Organizational Values; A Vehicle For Growth and Resilience
Organizational Values;
A Vehicle For Growth and Resilience
The year 2020 marks the 10 year anniversary of Beyond Group. Frustrated with the seemingly futile attempts to achieve impact through civic action alone, a group of friends of multi-disciplinary backgrounds came together in Beirut to supply the change they had been demanding through civil society movements.
Today, Beyond Group brings together a growing team of dynamic consultants and an international network affiliates and partners eager to lead local level solutions for global sustainable impact through three core practices operating across the world with offices in North America and the Middle East; Policy & Public Management, Organizational Learning & Development, and Innovation and Technology Integration.
Partnering with governments, public institutions, international development agencies as well as civil society and private sector organizations to support the transformation of their organizations and communities, Beyond Group continues to strive for social and economic impact while nurturing valuable relationships along the way.
With a firm belief that “people” are at the core and center of organizations aspiring to make a change, the firm is modelled and run as a mission-driven enterprise whereby social impact, and not only profit, is the measure of its success. A decade later, the values that brought 10 founding partners together have been transformed into an organizational culture that ensures the firm’s growth, and resilience while remaining faithful to its driving purpose. Partnership, Participation, Learning, and Innovation for impact have not only become the cornerstones of BRD itself but the values we champion through our work across the world.
The firm’s extensive experience in developing countries and conflict-ridden regions has put these values to the test. Advocating for participatory models in non-democratic systems, or encouraging partnership across power-centric institutions will challenge any organization’s commitment to its mission. However the true testimony to a company’s organizational culture and agility is the way it navigates turbulence within the political, economic, and social environments and markets it lives. For Beyond Group, 2019 has been a testimony to the organizations well-being and ability to leap forward in congruence with its values despite the challenges that may come up..
Organizations in Lebanon today are facing stringent and haphazard capital controls that threaten their ability to plan forward and ensure sustainability for themselves and their teams. Over 10% of enterprises in the country have shut down their operations and many have had to downsize and reduce employee salaries. At times when an organization is facing such turbulent market conditions, its organizational culture can either increase its chances to grow beyond the challenges it faces or otherwise stifle its ability to act productively. Each individual within the team becomes an integral player in maintaining the resilience and continuity of the company’s work, purpose, and development. A shared value-set ensures that all these individual efforts are applied in synergy.
Over the course of 10 years, Beyond Group has been able to expand its operations, diversify its offering, and grow its network and team through the agility of its human-systems and with the support of a solid organizational culture acting as its compass. The trials of the past year have been transformational for the organization. Looking back, what posed as a challenge in 2019 has become our opportunity in 2020 to scale up the impact we aspire to make and see it realized beyond boundaries.
Partnership
Believing in partnership as means to ensure greater learning and production of knowledge Beyond Group continues to reach out to like-minded organizations and individuals expanding its network of partnership and affiliates. Effiqual Management Consultants was launched in March 2019 and is the newest addition to Beyond Group affiliates. Alongside Beyond Consulting and Training, Effiqual supports public and private sector organizations in their learning and transformation journeys, consulting in the areas of leadership, management systems, people and team development. Beyond Group has also established a growing network of strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations aiming to collaborate for scalable and sustainable impact. Throughout the past year this network has expanded to include Designed Learning-USA and FEMISE-Europe, NASCO-Kuwait, BK+ and Heights in the KSA, as well as IDEMA-Turkey. Through such alliances Beyond Group is able to expand its circle of reach, exchange of knowledge and impact footprint worldwide.
Participation
The economic repercussions of faulty financial engineering in Lebanon have brought about pressing conversations concerning the future of all private sector companies in the country. With its firm belief in the power of participation to develop solidarity and true ownership of and within an organization, Beyond Group made sure to make all financial information accessible to team members and involved everyone in the critical decisions that would need to be made. Whether in regards to investment, relocation of offices, or doubling up efforts on new business outreach, all team members are encouraged to get informed and partake in the decision making process and draw out the future of the group.
Innovation
The speed at which the world is changing can only mean that organizations must be ready to reinvent themselves with agility. With this in mind, the Policy & Public Management Practice set up an internal competition titled I-Cube to design and develop a series of proposals that innovate the organization’s services within one or more of the sectors it tackles. The proposals were presented to a jury of potential investors, business support and funding organizations. The experience resulted in the set up of The Group’s Innovation and Technology Integration Practice, supporting governments, as well as public and private sector organizations around the world through Innovation services, design and development of Digital Platforms, and Technology consulting to help increase their reach, efficiency and impact
Learning
One of Beyond Group’s core competences is designing learning experiences to develop and transfer knowledge not only within client organizations, but internally as well.
The Group’s internship program has always been a rich knowledge exchange program for both the organization as well as the partaking individuals who join the team from all over the world. This year the Group hosted over 12 interns, named Learning Consultants, from Belgium, the UK, France, Bahrein, Iraq, and other MENA regions.
In addition to the internship program, Beyond Group finds learning and knowledge sharing through the many conferences team members are invited to take part in and share their insights and perspectives across the world. This year was no exception with team members participating in over fifteen international conferences including the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin, the Knowledge Summit in Dubai, Towards A Regional Integration And Employment Driven Socio-Economic Model In The Mediterranean Conference in Brussels, as well as the UN Global Compact Forum and ESCWA Social Protection Conference in Beirut.