C J Matembo, Senior Information Officer, SIRDC

The sages say that, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Further, pundits also say that firemen spend only about a tenth of their time actually putting out fires but they should always have a forward plan and be prepared. Planning ahead is important. It was not raining when Noah built the Ark. To avoid the former scenario and emulate the firemen and Noah, the SIRDC management went on a retreat in Kariba in mid February 2007 to craft a strategic plan that will be the road map to its future for the next three years spanning 2007-2009. One cannot plan for every eventuality but one should at least have a plan; crisis situations should be the exceptions rather than the rule.

In 2004, SIRDC adopted a strategic shift to make the Centre more business oriented in all its activities. This business position, seen as the only solution to reduce the Centre’s dependence on the fiscus, would be maintained and consolidated during the 2007-9 planning period. Thus, the mission and vision, which are like a war cry uniting all players concerned to achieve a common purpose, were retained. This vision scored many successes in terms of practical oriented product development and the commercialisation thrust. SirTech Investments can be cited as a success story of the business dispensation ushered in by the new strategic orientation. Despite this achievement, SIRDC remains cognizant of the fact that success is a journey and not a destination. Thus, in the not too distant future, the public will witness the launch of yet another SIRDC commercial wing called Zimbabwe Technological Solutions (ZTS). Like SirTech, ZTS will take on board products that SIRDC research laboratories have certified as ripe and ready for commercialisation. The SIRDC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Robson Mafoti, a great proponent of reduction of innovations to practice said that engaging in these commercial activities does not in any way compromise the R & D agenda of SIRDC. He added that instead this approach broadens the centre’s revenue streams and enables it to continue funding other research programmes of national importance.

Other commercialization models superior to the SirTech model are welcome for review and consideration.

The prevailing unstable economic environment characterized by high inflation and other rapidly changing economic variables now favours shorter planning periods with reviews in between to fine tune and steer the plan in the desired direction. Thus, a three-year planning period is now preferred to the traditional five-year periods.

The gap analysis gave useful pointers to salient differences between the current state of the organization and the desired position. Addressing these gaps and taking into account input from the environmental scan (PEST analysis) and the situational analysis (SWOT analysis) the strategic plan should bridge the gap between the present position and the desired future and catapult the Centre to dizzy heights.

The institutes set themselves aggressive work programmes and lofty targets in terms of projects and service provision. The SIRDC Farm presented an extensive expansion programme that will yield an increased output in terms of both crops and livestock production. More land is being acquired for full implementation of the envisaged massive expansion programme.

The stage gate process, a project management tool adopted by SIRDC in 2004, has now been embraced by all players and has pervaded all structures of the Centre. This team-based approach has been and should continue to be a key success factor in the execution of projects at the Centre.

SIRDC is a knowledge-based organization and as such it values its employees whom it considers as the nerve centre of its operations. Thus, the Workers’ Committee was invited to make its contribution and some of its views were considered in the crafting of the strategic plan. It is general knowledge that if workers are involved in the decisions that affect their work, they will be motivated and fully committed to carrying them out.

The 2007-9 strategic plan determined the future growth direction and set priorities. Every player must now move in the same direction charted by the plan.