Introduction
Management team is a group of individuals having unique skills and ideas that work as a single unit. The aim of this group is to accomplish the desired goals and objectives so that the business could grow successfully in the market. With such desires, the management team requires certain competencies to enhance its opportunities that would eventually help the small business to grow exponentially along with increase in profit returns. It is highly important for the small business agencies to carefully build the management team so that this management team complements the overall business and operations of the company and contributes towards the achievement of the goals and targets of the small business agency in effective and efficient manner. At the same time, it is important for the small business enterprises to build the management team while keeping in mind the skills and competencies required for the different functions and operations of the small business enterprise or agency. Management team plays most important factor in the success or failure of the small business enterprises as it is responsible for all major decisions and operations of the company and hence it is important to carefully decide about the skills and competencies of the management team and deciding about the people who will become the part of the management team (Bridge, O'Neill, & Cromie, 2003).
The aim of this study is to identify the competencies that are required by small business along with the creation of complementary management team. This study will focus on highlighting the skills and competencies required in order to create balance in functional areas of a business.
Building a complementary management team requires diversified people as with such team, the business is provided with combination of ideas and opinions that could help the business to change the face of game. By having such diversified people in the team, the team is provided with diverse knowledge regarding things that could help the small business to grow and successfully accomplish its goals and task (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
Education and experience
Education and experience are other factors that should be considered for management teams. Being provided with educated and experience individuals in the team, the business would be able to provide solutions to challenges that the business might face in the forthcoming days and years. By having educated and experience individuals in management team, the team would be able to understand the suppliers of the business. Business suppliers are crucial and for small businesses, supplier acts as an intermediary between the customers and the business. By analyzing and understanding the suppliers, the management team would be able to identify how the suppliers interact within the provided environment. This would provide the small business with an opportunity to enhance the value chain and relationship with the suppliers which would eventually help the business to efficiently manage its processes (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
With the help of supplier integration, the business would be able to create a bond between the business and suppliers. This would ultimately help the business to gain access to suppliers at the right time and cost. With supplier integration the business would be able to reduce the cost associated with suppliers along with the ability to efficiently maximize the processes in the marketplace. As indicated by research, supplier integration also helps small and large businesses with an opportunity to enhance the performance and productivity in the marketplace (Zimmerer, Scarborough, & Wilson, 2002).
Management structure
For a small business management structure plays a crucial role. For small business to acquire the desired goals and objectives, the business should develop management structure. This would allow the employees to understand whom they have to report (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
The management structure that is often observed in small business is flat structure. This structure provides the senior members with authority and control over other employees in the business. This indicates that the employees working for the business are responsible to report directly to the seniors that are provided with authority and power. Along with authority and power, the senior is responsible for managing the employees and can provide the employees with reward and punishment to get the job done (Zimmerer, Scarborough, & Wilson, 2002).
External advisors and associates
In order to build a complementary management team, the business could seek the assistance of professional advisors and associates. As these advisors have prior experience regarding the development of management teams, the advisors are often the source used by small businesses. Hiring professionals from external sources indicates that the business would be provided with ideas and opinions but the final decision would be taken by the owner of the business (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
Since external advisors and associates have nothing to do with the business and have no particular interest in business, they provide the business with practical ideas for the creation of management teams. Having expertise and experience, the external advisors work for the betterment of business (Bridge, O'Neill, & Cromie, 2003).
Understanding of supplier’s plant manufacturing
As mentioned earlier about the relationship with suppliers, but for a business to successfully grow in the market it also requires information about the supplier. By understanding the supplier’s plant manufacturing, the business is provided with an insight which includes raw material processes, packaging, distribution, retailing and all those activities associated with the partnering agency (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
This could help a small business to assess how effectively the business can deliver its merchandise to the customers with the help of suppliers. Suppliers are essential to success for small businesses as they provide the customers with the final products of the business and without these products the growth of the business is quite difficult (Burns, 2001).
Since suppliers contribute to product safety, it is essential to understand the supplier and to enhance relationship with suppliers. With such relationship the supplier could play an important role in eliminating any error in the product design and can help the business to reduce any potential misuse in the design phase. In addition, the supplier can also help the business to enhance customer’s base along with increase in reputation (Bridge, O'Neill, & Cromie, 2003).
Organizational culture
Organizational culture is quite crucial in small business. For small business, having an organizational culture that encourages employees to work effectively and efficiently is quite important. Culture in organization is important because it eliminates all the factors that could reduce the performance and productivity of employee and allow every individual working for the business with an opportunity to grow. With an organizational culture that treats every individual in business equally creates relation among the employees and business. By having such culture, the employee tends to work for the betterment of business and prioritize the success of business over achievement of personal goals and objectives (Longenecker, Petty, Palich, & Hoy, 2011).
Balance of skills and competencies
The foremost important task of management team is to balance the skills and competencies in business. By the development of management team, a business would be able to precisely balance the skills and competencies in various functional areas. An example of such skills and competencies are the skills and competencies required by HR officer and marketing officer. The role of management team would be to specify the roles that would be performed by HR officer and marketing officer. This would allow both the personnel to work efficiently and effectively as they would be aware of the task and would have all the required skills to perform their specific task (Wiklund & Shepherd, 2005).
Balancing skills and abilities is the core task of management team due to which the creation of management team is quite necessary for even small business. By balancing the skills and abilities the employees would be able to perform their responsibilities without any errors and mistakes. This would eventually lead to the perfection and specialization of task as the employees would be provided tasks according to their skills and abilities. This would also allow the business to have satisfied and motivated employees that would put the goals and objectives of the business ahead of personal goals and objectives (Burns, 2001).
Conclusion
Thus, it was found that for even small business, management teams play an essential role in the success of business. By creating a management team, a business could be able to grasp opportunities available but a business that fails to develop management team could always be seen in the shadows of its competitors in the market.
List of References
Bridge, S., O'Neill, K., & Cromie, S. (2003). Understanding enterprise, entrepreneurship and small business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Burns, P. (2001). Entrepreneurship and small business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Longenecker, J. G., Petty, J. W., Palich, L. E., & Hoy, F. (2011). Small business management: Launching and growing entrepreneurial ventures. US: South-Western Pub.
Wiklund, J., & Shepherd, D. (2005). Entrepreneurial orientation and small business performance: a configurational approach. Journal of business venturing, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 71-91.
Zimmerer, T., Scarborough, N. M., & Wilson, D. (2002). Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
