This article is sourced from tweets by Mr. Fahd bin Mohammed Al-Zahrani

General Director of Zamzam Association

In these discussions, we attempt to answer the following question: Why is Zamzam Association distinguished? And how is its operational plan and budget formulated annually?

The work of preparing the operational plan and budget in Zamzam begins at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year and continues through all its stages (which will be mentioned) until it is approved at the end of December each year, supervised by the strategy sector in Zamzam, which includes a select group of experts from Zamzam's leadership who have sufficient experience in monitoring strategic and operational performance. All employees of Zamzam participate in preparing the plan and budget through various departments and sections by holding specialized workshops for each sector, and creativity and innovation in formulating initiatives are encouraged with professional standards. In Zamzam, the entire team at all levels is involved, which fosters a sense of participation and, more importantly, increases the commitment of the entire team during the implementation to follow up on the prepared plan, which creates the second tier in every department, unlike when the preparation of the plan and budget is delegated solely to the department manager.

The stages of preparing the operational plan initiatives at Zamzam go through three stages, each with significant qualification, training, and development for all employees, ensuring an understanding of strategic directions, goals, and values, and learning how to define and formulate targets and link them with indicators and objectives.

The stages of preparing the operational plan:

(Stage One)

1- Conducting a strategic review of all components of Zamzam’s strategy with the participation of all association employees.

2- Preparing the operational plan model in accordance with the technical system (prepared by the IT department) for the operational plan and establishing guidelines for operational planning.

3- Holding a workshop for the association's leadership in which the outputs of the strategic review are presented, and the approved operational plan model and its fulfillment mechanism are explained.

4- Preparing initiatives across all association departments with the participation of all departmental staff.

5- Discussing the initiatives in the presence of the strategy team, department directors, and initiative champions from department heads and specialists. This significant discussion acts as acceptance of the message in graduate studies due to the keen interest and careful follow-up from the executive management.

(Stage Two)

Preparing the financial budget according to the approved initiatives undertaken by department directors and initiative champions, under the supervision of the financial management and presence of the executive management, aiming to verify compliance with the systems and regulations for budget preparation and ensure it aligns with what was approved by the Board of Directors.

(Stage Three)

Phase of approval and launch

1- The preparatory committee reviews the operational plan and budget in preparation for submitting it to the Board of Directors.

2- Approval by the Board of Directors after it has been previously sent and presented at the meeting, with good discussion that is not devoid of guidance to support its success, reflecting the active role of Zamzam's Board of Directors.

3- Launching the operational plan with the presence of the association's employees at the beginning of the year, with encouragement, gratitude, and honoring under the sponsorship of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, in commitment to doing everything possible to achieve the ambitious operational plan targets.

After the phase of approval and launching, department directors upload the operational plan onto the technical program with precise distribution according to the weight of each initiative, specifying the months or quarters required for implementation and identifying the initiative champions.

Factors of success:

1- Having a technical program developed by the IT department in Zamzam for inputting the operational plan and assigning initiatives to their champions to contribute to closely and quickly monitoring performance.

2- The precise follow-up in achieving targets, conducted by the performance management through regular reporting that is reviewed quarterly by all leaders.

3- Utilizing the studies and surveys conducted by the studies and research unit in Zamzam by analyzing and activating their results in the operational plan, which includes all stakeholders, focusing on the beneficiary’s needs to always achieve a high level of satisfaction.

4- An external technical portal covering four main areas in Zamzam related to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which are:

Charitable Treatment Portal, Volunteer Portal, Official Website, Zamzam e-Store (the first Saudi store contributing to treating patients)

5- Accurately studying the priorities of beneficiaries’ needs in Zamzam through a high committee for health services headed by the Chairman of the Board and including a number of consultants and specialists who worked on issuing an approved regulation for beneficiary services (Charitable Treatment Regulation).

6- The internal employee portal in Zamzam, which contributes to precise performance, quick execution, and strong communication, containing more than 10 electronic platforms, including the purchase request system, maintenance system, support services system, human resources system, and Zamzam Academy for digital training, among others.

7- Activation of the quality system in Zamzam, which is the first Saudi charity to obtain ISO certification for all its procedures, where the quality management conducts periodic internal audits to ensure conformity with the specifications and invest the external audit team to work on continuous updating and improvement.

8- Operating on the sustainability methodology, as Zamzam issues an annual disclosure report based on transparency that includes its sustainability initiatives across three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. Zamzam applies the measurement of the impact of its programs using the Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology and issues an annual report.

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