First it was the British, the Suez Canal and Egyptian nationalism. Then it was a creation of Palestinian homeland carved Israel. This was followed by the humiliating Treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel. Subsequently, the fight against the Soviet occupation against Afghanistan. The Muslim Brotherhood fought for noble item one after another.
It was when the world reached an agreement with the transforming power of the Islamic brotherhood that began in Egypt as a battle for national pride of 9/11. With this single strike, Al Qaeda, a branch of the Egyptian brotherhood, had transformed the way in which the world expected himself. Although not lost its fundamental characteristic of a struggle for self-esteem and avenge evil done against innocent Muslims, the brotherhood transformed from a small political movement to an organization very centered, aligned and scalable.
These and many other transformation programmes undertaken by different sects religious and movements have attractive lessons for the implementation of strategy and organizational transformation.
The one mind approach managed by the Muslim Brotherhood through the concept of Jihad against a formidable opponent was a strong unifying theme for a programme of transformation. The theme was reinvented and adapted to align itself with the socio-political realities of the time, but never lost its essence. It could be communicated easily on the banks of the Nile, the deserts of Arabia, Peshawar markets or the Valley of Kashmir.
Any transformation programme needs to be driven by strong item/s that can create its own identity. How to market change realities, the needs of the transformation programme to reinvent itself and modify topics and make them relevant to the changing realities of different eras and different markets.
There are many lessons of transformation can extract from the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood as the empowerment of branches and academies of training (indoctrination) to the fraternity. However the possibility to remain relevant and continually seek and identify an adversary to jihad is the most important achievement of the programme's strategic transformation.
It torments me each time a local train or have my baby a crowded supermarket. I never thought that the British interest to dominate the Suez Canal will have a transformative impact in my life.
Sarvajeet Chandra writes about the following themes: strategic planning, execution of strategy, business management, change management etc.
Visit his blog at http://strategy-execution.blogspot.com
Sarvajeet lives in Mumbai, India. He runs a firm called master implementation Sun Consulting strategy. Visit http://www.mastersungroup.com
Loves to travel, to slip, history & art and other mindless activities of an inquisitive mind.