Mobilisation for Action is the title of a two day workshop which is part of a major leadership initiative for Owner Managers of growth SMEs.
We want participants to think about the changes that they need to make for themselves & their businesses as the business moves through the "growth corridor" - from owner managed to director led.
All of above to be set in the context of customer focus & empowerment of people.
What content would you include?
Trevor Bradford
14 Responses
More please
Have you done any TNA? Have you got any aims or objectives?
If you want people to ‘think about changes’ why not give them a manual to read instead of two days training.
I hate to be flippant but please state what work you’ve put in already otherwise it looks a bit like we’re at square one and being asked to do your work for nothing.
RESPONSES
re Juliet’s reply:
Ever thought about using a less aggressive tone?
I’m astounded that anyone within the field of T&D could be so unsupportive and lack recognition for the fact that its perfectly OK to ask questions if you don’t have the answers!!
Modules
Hi Trevor,
Juliet Suggests a TNA, most certainly a “where are you now & where do you want to be module” is a must, how you get there is then the plan & the need. Most SME’s that encounter banks for finance will be required to demonstrate knowledge of this.
The resultany content may require modules for planning, marketing, managing & embracing change.
What about the steps to understanding finance, cash & managing this as a growth issue.
Fundamentally, people that go into business should always be managing growth, but as all people have different skills the assistatnce that they require & the issues they face will be different.
Thus you require a different set of modules in order to suit the changing needs of all of your prospective clients. One additional thought; When I hear someone complain that business is bad because they’re in a no-growth or mature industry I cringe. They’ve no imagination.They’ve no way of differentiating their company from the competition. They’ve surrendered.
Then there’s Michael Dell, president and CEO of Dell Computer. Dell’s 4th quarter sales rose 21 percent, and its net income rose 32 percent.They expect sales and profits to continue to rise for the next year and beyond.
When Michael was asked where this continued growth will come from, because of the slowdown in technology spending, he grew somewhat
irritated.
“About 140 million PC’s will be sold this year and Dell still had only
15 to 16 per cent of the worldwide market. We see wonderful opportunities to continue to expand our business.” he replied.
He’s going after the 85 percent he doesn’t have.Look for new ways to grow your business. New products to sell,you could do the same.
Try to give your potential customers new reasons why they should do business with their clients. Help them to solve their problems and use their imagination.
Good luck
Stan
What the web cant do for you……..
Abi,
Thanks for your comments. I feel you need to adjust to the medium. Sure its OK not to know answers and expect feedback and I support that – but we arent in a training room here, this is the global internet.
The internet has changed the rules of engagement and the way we interact forever – some adjustment is needed by the reader.
The poster has paid nothing to come to this site, in fact they’ve done the virtual equivalent of posting a big banner in Trafalgar Square, left it and walked away happy to revisit it and read the replies left asking anyone and everyone (whatever their vocation) who passes to comment. And thats exactly what happens. To expect to control this, call for tolerance or to regulate it is simply unrealistic.
We have no idea of the commercial reasons or potential financial gain behind this posting. All I am doing is questioning that assertively. To promote this site or the www with a ‘lets all support each other unquestioningly’ betrays a lack of understanding of the mechanics underlying web participation and its outcomes – many come to a forum such as this to exploit and take without giving back.
To simply accept everything on the www at face value is naieve and if you post on a globally accessible site you must expect to be challenged.
After all the www is not the most professional, reliable or trustworthy way to solve a professional problem is it? Its random, dirt cheap and you get what you pay for.
course for MDs
We ran some of these things last year. Our approach was to put experienced executives from larger companies in front of them and tell them how they manage their businesses. We minimized jargon, ensured that topics were relevant to SMEs, and had lots of discussion.
We included:
1. Financing and dealing with the City
2. The strategic role of information technology
3. The importance of the customer and quality
4. Managing the business through key indicators
5. Government and university schemes to help SMEs
Have you signed them up? It is very difficult to get attendance.
Let me know if you want any more details.
regards
Ted Smith
Juliet
Hi Juliet, chill out please, we do not have the right to pre-judge.
Would it not have been a little more fair to ask the question in the first place or should we all assume that it is the cheats charter that we are discussing here, rather than a really nice easy no problems subject upon which all business schools, banks & financial institutions, & many many others will offer reams & reams of information & manuals at the drop of a hat ( perhaps the course should have an anti fud module also upon which the SME Owner can if required become an expert whilst the world passes by
We can only grow when we trust & empower others.
Stan
OD for SME’s ( & their owners)
Thanks for the feedback folks.
Juliet takes me back to TNA’s. Reflecting on the big issue I see affecting growth SME’s is that the owner most times struggles with delegation – and is very unsure about empowering his staff – particularly at the interface with customers.
Any suggestions as to how to sell this concept ….& equally important …how to help make it happen in practice?
When is the Web a Training Room…?
……When its an online Forum with the opportunity for open discussion, sharing, support and collaboration.
Juliet,
Check out the various replies this topic has received from community members and let that be your proof that online communities are not always made up of beggars and cheats.
Yes – sometimes dishonest individuals MUST come on here. They go everywhere.
You’re just as likely to have someone steal an idea from a website as you are to have your bag stolen from a Bar. Its part of life as a human and it hasn’t just started happening because of the internet.
However, 99% of the time – if you share, others will share back. That’s also part of being human.
I accept you need to watch out for the 1% who are waiting to cheat you at the drop of a hat – but nobody has the right to assume EVERY person they don’t know is in that minority. Those who do will certainly miss out on potentially great interaction with other people – be they Colleagues, Potential Clients, Friends…?
Using the internet for discussion requires change from the reader yes – but also the writer needs to be aware that negative words, tone and style can be magnified when written – further exacerbated when the person reading it doesn’t understand your personality or spoken tone.
I can appreciate you want to challenge views and opinion – what intelligent person doesn’t? But if you demonstrate such a suspicion and mistrust for forums/online community discussion then why log onto one?
Misplaced trust
Abi,
The internet is an anarchy not a democracy – to embue an anarchy with values of trust and no ulterior motive is foolish. Furthermore the concept of ‘rights’ within an anarchy is non-existent.
So I’m sure you will defend or not (who cares the concept is meaningless) my absolute right to disagree with you.
This is not a real community, its a loose association of people who may or may not (anyone can join) have knowledge run by someone who is self imposed and unelected. Thats a dictatorship. Mistrust within a dictatorship is a reasonable notion – see Zimbabwe.
Having given the original poster all this free commercial infomation – even more is sought.
>>But if you demonstrate such a suspicion and mistrust for forums/online community discussion then why log onto one?>>
To protect and educate and challenge, would you deny me these ‘rights’?
You might not like my style – tough – thats democracy. I am from Africa where we speak plainly and directly – please respect my diversity.
Democracy?
Hi Juliet
I have to say a little forceful with the approach. The post did contain what context the session was to be in. Speaking of Democracy, isn’t freedom of speech part of that? The internet is a pool of knowledge which anyone can delve into, although not controlled fully as anyone can choose to post as they wish in forums..etc. Again Democracy, would you agree?
Laissez faire
Certainly would agree Darren,
Just so long as you are defending my right to say what I want and how I want to (within the rules) then thats fine.
Seems to me I’m objected to on purely on the basis of my style – live with it. In my country this style is acceptable, in yours perhaps not – thats the beauty of a global world.
Meaningless….!
Juliet,
Chill out! You don’t have to challenge everything. You could always find something you like and engage with that instead!!
Of course we all have a right to challenge (where its productive), educate (where needed) and protect (those who need to be protected). No rights have been denied.
I’ve very simply pointed out that your tone is aggressive (whether you’re from Africa, America, the UK or anywhere there’s a BIG difference between Assertive and Aggressive)and asked the question ‘if you disagree with this so much, why are you here wasting your energy on it when it harms nobody’. Surely you could find something else to disagree with where your energies are chanelled towards helping people who are REALLY at risk. This is a harmless online forum.
I don’t think this warrants any further discussion, because as you say its all “meaningless” …
All in the eye of the beholder
>>>>Of course we all have a right to challenge (where its productive), educate (where needed) and protect (those who need to be protected). No rights have been denied.>>>>
Great, thanks. I’ll continue.
SME’s and growth
I agree with the comment about SME’s having problems with delegation.
In my experience, an owner manager whose business is growing has a number of challenges, some technical and some personal/emotional. The technical ones are generally (as has been suggested already) to do with budgeting and money, premises, and staff management, including delegation.
The personal/emotional ones are to do with letting go and coping with the transitions involved. In many ways these can be the hardest, where instead of managing by the “seat of the pants”, improvising and trouble-shooting, there’s a need for systems, structures, procedures that hold the growing business together. Payroll, tax, the legalities of personnel policies and things like that are the hard things for entrepreneurial people to take seriously. They are inclined to dismiss them as stifling bureaucracy, when in fact done well they can make life a lot easier.
The letting go, and learning to delegate effectively is also connected to the concept of empowerment (although I would never use that term) – of acting in a way that brings out the best in people and gets them doing what they do best.
So I would include a serious discussion session that surfaced these various resistances, and offered elegant solutions; as well as the other good things already suggested.
(I agree attendance can be an issue – I’ve only worked by going in and working with SME’s face to face)