In industries where market fluctuations and technological advancements significantly shape the landscape, efficient strategy and performance management are crucial to maintaining high adaptability and a competitive edge. This holds true in the oil and gas sector, but according to Franklin Rodriguez, a seasoned leader with over 21 years of experience in the field, there’s still a gap to be closed.

Rodriguez, who is currently the Planning Deputy Manager at Andes Petroleum Ecuador, specializes in corporate strategy, performance management, and leading multicultural teams. In this interview, he shares his expertise and insights on aligning organizational goals, navigating industry challenges, and implementing performance metrics that ensure sustainable growth.

How do you perceive the current maturity of your industry regarding strategy and performance management practices in organizations? In which areas do you see significant room for improvement?

In Ecuador's oil and gas sector, strategy and performance management have advanced but still face challenges. While many companies have implemented formalized frameworks, there remains a gap in cross-functional collaboration, oil technology integration, and real-time data analytics. Significant room for improvement exists in aligning strategic initiatives with sustainability goals, improving operational agility, and leveraging digital solutions to optimize processes and make more data-driven decisions to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

What are the secret ingredients that differentiate an effective strategy planning process from a redundant one?

The key difference between an effective and a redundant strategy lies in clarity, adaptability, and alignment. Successful strategies stem from clear goals, data support, and adaptability to internal and external changes. They are also aligned across all levels of the organization, ensuring that every area contributes to the comprehensive objectives. On the other hand, redundant strategies often fail to evolve, lack ownership, and do not consider industry dynamics.

Why does strategy fail so often in organizations? Could you share some lessons learned from your organization/experience?

Strategy often fails due to a disconnection between planning and execution. From my experience, lack of stakeholder buy-in and infrequent strategy reviews in response to uncertainties affect implementation and results. In our company, it was essential to foster a culture of accountability and incremental improvement, set clear and measurable KPIs linked to the strategic goals, and present results quarterly to allow for more timely decisions. Strong support from senior management was also important in driving these initiatives forward.

What role does performance management play in managing an organization nowadays?

Performance management is the backbone of modern organizational management. It guarantees the translation of strategic goals into actionable plans and their effective tracking. In the oil industry, it plays a critical role in enhancing operational efficiency. By measuring and adjusting internal processes, performance management ensures that results align with financial objectives and targets across all areas. It ensures that every part of the organization contributes to overall strategic success.

How can business leaders make better decisions when confronted with so much data and information?

Leaders must focus on leveraging the most relevant data, rather than simply accumulating more. This requires not only setting clear objectives but also utilizing advanced data analytics tools to combine and filter critical information while promoting a decision-making culture that values insights over intuition. In our industry, the challenge is identifying key technical and economic trends and guiding strategic decisions based on targeted predictive analytics together with scenario planning.

What practices can senior leadership adopt to develop a culture of performance excellence in organizations?

Senior management can foster a culture of performance excellence by leading with transparency, setting clear expectations, and celebrating milestones of success. Encouraging continuous learning, providing regular review and feedback, and aligning goals at all levels in the organization are essential to promote a culture change. Additionally, immersing performance management into the company’s daily operations ensures that excellence becomes a routine practice and not only an additional statement in the corporate culture guidelines.

Where should organizations focus more of their attention to achieve performance excellence? Is it in optimizing the performance management system (doing things right at the framework level) or the business results (performance outcomes generated by different processes)?

Achieving performance excellence requires a balance. While optimizing the performance management framework is crucial for providing structure and consistency, organizations must also ensure that their focus extends to the actual outcomes considering their business limitations. By aligning internal areas with strategic objectives and continuously refining internal processes, companies can drive better results while ensuring that performance excellence evolves with the business.

What triggered your decision to undertake the Strategy and Performance Management Maturity Assessment?

We recognized the need for a deeper understanding of where our strategy and performance management processes stood compared to industry best practices. This assessment identified gaps in framework adoption, internal alignment, and opportunities for innovation. It also highlighted our strengths and areas where we could enhance our processes to achieve better outcomes while considering business constraints and corporate culture. It was an important decision that promoted an improvement process.

How did you find the assessment process?

The assessment process was both intuitive and transformative. It provided us with a clear and objective view of our current capabilities, strengths, and areas that required improvement. The validation process combined supporting document evidence and perceptions within the company. This approach provided us with a holistic understanding that prompted discussions about opportunities related to internal communication, operational efficiencies, strategic alignment, and adaptability to a rapidly changing industry landscape.

How did the Strategy and Performance Management Maturity Assessment contribute to the progress of the organization?

The assessment’s recommendations served as a roadmap that guided the improvement of our organization’s strategy and performance management process. It highlighted specific areas where we need to enhance our strategic planning and performance management framework and better align our operational outcomes with our strategic goals. As a result of the previous maturity assessments, we have been able to implement changes that increased our strategic communication and alignment, operational agility, optimized resource allocation, and improved overall business performance.

For more useful insights on Performance Management and Maturity Assessments click here:

https://kpiinstitute.org/Performance-Magazine-Issue-31-Business-Excellence-Edition.pdf