Sustainability, development and enhancement

There are three separate but interconnected processes that any organisation, small or large, must undertake to be in a healthy position, to keep up with advancements, and to perform effectively and efficiently. These processes can be phrased as: sustainability, development and enhancement.

Sustainability involves the continuous maintenance of equipment, tools, facilities and resources through built-in mechanisms to prevent unexpected lapses, failures or accidents, ensuring the longevity, validity and effectiveness of equipment, tools, facilities and resources.

Development entails adopting modern and reliable systems, policies, instructions, scientific principles, global best practices and implementing them according to precise strategic plans and well-structured operational and executive programmes carried out by competent teams within specified timeframes, aiming to achieve tangible, impactful results that rival the best in the world.

Enhancement, on the other hand, can mean a lot of things, but we use it here to refer to the artistic or "aesthetic" dimension, which is no less important than the previous two dimensions because people naturally gravitate towards cleanliness, elegance and beauty.

To illustrate these three processes, consider the example of a car. Maintenance is essential and is currently carried out according to a predefined schedule to ensure longevity and prevent breakdowns. Its development is evident through features that guarantee efficient performance, relying on automation and several smart operations. The importance of its elegance and beauty cannot be understated.

There are other examples besides cars, which we leave to the reader's imagination.

The crucial point here is that a successful organisation integrates and achieves all three processes. Those lacking one or more of them are deficient.

The fundamental question we should frankly answer, and every organisation should honestly address individually, is whether these three processes are being implemented successfully in our institutions and to what extent.

In reality, an objective and careful observer of our institutions' performance finds the following:

First, very few of our institutions achieve all three dimensions, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the percentage does not exceed 5 per cent to 10 per cent at best, especially in the public sector.

Second, many institutions focus on the second dimension (development), but the first dimension (sustainability) is almost entirely neglected, with many of their facilities on the verge of collapse. This is both saddening and alarming.

Third, a considerable number of our institutions lacks both the sustainability and development processes, often attempting to compensate or “impress” with "decorative" or PR measures, primarily at the level of discourse. And this is entirely unacceptable.

Fourth, if it is necessary to sacrifice one of the processes (out of utmost necessity), perhaps enhancement can be sacrificed, as long as sustainability and development are achieved together, as they are the more foundational.

Moreover, there must always be a meticulous process of internal and external assessment of our institutions in order to accurately measure the degree to which they implement the three dimensions under discussion here.

This is especially vital since the development of our society cannot be achieved without the development of its institutions.