ahmed believes in engineering business concepts and designing new business models and patterns to serve corporate performance improvement. Currently, Ahmed Ragab is serving a Principal Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Resilience& EMEA region.

For further inquiry, contact Ahmed at: aragab@resilienceand.co.uk