Cedar on BSC Strategy Execution Excellence

At Cedar Management Consulting International, we approach Change Management as a coordinated, multi-stakeholder discipline — never the responsibility of a single department. At the centre is the CM team, accountable for planning, sequencing and tracking the entire change journey. But structure alone does not drive adoption.

We place strong emphasis on Change Agents embedded within the organisation, bridging strategy and frontline reality. Marketing plays a vital role in delivering clear, consistent messaging, while Learning & Development equips teams with the capabilities required for operational change.

Our objective is clear: enable structured adoption, minimise resistance and accelerate value realisation. This is how strategy moves beyond intent and becomes embedded behaviour across every level of the organisation.

At Cedar Management Consulting International, we see change management as fundamentally a leadership responsibility — not a technical task. New systems can be implemented efficiently, but real success depends on whether people truly adopt them.

We draw on the ADKAR framework — Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement — as a practical lens to understand how individuals experience change. If people do not understand why change is necessary, feel motivated to support it, and are equipped to execute it, transformation will stall.

We emphasise visible leadership sponsorship, credible change champions, measurable adoption metrics and continuous reinforcement. In our experience, change management is the bridge between strategy and execution — without it, even the strongest strategy will struggle to deliver lasting impact.

Sanjiv Anand, Chairman, Cedar Management Consulting International

Sustained profitability is difficult in the low-margin, highly competitive US restaurant industry, yet opportunities exist for suppliers with strong market insight. Tabletop products cutlery, dinnerware, drinkware and related items are essential to dining experiences but are often commoditized, with suppliers competing mainly on price, shape, and color. Operators focus on cost control, simplicity, and operational ease, while distributors resist unproven, low-volume innovations, making market entry difficult.

At the same time, guest expectations are shifting toward experiential, customizable, and “share-worthy” dining. This creates openings for suppliers that offer genuinely value-added, trend-aligned products. A case in point is the revival of roasted bone marrow, which meets guest desires for novelty and theatrics while offering operators low costs and high margins. This trend revives demand for niche items like marrow spoons products many suppliers already stock but fail to promote.

The key lessons are to deeply understand market details, rely on solid research rather than hype, rediscover overlooked solutions, and take a long-term, strategic approach. Innovative niche products can serve as powerful “foot-in-the-door” opportunities in rigid markets.
  

Technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing (BPO) and shared services are entering a new growth phase driven by factors beyond cost arbitrage. As technology adoption accelerates and skill requirements diversify, organizations increasingly rely on best-in-class vendors rather than building all capabilities in-house. While BPO suits large-scale operations, shared services help organizations eliminate duplicated support functions, a model already adopted by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies. Economic disruptions often trigger such transformations, with digital shifts in Western markets and cost pressures in the Middle East acting as catalysts. In the Middle East, IT outsourcing and shared services are expected to grow faster than BPO due to regulatory, language and scale constraints. Key drivers include rising technology adoption, talent shortages, tighter immigration rules, regional expansion, economic cooperation and labor cost differentials. Success begins with reassessing the current operating model, defining target benefits and designing a clear target state to guide partner selection and transition.

China and India present highly attractive telecommunications investment opportunities, driven by strong global industry growth and rapid wireless adoption. While voice services still account for over 70% of revenues, wireless is overtaking fixed-line due to expanding coverage and falling prices. Asia is the fastest-growing telecom region, led primarily by China’s scale and India’s growth potential.

China’s telecom expansion has been propelled by strong state direction, evolving from a monopoly to a state-controlled oligopoly, with gradual liberalization following WTO accession. Despite massive subscriber growth and high tele-density, foreign participation remains restricted and regulatory independence is still evolving.

India’s growth, by contrast, has been driven by liberalization, deregulation and an independent regulatory framework. Rising FDI limits, strong competition, and rapid subscriber growth make India especially attractive to global investors, despite challenges such as lower ARPUs and higher churn. Overall, China offers unmatched scale, while India offers superior growth and openness to investment.
  

Sanjiv Anand, Chairman, Cedar Management Consulting International

The article challenges Gordon Chang’s view that China under Xi Jinping seeks to dismantle the Westphalian system of sovereign states and that Trump’s “America First” stance is a principled defense of sovereignty. It argues China does not aim to export ideology or replace the global order, but pragmatically pursues its interests using “sharp power” to extract value and influence, especially from smaller neighbors. While Beijing applies pressure regionally, this is consistent with historical behavior of great powers, not a novel systemic threat. Trump’s policies may rightly confront China on trade and market access, but they stem from populist instincts and domestic politics rather than strategic vision. The article contends that disengagement weakens U.S. influence and accelerates China’s regional pull. Effective engagement with China requires strong alliances, reciprocity in trade and investment, leadership in multilateral institutions, and renewed confidence in democratic values and soft power.

Sanjiv Anand, Chairman, Cedar Management Consulting International

The US is a major electricity consumer, with coal generating nearly half its power and contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy has become a national priority, driven by policy support, environmental awareness, and stricter emissions regulations. Renewables accounted for 9.4% of US electricity by 2009, though excluding hydro this falls to about 4%, highlighting an early-stage but growing market.

Wind, biomass, and solar are the key “true” renewables. Wind is the most cost-competitive, benefiting from economies of scale and declining costs, though still subject to supply constraints. Biomass offers carbon-neutral power using varied feedstocks, with co-firing providing a low-cost entry point. Solar remains costly but is effective for distributed generation and niche applications.

Government incentives tax credits, grants, loans, and proposed cap-and-trade legislation are critical to growth. Despite infrastructure, technology, and regulatory challenges, strong policy backing and innovation position renewables for significant long-term expansion, with major investment and profit opportunities for early movers.

The GCC is experiencing a major property development boom led by the UAE and extending across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. Planned investments over the next 10–15 years exceed US$344 billion, with the UAE accounting for nearly half. Commercial properties dominate more than 70% of developments, including major financial centers and business districts. Legal reforms allowing expatriates to own freehold property have unleashed strong pent-up demand, driving rapid sales and sharp rental increases, especially in Qatar, KSA and Dubai.

Dubai commands a pricing premium due to its investor-friendly environment, mortgage availability and residency incentives. The market is led by quasi-government developers such as Emaar, Nakheel and Aldar, alongside private players expanding regionally and internationally.

Key challenges include potential saturation in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, construction quality, infrastructure readiness and facilities management. Despite this, strong opportunities remain in other UAE emirates and lower-priced GCC markets, supported by differentiated mixed-use developments, financing tie-ups and high-quality FM and infrastructure services.

India is witnessing a rapid mall boom, with significant investments but rising warning signs such as falling rentals and tenant exits. High construction costs and long break-even periods mean malls must be planned for long-term sustainability. Success depends on five strategic imperatives. First, strong design and aesthetics are critical; excessive focus on maximizing leasable area often harms openness, accessibility and customer experience, leading to vacancies. Second, malls need a clear positioning strategy aligned to target segments, avoiding unfocused multi-anchor formats. Third, a sustainable anchor strategy is vital, as anchors drive footfalls and support in-line stores, even though they pay lower rents. Fourth, a balanced tenant mix across retail, food and entertainment is essential to extend visit duration and build destination appeal, especially for families. Finally, adequate parking is crucial, as insufficient capacity can undermine all other efforts. While competition is intensifying, malls that plan holistically and execute well can still achieve long-term success.

China’s recent slowdown has unsettled global markets, especially commodities, but fears of an economic collapse are overstated. The sharp equity sell-off reflects an overdue correction in an inflated market that is largely disconnected from the real economy, with limited household exposure and manageable systemic risk. RMB depreciation is driven by fundamentals and reform goals, particularly advancing reserve-currency status, and is likely to remain controlled within about 10%.

China’s growth is clearly decelerating, potentially to around 5%, well below official targets but still strong by global standards. This slowdown reflects a difficult yet necessary transition from export- and investment-led growth toward consumption and services, which now account for roughly half of GDP and continue to grow robustly.

The key uncertainty lies in Beijing’s political response. The Communist Party must balance reform with social stability, especially as state-owned enterprise reform risks unemployment and unrest. Despite volatility, China’s challenges represent maturation, not collapse, and its long-term rebalancing still holds promise.