Organisations must adhere to the legislative, regulatory and social compacts that are the pre-requests for doing business. Businesses must cater for the future; they must consider the future and ultimately plan for it. They must must be custodians of the people that they serve and the environment within which they operate.
Creating the enabling environment for which businesses can succeed includes ensuring matters of governance are adequately captured. This includes ensuring up-to-date and relevant policies are prepared, stakeholders are engaged, and risks are prudently managed.
Does formal training capacitate employees and equip them for their current and future job requirements? AIA utilises a blended approach to provide a customised experience to trainees through interactive classroom activities, practical experience and digital learning catering to a variety of needs. We offer SETA-accredited courses (ranging from short courses to full qualifications) as well as customised training based on client requirements. AIA leverages off our sister-company Resonance Institute of Learning.
A critical part of any sustainable project is building internal capacity to follow through. No initial plan is ever perfect. The secret to successful, sustained improvement is building internal capacity that can recognise, analyse and overcome roadblocks. We have adapted a unique combination of consulting and capacity building with our clients – termed Project Based Action Learning (PBAL). We are a leading provider of public sector PBAL in Africa – having trained in excess of 5000 middle to senior managers utilising this approach. These concepts are about ‘Learning while doing’ and are internationally proven methodologies. Most critically, it builds cadres of managers who have been exposed to our ‘Virtuous Cycle’ of implementation.
A critical lesson from projects in the public sector is that a well-structured, managed and capacitated PMO is vital to success. Where we have seen clients underperform against plan it is almost always a result of underinvestment in this vital change management function. Successful change interventions require (1) the leadership support of the organisation and (2) a properly staffed Project Office and governance structure to coordinate and prioritize all interventions.
Most, if not all, of the organisations we have encountered have not had a formal process or system to manage and integrate strategy and performance management. Through our system Strategi EXE, AIA has a deep focus of embedding strategy through a systematic process of integration, alignment, communication and collaboration - ensuring strategy, its implementation and performance management all work together towards a common objective.
Aligning company policy to legislation to mitigate against business risk is necessary for all organisations. Having a comprehensive understanding of key risks while ensuring mitigation measures are prepared is prudent for managing against uncertainty.
Up-to-date and ethical corporate governance can enable an organisation's operations through relevant, concise and integrated policy and risk management.
Organisations must be responsible in how they interface with the environment, their communities and staff. Integrating sustainability elements into the core of the business is necessary in creating an environment within which all stakeholders can benefit, now and into the future.
Stakeholder engagement should be at the heart of any sustainably developed project. Without engaging stakeholders, there can be no common and enduring agreement, ownership or support for a particular project. A venture is more likely to succeed, especially in the long-term, if it takes into consideration the environment in which it operates and endeavours to meet the needs of the stakeholders affected by it.
Stakeholder engagement could be viewed as a form of risk management. All organisations and/or project developers must engage with a wide range of stakeholder groups, each with their own concerns, needs, conflicts of interest and levels of influence. Having a defined strategy and framework that aligns to the issues of shared value is central to having meaningful engagement towards desired outcomes.
