Performance in SMEs
SMEs
Managing performance in small and medium enterprises
If you’re managing an SME, you will be only too aware of the need to make the most of scarce resources – especially time.
Prioritising activities that add the most value is as essential as building an understanding of the dynamics of the organisation. In an SME there is no room for low levels of performance; every process, asset and person must add value. However, for many people in SMEs most time is spent on operational activities and much less on reviewing the performance and direction of the business.
Implementing a performance management system may seem like a time-consuming endeavour, but when planned out properly, taking into account the SMEs goals and assets, the system will save unnecessary waste from those resources in the future.
How can performance management help?
- Help clarify your goals and strategy
- Ensure people are focusing on activities which add the most value
- Create a “plan on a page” that is easily communicated so each person understands their part
- Plot your progress along with a balanced set of factors
- Act as a check that your strategy is working
- Provide a focus for informed discussion about the direction of the business
- Reduce the number of unforeseen problems occurring in the future
How we can help you?
- Facilitate workshops to help you decide what is most important for your business
- Produce a “strategy map” to help establish what needs to be done and produce a “plan on a page” that can be easily communicated
- Set up specific KPIs to track your progress in the most important areas of the business
- Facilitate performance reviews to ensure you are getting the most from your performance reports
Let us help your Small or Medium Sized Enterprise build sustainable performance
One small provider of high-quality management training courses decided they needed to improve their profitability. They decided the mechanism to do this was to increase the number of attendees per course as much of the cost of the course was fixed (speaker’s fee and room hire). Each additional attendee would add significantly to the bottom line. They added a marketing KPI of x number of attendees per course
Whilst this seemed to make sense, it had a seriously bad effect on their business. The small marketing and sales team were determined to reach their targets and offered significant discounts to regular customers to send more delegates. Loyal users of the courses were disappointed as the individual attention they had once enjoyed diminished. Rather than improving profitability the “number of delegates” KPI was encouraging price reduction and resulting in loss of reputation.