The Anguilla Social Security Board is at the forefront of an initiative to introduce a Strategic Management System known as the ‘Balance Scorecard’ to Anguilla. The move is a tactical intervention to address the impact of the global financial crisis on the island and is similar to a Balance Scorecard Strategy implemented by the Board in 2007.

Personnel from Social Security at workshop

The initiative kicked off with a breakfast meeting and workshop facilitated by Strategic Management and Scorecard Consultant Robert Wynter on Friday September 11 at the Blue Ridge Hotel in South Hill.

Director of Social Security Timothy Hodge commented, in a correspondence to stakeholders invited to the workshop, that Anguilla has to devise “new strategies to move our organizations and the country as a whole forward.” He said that the Anguilla Social Security Board had benefited from the Balance Scorecard approach to strategic management and believed that, by introducing the concept to top decision makers, organizations and the whole country, Anguilla would be better prepared to weather the current global financial crisis. He added that the island would also be better able to plan, implement and manage development in the future.

At the workshop, Mr. Hodge noted that the Balance Scorecard method had been applied successfully in other larger countries where it would have been more difficult to conduct than in a small island like Anguilla. He said, in tough economic times, Social Security did not ask Government to fund the workshop. Instead, the Board took advantage of Mr. Wynter’s presence while he was in Anguilla to update Social Security’s Balance Scorecard System, to make his services available to the Government.

Hodge stated that the workshop was just a first step to disseminate the Balance Scorecard concept to Government and civil society so it could be “taken forward through our own initiatives.”

Mr. Timothy Hodge

Workshop objectives included introducing the Balance Scorecard concept specifically as it relates to Anguilla, articulating ‘vision themes’ for Anguilla, and brainstorming how to achieve the vision themes. Objectives took into account participant involvement, how aligned were they around the ‘Anguilla Vision,’ buying in on the way forward and commitment to implementing agreed decisions.

Invitees to the workshop comprised members of the House of Assembly, aspiring politicians, the church, statutory bodies, Permanent Secretaries and other members of the Civil Service, banks, youth, the business sector including tourism and the Chamber of Commerce. Hodge pointed out that the aim was to have as many sections of the community represented as possible. He hoped that the exercise would benefit the entire country for generations to come.
Mr. Wynter is part of a new company called Strategic Alignments Limited. He visited Anguilla from Saturday September 5 to Saturday September 12

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