DANISH BUSINESS AUTHORITY CASE
HOW DO YOU INVOLVE 550 EMPLOYEES IN DEVELOPING A NEW STRATEGY?
THE DANISH BUSINESS AUTHORITY
T
he Danish Business Authority (ERST) was established through a merger of three business-related agencies after the election of the new Danish Government in the autumn of 2011. The purpose of the merger was to create synergies between the policy areas and contribute to substantial budgetary improvements. Expectations to the new agency were high – both from political side and from the Danish business community. Thus, ERST had an urgent need for integrating the various policy areas within its new resort and for setting a clear strategic direction for the coming years. First step in handling this change was to facilitate workshops and strategy sessions with the executive management in order to formulate the agency’s new vision, mission and strategic workstreams. Next step was to drive a comprehensive workshop process for each workstream in the strategy with the second and third level of management, who engaged in the task of developing strategic objectives, KPIs, projects and activities needed to support the vision. The deep involvement of the various management levels ensured a strong commitment across the group and strengthened the management’s ability to communicate the strategy to their employees.
A
nchoring a strategy in an organisation to ensure sustained change and results is paramount. But how do you involve all 550 employees in the strategy and create a sense of ownership of the strategic direction, while taking into consideration that the merger had also brought many new colleagues and different policy areas into the new agency?
An important step in anchoring the strategy in the organisation was a strategy day for all employees in the agency. An interactive IT-system was used to involve the employees and provide instant feedback and to gather a considerable amount of information for the operationalisation of the strategy and the process going forward.
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urthermore, a publication was prepared communicating the strategy in a straightforward manner with drawn illustrations of ERST’s vision, mission and the strategic workstreams; this boosted the employees’ ability to remember and re-tell the essence of the strategy.
The strategy day was concluded with a vote in which 88 per cent of all employees bought into the strategy. The further integration process in the agency looks promising, and the ambitious objective of creating the world’s most effective business framework has gained renewed force.