Archive for October, 2008

SME’s – Is competitiveness important for SME’s?

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

Too often SME’s perceive competitiveness as being about price. But nothing could be further from the truth.

But was is competitiveness? Is it about price? Yes, but it is only part of the whole. The fact is that competitiveness is about the human, financial and equipment resources in the business, and how they are utilised. It is about your leadership skills. the training your staff receive and the organisational structure and culture. It is about efficiency, communication, pricing, customer care, stock control and everything else that happens within your business.

Too often we try to emulate our competitors, and then wonder why we did not achieve what they did. It is because it is not about a one single component, but rather all of the components and how they react with each other. It is about your own personal recipe, which requires you keep fine tuning it until the taste is perfect. Then you have your competitive advantage.

But competitive advantage is seldom understood in this way and is always focused on a single attribute. Do not try to focus on one attribute, but rather try to understand the interaction and interdependency of the business as a whole.

So competitiveness is critical to the SME.

Tags: ,
Posted in SMME | No Comments »

SME’s – The Future is Bright

Sunday, October 19th, 2008

I read recently on a USA website, I think it belonged to the Competitiveness Institute, that they see the future as being dominated by SME’s, and that these SME’s will be making their money in the developing economies of the world.

Assuming they are correct, and I think they are, where are these developing countries? I believe they are congregated in four distinct areas. The Middle East, Far East, Africa and South America.

I believe the least attractive to SME’s will be the Middle East. Oil dominates these economies, and the complexities of the cultural and religious issues in the area make it a difficult market for SME’s to target.

The Far East is perhaps the most attractive. However, these economies are fast learners and will soon close many of the opportunities to outside businesses. Cultural, language and banking issues will add an added dimension of difficulty.

Then it is Africa and South America. Africa perhaps wins the debate due to the fact that they have less cultural, language and banking issues, particularly for the European SME’s. The South American countries however perhaps more stable and prone to a lot less corruption and violence than Africa.

Well, I for one see Africa as my source of future wealth, so long as the trend towards democracy and ongoing economic growth continues.

Tags:
Posted in SMME | 1 Comment »