Personal Strategic

Development plan

February,2023
—
Strategic Management
—
Prof. Khalid Bekhit

Prepared by
Ahmed Embaby
Table of Contents
Personal Strategic .......................................................................................................................................1
Development plan ......................................................................................................................................1
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Background................................................................................................................................................ 3
Strategy Formulation Phase ...................................................................................................................... 4
SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 5
Strategy Implementation Phase ................................................................................................................ 7
Strategy Evaluation Phase ....................................................................................................................... 10

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 2

 Introduction
This paper will introduce my Personal Strategic Development Plan. It should help me establish the
strategies needed to develop my personal and professional skills which will directly impact my career
progression. Also it will help me conclude the actions accompanying the strategies and the evaluation
method.

Background
I have a bachelor of electronics and communications engineering from Cairo University, obtained in
2008. Afterward, I joined the armed forces to complete my military service. Then I joined IBM as a
technical support for one of IBM's customers that have their customer technical support services
outsourced to IBM. In 2012 I moved to another department as an IT specialist, responsible for the
internal IT infrastructure and asset management in IBM client Innovation center, the delivery arm for
IBM Global business services. As a result of my efforts in enhancing IT processes and handling several
internal IT projects, I was named IT Infrastructure Leader to all MEA client innovation centers, leading
IT teams in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan, and South Africa. My interaction with delivery teams made me
more interested in customer interfacing roles, especially in project management.

My search for an opportunity in delivery teams was crowned by a shadowing opportunity for a senior
project manager in one of IBM projects in the retail industry. Afterward, I was appointed as a project
manager to Egypt team in this project. This project was followed by several assignments in several
projects in different customer industries like banking, Telecommunication, oil and gas, and airlines.

I was targeting to build a strong project manager profile having good control of project management
standards and practices that offer smart and out-of-the-box solutions in delivering agreed scopes and
achieving customer satisfaction. This attracted the interest of Valeo Egypt team, who were searching
for someone to lead a newly born project management team that consists of young project managers. I
moved to Valeo Egypt in the beginning of 2019 as a program manager for Augmented Visibility business
group. In Valeo, my role extended to build the governance and control mechanisms for a portfolio of
projects and coach a team to apply the project management standards efficiently to bring all projects to
success. My role in Valeo revealed another passion I have which is investing in people and mentoring
younger project managers to be successful ones.

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 3

 Strategy Formulation Phase
Core Values
I believe that each person has his/her some core values either adopted or targeted. Since I started my
professional career trying to embrace commitment, efficiency, integrity, accuracy, creativity and giving
the role model of how successful project manager should be.

As a people manager and as a leader, my mission was to mentor me team to how build a healthy
relationship with stakeholders through clear, effective and assertive communication and maintain a
productive and cooperative business environment which I believe they are core values in a successful
project manager profile.

Vision statement
Supporting the organization to deliver customer expectations with high quality and achieving the
organization’s targeted projects’ KPIs which confirms the industry leadership by the company.

Mission statement

To be in a position in an organization that allows me to perform changes and improvements in the

delivery processes to bring the best value to customers by mastering project and program management
standards and transferring valuable knowledge to project managers.

My current competencies:
Academic skills

• Bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from Cairo University.

• ITIL Foundation Certificate, ITIDA
• Scrum Master Certificate, IBM
• Fundamentals of Lean Six Sigma, IBM
• Currently enrolled in Master of Business Administration, Eslsca Paris School.

Working skills

• Leading Project Management function.

• Responsible for the achievement of the Projects portfolio KPI in terms of profitability (both
product/development vs Development Activity Payback and Extended Margin), Quality and
Production Preparation
• Solve all projects’ issues requiring any type of support of all suitable functions via the Project
Escalation

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 4

 • Check and validate Project Managers' activities and proposes timing scenario to achieve
milestones
• Define and manage projects financial KPIs
• Prepare decision making process for relevant committees and challenge project team readiness
• Owning and implementation of change management process.
• Lead and coach Project Managers
• Contribute to Working Groups to improve PM methodology
• Prepare/validate reports on Project development progress to PSC, PMC and to all Governance
stages when required
• Manage customer relationship (local and central) and coordinate communication with all
projects associated
• Ensure perfect management of crisis if any
• Promote organization values, culture and standards (Product, Methodology, Tools) within the
Program Project teams and control their application

Personal skills

• Leadership
• Problem-solving and decision-making skills;
• Communication skills;
• Self-motivated;
• Strategic thinking.

SWOT Analysis
Internal Factor (strengths and weaknesses)
Strengths Weakness

• Excellent control and knowledge of project • Creativity

management standards and practices. • Need to improve my presentation skills and
• People management and leadership skills that how to build an attractive presentation.
supported me in leading project management • Need to be more patient awaiting results.
functions. • Work-life balance
• Enthusiastic to improve business processes to • Understanding organizational politics
achieve better results.
• Diverse experience in several IT and
Automotive industries.
• Good communication skills that helps me to
build healthy and fruitful relationships with
internal stakeholders and customers.
• Good strategic thinking.
• Experience with several support function
“HR, Finance, and procurement”.
• MBA in progress

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 5

 Opportunities
• Digital transformation happening in
several industries to get benefit of new
technologies and trends.
• Expansion expected in IT industry in
Egypt in the light of the MOU recently
signed between Egyptian ministry of
communication and several tech
providers.
• Growth in IT providers and consumer
startups
• Network developed during my MBA
studies
Threats
• Economic conditions affected by Covid
and war in west Europe
• Project management field specially in IT
doesn’t require strong technical
background although it is an advantage,
which reflects on the pool of available
profiles in the market and results in
strong competition. Skills differentiation
is really essential.

External factor (opportunities and threats)

Strategic areas of improvement according to the SWOT analysis:

1) Education & Knowledge(S1,S8);

2) Interperosnal Skills (S2,S5,S6, W1,W2,W3,W4);
3) Experience (S3,S4,S7,W5);
4) Business Exploration (O1,O2,O3,O4);

Strategic areas of focus during the next 5 years:

Strategic Areas of focus during the next 5 years are:

• Skills development;
• Career growth;
• Financial Stability and growth.

Long-term objective:

Following the strategic areas of focus above, my plan should cover 3 coordinates:

Skills Development:

My skills development plan should cover educational and knowledge activities that will support skills
development. For the educational plan, I should be obtaining my MBA degree. I have on year
remaining in my academic studies. I believe will add to my knowledge and skills in various business
areas. After finishing my MBA, I am planning to obtain Program management professional certificate
from PMI. I admit it is a late step, but late is always better than never. This certificate should reflect
more control on large and complex programs and projects that I am already handling.
In parallel I will take the opportunity of the workshops offered by the company through external
suppliers to enhance managers interpersonal skills.
Also I am targeting to work on my presentation skills through taking some online courses in building
professional presentations and may be searching for a mentor in this area.

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 6

Career Growth:

I consider the coming two years as a period for experience gap closure to prepare me for an executive
position in my current company or another company. I will focus on interaction with upper
management and involve myself in strategic initiatives, offer support in implementation or may be
take the lead. This will prove my poetntial to climb in the organization hierarchy. This kind of
interaction will help me learn and broaden my knowledge and speed up my readiness for a more
senior position in management team in any organization.

Financial growth and stability:

Again, this objective is directly linked to my career growth. The more advance in my career, the more
income and benefits I will expect. This will give me more space to do some savings and invest in some
assets like real estate.

Strategy Implementation Phase

Objectives:

• Obtaining MBA Degree;

• Obtaining PgMP Certificate
• Improve my presentation skills
• More Senior Position
• Financial stability

Action Plan

Short Term Strategic Objective I (one year) now till end of 2023
Objective I Obtaining MBA Degree

Description Finishing my school year and obtaining the degree

Current Finished one year and one year remaining (8 subjects)

Status

Prerequisites NA

Indicator of Getting success grades

success

Time Horizon By end of 2023

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 7

 Short Term Strategic Objective II (One year)
Objective II Improve my presentation skills

Description Taking a course in building presentations with google slides and powerpoint

Current Have fair knowledge to build presentations

Status

Prerequisites Taking online course

Indicator of Being able to build and present attractive presentations

success

Time Horizon By end of 2023

Long Term Strategic Objective II (Two years)

Objective III Obtaining PgMP Certificate

Description Taking the preparation course and obtaining PgPM certificate

Current Not started yet

Status

Prerequisites Taking the preparation course

Indicator of Getting the passing score in PgMP exam

success

Time Horizon By end of 2024

Long Term Strategic Objective IV (Five years)

Objective IV More Senior Position

Description Promotion or move to a more senior position in the organization or in other

company
Current Ongoing
Status

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 8

 Prerequisites Involvement in strategic initiatives and interaction with top management

Indicator of Succession to move to a more senior management position

success

Time Horizon By end of 2027

Long-Term Strategic Objective II (Two years)

Objective V Financial stability

Description Achieving financial stability by opening investment certificates and investing

in real estate.
Current Ensuring no debts
Status

Prerequisites Promotion or moving to a more senior position in another organization

Indicator of Buying investment certificate and buying any shape of real estate
success

Time Horizon By end of 2027

Strategies to be adopted:

This is the step to determine how I can reach my long-term objectives. The vision and mission
statement declared earlier, and the analysis done in the SWOT analysis to determine my internal
strengths and weaknesses in addition to the external opportunities and threats that will have an
impact on reaching my goals, all of these will count in selecting the proper strategies. In the light of
my long-term objectives, below will be strategies to be followed:

Personal Development Strategy:

Knowledge is power will be the slogan of this stage in my life. Each career has certain required or
desired knowledge, skills, and abilities that are essential for success on the job. Skills and knowledge
development will pave the way to any other growth type in my career and in life in general. Knowledge
and skills development will add to my maturity in handling situations in business and life. This will be
done by following the right mentors and the proper knowledge channels. I will focus on the
knowledge related to my job and industry and the skills that will improve how I am doing the job.

Network Development Strategy:

With all the opportunities available, it will be essential to extend my professional network. I am a
sociable guy by nature, and I am always keen to know new people. However, I am giving a particular

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 9

focus on networking with my MBA class colleagues and this already offered me an opportunity in one
the of banks working in Egypt through a colleague recommendation. I will continue to give focus in
the coming 5 years on extending my network more to learn about and explore new opportunities.

Financial Stability Strategy:

With all economic challenges the world is going through, it became essential to revisit my spending
and saving habits. Still this 5, years strategies y linked to my career growth, however my habits and
changing the mindset will be a key turning point to my financial conditions. With knowledge and
network development I will explore the investment opportunities in the real estate, stock market and
banking financial products.

Strategy Evaluation Phase

Evaluation and review

For any evaluation, KPIs and evaluation milestones should be specified first. My plan is to decide
KPIs for each objective and evaluation period. I will be performing the evaluation each quarter and
compare to the planned expectations in this period. If KPIs are being met, then plan will be moving
with no change. If what is being achieved is far from the expectations, then I will be revisiting the plan
and the actions linked.

Personal Strategic Development Plan PAGE 10