SME Cell

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) also at time referred to as Family Managed Businesses (FMBs) face the dual challenge of:

  • the need to adapt to sudden changes in the business environment and
  • maintaining competitiveness with the same set of managers.

SME / FMB Challenges:

In a rapidly changing environment, the top managements in Family Managed Businesses are grappling with issues like:

  • `real’ delegation of power,
  • responsibility/authority matrix and
  • changing their own mindsets from complete centrality to partial sharing.
  • new generation business stake holders from within the family but with differing mindsets getting ready to join the family

Unique characteristics:

Most SMEs/FMBs have a `core’ management bandwidth drawn from within the family. However we also see in most cases, long timers not from the `core’ also yearn for:

  • more recognition,
  • more `real’ power and
  • more just rewards

Conflict Potential:

It is when the growth pangs and generational changes clash that attitude/culture mismatches lead to ego/power clashes leading to dissipation of energies in undesirable direction.

With the efficiency of the managers in many cases being the only limiting or enabling factor in a SME organisation succeeding or failing, this sector hence needs specialised solutions.

We help organisations by offering to partner with them. This means going beyond just training and help organisations become more professional, adopt the latest systems and become a `learning’ organisation.

Customised Interventions:

With every assignment and case being unique, it is neither possible nor advisable to adopt a one size fits all approach. Thus a very high element of customization based on extensive pre-programme analysis and diagnostics can help.

Specially designed psychometric / analytical tools help. Also interventions like `Executive Coaching’ for the owner(s) as well as senior management from the non core group are also a valued added input that can work well in such cases.

The presence of trainers and coaches on our panel who have earlier dealt with this sector help to establish comfort and better understanding of the underlying issues here.

SME Case Study:

Structural Design and Consulting Firm:

A very successful and fast growing structural design-cum-consulting organisation wished to transition from a personality-based setup to a professional one where the organisation sheds centrality and dons a professional look.

How did we go about it?

We started by looking at the capabilities of the managers and the sector opportunities available. A `PESTLE’ approach revealed the road to be difficult with the maximum obstacles in the mind rather than in any material shortcomings.

We embarked on the assignment by helping the managers of each division accept ownership of the change initiative through:

  • a series of open houses discussions,
  • one-to-one meetings with Departmental Heads
  • Staggered and intermittent Basic Training programmes tackling one issue at a time
  • Director level interventions

Counseling, just lending a helpful ear, guiding the second level of leaders to approach a problem and its solution thru’ some novel route, helping them clear the mental cobwebs were some of the basic and simplistic approaches used to help bring a vibrancy in the organisation.

Training, thus only supplemented the overall OD exercise. Also working as a sounding board for the top management, we have now embarked on a sustained relationship with the organisation, whereby we are now their `Change Initiative partners.’