Strategic diagnosis

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that agility and the degree of resilience are now the new vectors of organizational strategy. Fully funded by the GIAC, the strategic diagnosis is an indisputable milestone in the good governance of a company.

As one of the key roles of managers, strategic diagnosis makes it possible to initiate a set of actions aimed at:

  • The performance of your commercial device (turnover).
  • Optimization of costs incurred to finance commercial and organizational performance.
  • Risk management aimed at maximizing added value by protecting tangible and intangible resources against any unforeseeable event that could compromise the objectives sought.

A true articulation between the vision and the achievement of socio-economic objectives, the strategic diagnosis allows our partners to have a "Strategy Map" while identifying a portfolio of strategic projects "Key strategic drivers". The proper execution of these strategic projects and the monitoring of the daily actions that compose them are the keystone for the cascade, in time and space, of the choices made when drawing up your organization's strategy.

Our immersion in socio-economic and sectoral news as well as our mastery of the latest intelligence and strategic analysis tools, give us the advantage of offering Moroccan SMEs a strategic diagnosis that carries in its DNA the most impactful competitive positioning while ensuring the compromise between:

  • The ambitions of managers and donors: growth, profitability of invested capital and good governance.
  • The internal capabilities of their companies: tangible and intangible maturity.
  • The opportunities and threats of the competitive business environment in which the company operates.

Finely adapted to your internal and external specificities, our strategic diagnostic service helps you build a real sustainable competitive advantage and create lasting value for both your customers and all interested parties defined when setting up the strategy.

The consultants of the Espace Expert firm support you throughout the strategic diagnosis process. The strategic analysis framework is in harmony with chapter 4 of the ISO 9001 version 2015 standard (HLS alignment in PDCA):

  • Field scan of internal strategic capabilities: Fixed assets, equipment, technologies, production tools, information systems, methods, human resources, financial resources, internal risk management, governance method as well as other elements depending on the size, culture and sector of activity of the company.
  • Screening of opportunities to be seized in the external environment and threats to be protected against: Customers, distribution, suppliers, direct and indirect competitors, barriers to entry, credit risks as well as other political, economic, demographic, sociological, technological, ecological and legal variables.
  • Identification of the strategic axes “Key Strategic Drivers” and breakdown of the axes (choices) into progress projects.
  • Drawing up the strategic map and setting financial and non-financial objectives.
  • Financial quantification of the choices made (portfolio of progress projects) and identification of sources of financing: Government programs for the support and assistance of operators (GIAC and Maroc PME).
  • Management cockpit: Cascade of strategic objectives at the operational level via the design of steering dashboards to improve the decision-making process: Day-by-day matrix of projects and KPIs (leading and lagging) organized into 4 perspectives (Finance, Market, Organization, Risks). Depending on cultural and financial maturity, companies can digitize this decision-making support tool on mobile applications (collection, processing, dissemination, data security and real-time decision-making).
  • Planning activities and allocating resources to operational actors.
  • Locking of the choices retained via a Risk Management system following the framework of ISO 31000 version 2018: coverage policy against internal risks (quality, health, safety, hygiene, environment, asset protection, data protection, cyber attack and Business Continuity Plan PCA.
  • Recommendation for the audit and monitoring of the selected strategic plan (Audit of projects via the ISO 19011 standard).
  • Document control plan for the strategy (classification, archiving and security of documents and forms).

Engineering and Training Plans

Competitive struggle is an ongoing battle for access to markets and resources in a sustainable and defensible manner.

Actually, the winds of the 4th industrial revolution (Editor's note: 4.0) have blown in all directions: Digitalization of socio-economic activities, spread of pandemics, geopolitical tensions, climate change, demographic evolution, cultural shift and intergenerational gap. So much new data that has radically transformed the decision-making process within organizations. To resist hostility and win the economic war, organizational leaders have become obliged to adopt a variable geometry management mode. It is a mode where the input data to feed decision-making change quickly and interfere with each other. Avoiding threats and seizing opportunities in such an unstable world where financial resources are scarce, pushes decision-makers, more than ever, to demand an organization and people who adapt quickly to new strategic maneuvers.

Such an alignment action (Strategy-Organization-People-Means), requires companies to have a human infrastructure that is alert and calibrated to the size of the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Such an alignment action (Strategy-Organization-People-Means), requires companies to have a human infrastructure that is alert and calibrated to the size of the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Our long experience in the field alongside our clients, operating in different sectors of activity, confirms this state of mind. Since the eve of the first lockdown, human resources departments have been intensively solicited by the other functions of their companies. The Covid-19 pandemic has completely disrupted classic and conventional practices in terms of Human Resources Management. Everything happened in the blink of an eye: Abrupt shutdown of operations, loss of trust, securing receivables, distortion of the supply chain, digitalization of the economy, organizational reinvention generated by remote working, management of health barriers, lack of visibility, energy increase, drought, etc. Undoubtedly, such developments have fundamentally impacted the HR function.

Overall, as experts, we are impressed by the remarkable efforts made by HR managers and their teams to serve and support unplanned and urgent requests expressed by their colleagues in other functions of the company.

Ultimately, HR managers and top management know very well that in this time of crisis, the resilience and sustainability of the entire flag would undoubtedly depend on the level of commitment, agility and qualification of the human resources on board the ship.

Are our troops today, quantitatively (numbers) and qualitatively (skills), aligned with the battles of tomorrow (strategy)? An analogy that inspires training engineering in the business world.

 

Funded every year by the GIAC and the OFPPT, engineering projects and training plans are among the most complex exercises in the context of the modern economy. The passion of the Espace Expert firm for HR professions has developed among its consultants a technical mastery that they share with clients during the training engineering missions entrusted to us.

Together with our clients, we work on the assessment of the HR gap (quantitative and qualitative) in relation to strategic choices. The analysis of this gap between the HR demand expressed by the strategy and the HR offer provided by the organization leads us to the consolidation of deliverables such as:

  • HR SWOT: This SWOT is an HR avatar of the official SWOT carried out during the strategic diagnosis (Business Strategy).
  • Mapping of workforce and desired skills by profession and by project.
  • Design of a training project: Thematic training, qualification and versatility.
  • Framing of the content, methods and means used when setting up the training project.
  • List of critical milestones to master during the operational execution of training sessions and workshops.
  • Documentary system for traceability, validation and evaluation of training action.
  • Document control plan: Forms, records, KPIs, classifications, archiving and data protection.
  • Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Protocol planned for the gradual resumption of training activities.
  • Note on the training budget and the administrative procedure for mobilizing the public support subsidy (GIAC and OFPPT).

Employee recruitment

In such a changing socio-cultural and economic context, finding and retaining talented employees is a top priority for contemporary companies. However, it is very common to encounter difficulties during this process: scarcity of distinctive technical skills, sector culture, budget, urgency, lack of availability during mass recruitment operations, etc. Sometimes, replacing an employee costs an average of 6 to 9 months of salary depending on the job description and the sector of activity.

Recruitment is an investment that should be optimized and secured.

Recruiting is a process that requires intentional planning and constant evaluation.

In fact, to capture and sustain added value, companies’ strategy is called upon to constantly reconfigure itself. Sometimes, in competitive arenas, the efficiency of the recruitment campaigns of the protagonist companies can make all the difference.

The Espace Expert firm provides you with its extensive experience in this type of project and assists you in setting up a robust recruitment process in line with your socio-economic objectives.

10 key steps form the backbone of our intervention.

  • Step 1: Identify current and future hiring needs (operational and strategic needs).
  • Step 2: Prepare and update job descriptions including the type of employment contract and the salary range to be offered to candidates.
  • Step 3: Validation with top management: This involves validating forecasts, job descriptions, types of contracts, remuneration, the recruitment operation budget, planning and reporting for monitoring.
  • Step 4: Writing the ad and the editorial line to be followed by recruiters during the job interview.
  • Step 5: Planned dissemination of the advertisement and sourcing of candidates (internal and external databases).
  • Step 6: Sorting, pre-screening and scheduling appointments for selected candidates.
  • Step 7: Organize job interviews and report on progress.
  • Step 8: Selection of candidates and initiation of administrative and contractual formalities.
  • Step 9: Integration and immersion of new recruits.
  • Step 10: Evaluation of the recruitment campaign and recommendations for continuous improvement.

Process digitalisation

The impressive advances in New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) combined with improvements in algorithms and programming have ended up changing the relationship between people, resources and organizations. This upward trend of technological and informational domination pushes socio-economic actors to adapt in form and substance in order to take advantage of it. Deliberately, digitalizing your business is no longer a luxury, it is a vital necessity and a sign of good governance. A digitalized company brings people together, increases their performance and connects them to markets and the environment.

In this respect, the Espace Expert firm shares its technical expertise in information systems and IT development with its clients. We support you step by step to identify the internal processes and activities that can be digitalized. We are talking about digital deposits.

There are many areas with high potential for digitalization in a business. Depending on the sector of activity, size, technological maturity and culture of the company, our support adapts and is structured around eight phases:

  • Phase 1: Preliminary diagnosis of the organization and mapping of processes and the value chain in line with the guidelines of chapter 4 of ISO 9001 in its 2015 version: Framing of logical information and documentary flows of the business to locate digital deposits.
  • Phase 2: Analysis of opportunities and limitations by process: digital SWOT.
  • Phase 3: Establishment and communication of a digital roadmap: Objectives, scope, processes and activities concerned, requirements, planning, allocation of resources, communication and good digital governance.
  • Phase 4: Choice of digitalization solutions according to validated needs in terms of equipment, software, network and format: Business apps on mobile, Software, IOT, ERP, E-commerce, social networks and after-sales service.
  • Phase 5: Recruitment, redeployment, training and qualification of employees.
  • Phase 6: Definition of data storage, security, IT monitoring and digital PCA protocols.
  • Phase 7: Implementation of digitalization solutions and monitoring of digital investment performance.
  • Phase 8: Internal monitoring (user behavior and experience) and external monitoring (new digital opportunities and threats).
  • Business management and e-commerce;
  • Production management and traceability;
  • Purchasing and inventory management;
  • Logistics and transport management;
  • Financial and accounting management and recovery;
  • Human resources management;
  • Fixed assets and heritage management;
  • Access management and security of goods and people.