In the previous article, Linh Do,  Head of Professional Services at The KPI Institute Vietnam, highlights the geopolitical, environmental, and economic challenges that impact Southeast Asia. Understanding these factors is crucial for grasping the local dynamics and uncovering regional growth opportunities. In this article, Linh will delve into potential measures that can be implemented to enhance performance management in the region. 

Improving performance management in Southeast Asia involves diversifying their supplier base, investing in innovation, enforcing sustainable practices, leveraging AI technologies, and upskilling employees.

Implement risk management strategies. To mitigate the further impact of global recession and trade disruption, companies should pay attention to risk management in planning their strategy and manage them accordingly. This begins with implementing proactive risk assessment measures to identify potential threats that might negatively affect their business and the weaknesses within their operation that might strengthen those impacts. Subsequently, companies can employ various remedies to address these vulnerabilities. Organizations can secure a steady supply of raw materials by evaluating alternative sourcing options, establishing backup suppliers, and exploring local or regional partnerships while mitigating the risks associated with production delays and cost fluctuations.

Capture and manage the impacts on ESG-related matters. Businesses will need to manage this aspect through effective strategy planning associated with performance management practices, such as setting objectives to identify opportunities for sustainable business growth, reduce carbon footprints, and implement sustainable supply chain practices. Some KPIs to consider may include # Initiatives to promote environmental responsibility,  % Current production lines that are environmentally friendly, and % Energy produced from renewable sources.

Adjust performance management practices to stay productive in the new work arrangement. To ensure remote workers remain engaged and productive while maintaining a sense of connectedness and collaboration with colleagues, companies like Lazada have implemented remote work policies, providing online training programs and running digital Employees Net Promoter Score surveys to support their engagement and professional development. In addition, companies should move the focus from measuring process KPIs such as # Work hour to finish a task to more output and value-oriented KPIs such as # Tasks done on time that meet the requirements.

Utilize new technologies effectively. An excellent example of this is companies like Grab and DBS Bank have implemented AI technologies to streamline operations and improve customer experiences. To succeed in AI implementation, companies need clear performance metrics. Depending on their goals, such as cost reduction or lead time improvement, relevant KPIs can be used, like % cost saved or # lead time using AI technology.

Identifying the optimal approach to maintain resilience in this highly dynamic environment is challenging, yet managing them to ensure relevancy and effectiveness is even more arduous. Therefore, it is important to equip yourself with comprehensive knowledge and skills to facilitate these processes. 

Elevate your competitive edge by enrolling in The KPI Institute’s Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional and Certified Performance Management Professional courses, allowing you to gain insights into these subjects and maintain a leading position in your field.

Linh Do, Head of Professional Services at The KPI Institute Vietnam, shared insights regarding macroeconomic trends and their worldwide influence on performance management practices in the 2023 Business Pulse: 5 Trends Impacting Strategy and Performance Management webinar. In a two-part series of articles, she delves into the trends impacting Southeast Asia and explores potential measures to strengthen performance management in the region.

Identifying the economic, environmental and geopolitical issues affecting Southeast Asia is crucial for understanding its local dynamics and opportunities for growth. Here are some of the emerging trends affecting the region’s landscape.

The global recession.  The ongoing trade crisis between the US and China has led to disruptions in the supply chain: delayed production, longer delivery times, and a lack or excess of stock of specific materials. The region’s trade is correlated with industrial production cycles and any downturn or recession in the global economy, which will affect the market. 

The role of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in strategy planning. ESG is another point worth mentioning and has received a lot of attention lately. In 2023, 30% of companies in ASIA-based 2000 (A2000) capture ESG-related goals in their strategy, and this figure is expected to rise to 40% in 2024. Moreover, third-party assessments will heavily consider ESG factors, with approximately 20% of A2000 companies prioritizing these risks over security, financial, and operational risks. This change is driven by the transition of sustainability performance disclosure regulations from voluntary to mandatory, demonstrating the region’s strong commitment to fulfilling the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The shift in work culture. This shift impacts performance management practices in SEA. Traditionally, the region has been characterized by a culture of long working hours and a focus on face-to-face interactions. However, as work culture continues to shift towards remote work and flexible working arrangements, this could significantly change how businesses operate and manage performance in the region. 

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This is another trend impacting performance management practices in SEA as companies in the region started utilizing AI to reduce heavy labor costs and stay up-to-date with market developments. However, this will also require upskilling employees to utilize these technologies effectively. 

Adapting to changes and emerging trends in managing performance will be challenging, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. However, some techniques can fast-track and make the process easier for organizations. If you would like to learn about them, join The KPI Institute’s Certified Performance Management Professional course to stay ahead in the race!

In recent years, businesses have placed a greater emphasis on sustainability. However, pursuing sustainable business as a primary strategy differs from merely engaging in sustainable practices. The Performance Magazine Issue No. 25, 2023 – Sustainability Edition presents in-depth analyses and practical perspectives on the latest issues and trends in incorporating sustainability into operations and strategies. 

Moreover, this issue provides guidance for organizations looking to successfully adopt sustainable practices as well as the challenges and opportunities involved in the process. 

Gracing the cover of this issue is  Eelco van der Enden, chief executive officer (CEO) of Global Reporting Initiative. He shared updates on sustainability reporting practices worldwide, discussed the importance of the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sustainability reporting, and emphasized how sustainability creates value for stakeholders and becomes crucial for long-term success.

Readers will also gain valuable insights on how to foster a culture of sustainability in organizations through exclusive interviews with sustainability experts from different companies, such as Kearney, Almarai Group, FIFA World Cup™, and Accenture. 

Furthermore, experts from The KPI Institute will provide answers to pivotal sustainability questions affecting organizations today:

• What are the key drivers of sustainability in organizations, and what role does the performance management system play in creating a sustainable organization? 
• What KPIs are a MUST in reporting sustainability matters? 
• How can an organization create meaningful sustainability reports?

The magazine includes articles highlighting best practices in strategic planning, strategy execution, employee performance, benchmarking, data analysis, and data visualization. Moreover, the latest edition now includes a new section called Career Insights, which features the article, “The power of process thinking for performance management professionals.” Additionally, readers can access a variety of informative resources on strategy and performance management in the Recommended Resources section.

To expand your knowledge on sustainability as part of strategy and performance management, be sure to check out the latest issue of Performance Magazine. You can download the digital version through the TKI Marketplace or order a printed copy from Amazon.

Is your organization prepared to navigate the evolving global landscape?

The KPI Institute will host a webinar titled “2023 Business Pulse: 5 Trends Impacting Strategy and Performance Management” on April 12, 2023, at 22:00 PM GST, live on Webex. The event is tailored for executives and professionals in strategy and performance management seeking to position their organizations for success in the current business landscape.

The participants will gain key insights into the global trends that are influencing strategy and performance management practices. They can also share their on-the-ground experiences and seek advice from the experts. In addition, they will receive a complimentary copy of The KPI Institute’s Annual Global Brief 2023.

The speakers of the webinar are Islam Salahuddin and Cristina Mihailoaie. Islam the data expert at The KPI Institute’s Research Division, bringing together knowledge in data analysis and business research. He possesses valuable experience in conducting market research and business analysis, focusing on the infrastructure sector. His academic and background in mass communication and data-driven journalism further enhances his ability to provide unique insights and perspectives to his work.

As the business unit manager of the Research Division at The KPI Institute, Cristina is responsible for developing the strategy for the research business line and overseeing the development of new educational products. With extensive experience in the field, she has presented at numerous international conferences, such as the Human Resources Shared Services Summit and Expo in Chicago (USA) and the HR Directors Summit in Birmingham (UK). Her presentations offer valuable insights into optimizing performance management systems to provide added value to organizations.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn how to stay ahead of the competition in the ever-changing business environment. You can register now by completing the form: https://buff.ly/414TJpV

For inquiries, contact:

Alaa Safwan

Event Manager

Email: [email protected]

WhatsApp: +961 71 590 467

The KPI Institute’s Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional course schedule for 2023 is out now. This training program is designed for professionals and organizations aiming to stay relevant, agile, and innovative in today’s fast-paced world.

The certification is the result of a complex, experiential learning program that has three sections: pre-course activities, three days core-course activities, and post-course assignments. Throughout the course, participants will learn how to develop a strategic mind frame, explore key strategy planning concepts, apply strategy planning tools to individual and team exercises, and reflect on the best practices in the field through case studies and debates.

In addition, the Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional course provides access to a network of specialists, who are encouraged to share business opportunities and innovative solutions to strategy planning challenges.

Among the topics in the course are the architecture of the strategy planning process, internal and external environment scanning, cascading the strategy from the corporate level, identifying KPIs for strategic objectives, and setting targets for KPIs.

Check out the Live-Online and Face-to-face classes of the Certified Strategy and Business Planning Professional course today here.

For questions about our courses, contact:

Sasikala Annamalai 

Senior Business Development Manager

E: [email protected]

M: +60 12 591 1366

Teodora Gorski

Managing Director MENA

E: [email protected]

M: +971 55 787 6427

Alexandru Muntean

Head of Customer Engagement

E: [email protected]

M: +40 747 060 997

The newest edition of the PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE is now available in The KPI Institute’s Marketplace and Amazon.

The 22nd edition of the Performance Magazine focuses on how data may transform businesses while producing significant results considering that in today’s generation, everything is developing fast and drastically, including how plans are established and implemented, as well as how employees carry out their jobs. 

On the cover, join Kevin Hartman, Google’s Chief Analytics Evangelist, and dive into the world of data analytics. Discover how data creates new structures and dynamic bonds while embodying digitalization.

Moreover, this issue explores how artificial intelligence affects performance management, what makes a strong data strategy, and what the top business intelligence trends are like in 2022. It also covers the digital initiatives of several cities across the world using performance assessment methods and strategic development ideas. This edition can be an instrument for learning how to embrace technological change while making achievements in sustainability.

The 22nd Performance Magazine highlights the following:  

• The state of strategy and performance management in 2022
• Updates on industry trends, best practices, and innovations
• Role of data analytics in business strategy and performance
• Interviews with strategy experts and academicians
• Comprehensive global analysis and concept presentations
• Exclusive insights from top consultants
• Guides in boosting personal performance
• Recommended resources and tools for data savvy and decision-makers

Learn more about data analytics, innovation, and digitalization in relation to strategy and performance management while reading through each page of the PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE Issue No. 22, July 2022. You can grab a digital copy in The KPI Institute’s Marketplace or through this link: Performance Magazine 22. For an additional printed copy, you can order yours via Amazon. 

“Learning is changing, and management is changing. But it’s exciting to be part of this change,” according to Dr. Aurel Brudan, CEO and founder of The KPI Institute. 

In a podcast interview hosted by Lu Ngo of ILMS, Dr. Aurel shared his knowledge and insights on the changes that organizations have been navigating since the pandemic started. With over 19 years of international work experience in Europe, North America, and Australia, Dr. Aurel has delivered training and learning sessions in a variety of settings for different industries. His areas of expertise include strategic and operational planning, project management, and strategic performance management systems implementation.

In the past two years, Dr. Aurel said that the interest in digital transformation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence has increased. In terms of strategy and performance management, he explained that the trends revolve around agility, innovation, and relationship management, which shapes how companies interact with customers and employees. He stressed the importance of constantly monitoring the business environment and responding to the changes accordingly.

One powerful change he observed is “the accelerated pace of innovation,” which influences how people experience services today, such as dining and shopping. He pointed out that innovation can be driven by either organizations or individuals who now have more time to “refocus their efforts and reprioritize things in their lives.”

According to Dr. Aurel, The KPI Institute is also adapting to the times in several ways. Its latest efforts are enhancing research frameworks across various research centers, restructuring learning journeys, and exploring the practice of consulting 4.0 or delivering consultancy services in a virtual environment.

Dr. Aurel also delved into the most pressing issues that affect how organizations develop their strategies. He explained how integrating sustainability into business plans could affect profitability and how a certain level of capability maturity can sustain operations. He expounded on the equilibrium between efficiency and resilience as well as the concept of well-being performance. In addition, he described how too much efficiency can affect the productivity and attitude of employees.

One of the questions that Ngo asked Dr. Aurel concerns organizations with limited resources: How will they be able to apply the new best practices in order to thrive these times? Watch the whole podcast interview to find out what he believes is the best solution.

The other topics discussed during the interview are:

• The three major changes in managing and measuring employee performance in work from home setup
• The four enablers of the changes in strategy and performance management
• How The KPI Institute applies the latest concepts in strategy
• Two important practices that will shape the workplace culture in 2022

Discover them all by watching Dr. Aurel’s entire interview now!

Editor’s Note: Below is an excerpt from the article “Key Drivers for Strategic Planning in a Post-pandemic Business Environment,” written by Daniela Vuta and published in the latest edition of Performance Magazine. It presents trends, solutions, and best practices for strategy and performance management through in-depth articles, first-hand how-to’s, concept presentations, case studies, and expert insights.

The business landscape has always been complex and dynamic. Organizations use strategic frameworks and business models validated through practice to cope with an ever-changing environment. But this was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to radical and disruptive changes across industries. 

The European Business Review identified six essential forces driving change into the world of business: impactful technology, demographic change, rapid urbanization, amplified individuals, economic power shifts to climate, and resource security.  

“For years, we have been hearing and talking about the impending VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world,” wrote Quy Huy, INSEAD Professor of Strategic Management, in an article for INSEAD Knowledge. “Over and over again, we were told to prepare for the seismic change that was sure to arrive, to boost agility in anticipation of abrupt, profound disruption.”

“COVID-19 was a misfortune long foreseen; only the dates and other specific details were missing. Now that the whole world has experienced the VUCA that only emerging markets used to face, it can never again be treated as an abstraction,” Huy added.

Many organizations are still relying on the five-year plan as a strategic framework, but this type of planning, while proven to be useful in the past, may not be feasible today. It puts business leaders in a reactive mode when responding to business events. Given these conditions, what are the key drivers that executives will need to consider in strategic planning for the years to come? 

According to Euromonitor’s Voice of the Industry: Lifestyles Survey 2020, corporate strategy planning and recovery should rely on three main pillars: consumer, digital investment, and sustainability. Findings from the study showed that the most common strategic objectives for 2021 among the interviewed companies were focused on recovery and growth, brand image, technology investment, and organizational structure redesign, mostly by transforming operations for greater agility and flexibility. 

The capacity to identify drivers that might compromise the organization’s long-term profitability or determine strategic success in the future is going to be critical. For decision-makers, this will imply both questioning long-standing assumptions and future visions in a systematic way. Nonetheless, making predictions for an uncertain future and integrating them into strategic decisions is not an easy endeavor.

Want to understand the importance of prediction, adaptability, and resilience; digitalization; and agile integration to businesses in the post-pandemic world? Read the rest of the article in the latest edition of Performance Magazine  Download your FREE COPY now!

Editor’s Note: Below is an excerpt from the article “The Challenge to the C-Suite: How to Build Execution Into Strategy,” written by Adia Manea and published in the latest edition of Performance Magazine. It presents trends, solutions, and best practices for strategy and performance management through in-depth articles, first-hand how-to’s, concept presentations, case studies, and expert insights.

Strategies remain strategies until they are executed. Why is it hard for some organizations to translate what transpires in the boardroom into action?

Only 3% of the 1,526 business professionals who responded to a global survey commissioned by the American Management Association in 2019 said that their organizations were “very successful” at executing strategies.

In today’s business climate, it is critical to adopt a performance management system that makes the parts of an organization operating asynchronously to stick together like puzzle pieces. This leads to real initiatives for change and supports decision makers as they forge ahead or change course as necessary. 

A Roadmap for Results

How can leaders build execution into strategy and generate results from strategy analysis and planning? First, let’s assess the existing challenges. Although there are hundreds of failed strategies, they do not serve as a lesson. Nevertheless, researchers noticed a list of issues that stamped the misalignment of activities to corporate strategy over the years. According to Forbes, unclear communication and priorities, the lack of coordination across units, the silo behavior (unwillingness of a group to share information with another group), resistance to change, and the lack of performance culture are persistent factors that shift away the efficiency of execution from the strategy plan. 

The silo behavior prevents organizations from becoming agile, and this aspect still dominates the corporate culture. Only 9% of managers say that they can rely on colleagues in the company all the time, according to a research conducted by Harvard Business Review (HBR). Unfortunately, when confronted with this perspective, the need to compensate appears, but the result undermines the strategy as without help, they duplicate efforts, overdue the deadline or cannot meet promises made to customers. 

The same study shows that 30% of managers recognize that the failure of coordination across departments increases the chances for the performance commitments to not be reached. It also intervenes in the poor quality of performance culture as it may not promote support among units. The resistance to adapt to market circumstances is a major obstacle for an effective execution. But companies do not always fail to adapt at all. 

The problem is that most organizations react slowly to the change so there is a risk of not being able to embrace fleeting opportunities. Being reluctant to change activates the incapacity of mitigating emerging threats or even losing sight of the strategic direction.

Designing a performance management architecture leads to a bird’s view of the actual context and progress of projects or processes conducted internally. By approaching a set of performance management practices, a better structure, alignment, integration, and use of what is already in place will dominate the organizational context. In other words, the organizational strategy is digested through an integrated performance management system.

Companies must develop a strategy execution framework that aligns projects with initiatives to achieve their desired results. The project-based work is composed of activities that bring the organizational state closer to specific goals. By looking into project portfolios, one can assess the strategies in which the company chose to invest. The aim of the strategy execution framework is to align the project portfolios with the strategy. Once implemented, the framework adds a filter to the way management leads and executes in the sense that the steps taken are towards executing the strategy and not just walking around it.

Now, what is the connection between the performance management system and the strategy execution framework? Imagine the process of strategy execution as an octopus. The head is the performance management system in which the strategy is fragmented through the vision, mission, values, objectives and initiatives, while the arms are the projects conducted in portfolios that convey the alignment of resources and align with the overall strategy.

Discover how organizations can overcome strategy execution challenges by reading the rest of the article in the latest edition of Performance Magazine. Download your FREE COPY now!

Dear partners and beloved community,

On behalf of The KPI Institute, I would like to wish you all a wonderful spring and success in all your projects!

The first part of the year, as well as the beginning of a new season, brings a plus of energy in our lives, and hopefully, we can use this positive vibe to improve the organizations we are part of and to contribute to making the world a better place.

As we look forward to the challenges and opportunities 2022 has for us, I invite you to reflect on the latest practice in strategy and performance management by exploring the first printed edition of PERFORMANCE Magazine this year.  

You will find valuable insights related to adapting strategy to highly volatile business environments and structuring better performance management-related processes and tools. You will discover how employee performance is managed by modern organizations, trends in business analytics, and success stories from the public sector around the world.

For the Cover Story, I presented the highlights of The KPI Institute’s 2021 global practices report related to strategic planning, performance measurement, and strategy execution. The full version of the report will be released in April. Follow The KPI Institute’s LinkedIn page and stay tuned for the announcement!

Equipping you with the latest research and industry know-how to achieve performance excellence has always been the core of The KPI Institute’s existence. The latest issue of PERFORMANCE Magazine is just one of the many exciting things we have planned for you this year.

Enjoy reading and thank you for making us a part of your learning journey!

Cristina Mihăiloaie

Business Unit Manager – Research Division

The KPI Institute