MS-93 Management of New and Small Enterprises

Suppose you plan to take a decision regarding the product and service design of a small business in electronic goods.

2009-06-14T05:01:00.000-07:00

Suppose you plan to take a decision regarding the product and service design of a small business in electronic goods. Prepare a detailed structure of the stages in a product design and the determination of the technology.

An important tool in the identification of a business opportunity is the S.WOT analysis. Let us now enumerate why and how are small enterprises established. In a sense this enumeration is parallel to SWOT analysis. Analysis of factors which have led individual entrepreneurs to set up their small enterprises reveal a surprising degree of uniformity the world over. A small entrepreneur, the owner-manager of a small unit, enters this world because of; love for doing independent business-or being one's own boss; small business provides scope for taking initiative, organising activities and a kind of freedom which owner-managed small units alone can offer.
self-employment being an income generating activity, as an alternative to wage employment;
the flexibility in several operations which again is available in a small unit.
Another set of data on how were typical small scale units set up by identifying an opportunity reveals the following factors. This data is based on Indian small industry.

• entrepreneurs have selected products based on their own experience or their partners experience in the line;

• entrepreneurs have selected products based on the expansion/diversification plans of their own or any other on-going business known to them;

• entrepreneurs have selected products which are likely to have ready demand either in the local or regional market.

• entrepreneurs have selected products whose imports are banned or controlled by the government. This factor has been found applicable in identification of opportunities in small, medium and large scale industrial units;

• entrepreneurs have selected products which show high profitability;

• entrepreneurs have selected products based on certain specific advantages available to that product - such as, reservation of product lines for small scale units, certain regions or locations;

• entrepreneurs have selected product lines guided mainly by changes in certain aspects of industrial policy-more specially change in control and regulation of prices of raw material or products.

• somewhat similar to the above is the situation when entrepreneurs come to know of a product line as a result of reports by government committees on policy. Entrepreneurs' selection of computers or electronic products can be attributed to recent approach of government policy to these products.

Taking the two sets of factors we can say that the entrepreneurs have moved in a certain manner. The opportunity- product or service-appears to emerge through an interaction between the immediate or related environment of the entrepreneur to the somewhat remote or unrelated aspects of environment. We can also view it alternatively as proceeding from the more specific to general or may be micro to macro part of the environment. What appears to take place is an opportunity envelope with positive and negative or favourable and unfavourable factors attached to different opportunities. This envelope tells us how is an opportunity finally identified by an entrepreneur.

The combination of factors in such an envelope is not, in any sense, a unique or unusual combination. Our main concern in collecting these factors is to isolate the more important general factors-factors which seem to be generally applicable - and another category of factors which are specific to any opportunity or opportunities.

The above two methods of analysis can be placed in an alternative framework of scanning the environment and the individual comparing himself against the environmental subsets. As has been pointed out, the individual refers to the 'immediate' and the 'remote' environment. More accurately his own strengths and weaknesses arising from the immediate environment in relation to the remote environment. Now, in India this remote environment, or large part thereof, is government policy and the market for the product. It is an interaction between the immediate and the remote environment which seems to explain, even in a rudimentary way, how opportunities or project ideas may be generated. It is a process of back and forth, as it were and the individual may be in a position to monitor his thinking.

Hen or Egg

In identifying an opportunity the entrepreneur passes through several processes. Some leading to enchantment and others to disenchantment. At one stage he likes the opportunity, at other he turns his mind to another. Nevertheless, two stages can be clearly located. In stage one, the entrepreneur tries to generate ideas or opportunities and in stage two he identifies the opportunity. In stage one most of the entrepreneurs are likely to encounter a situation resembling the Hen or Egg controversy. Ask anyone who want~ to select a project; his obvious answer would be a "a project having a good market". Now, how without knowing the product could one determine the market? Whose market will you find out without deciding the item? It is necessary therefore to find a way out of this tangle. One of the methods employed by- experienced entrepreneurs is to generate ideas about a few projects.

In such an attempt he makes use of his experience, background, contacts, observations, informations obtained from friends, development agency, policy of the government, schemes of concessions and incentives. All of these, put together, may offer a few ideas to be examined as opportunities.
We give below two situations to explain what has been discussed.

In Jana Aranya of Satyajit Ray there is a sequence in which two co-students Khokan and Bishuda are seen conversing with each other. Khokan is searching for a job while Bishuda is running his own business. Bishuda advises Khokan to observe the market and supply what the consumers want - what they are prepared to pay for.
A second situation is as follows:

Ashwin works in the purchase department of a state--owned road-transport corporation. As such, he knows about many components and spares which are being purchased. Having been in this department for many years he also knows which components are purchased in large quantities and more often. Being an engineer he turns his mind t? the prospects of manufacturing some of them.

In the .above two situations which one, do you think, is at the idea stage and which one at the opportunity stage. Alternatively, what is the difference between opportunity sensing and opportunity identification. This distinction is very important for those who are consciously making an attempt to identify an opportunity.
Imagine that as a result of the above analysis you have been able to prepare a list of the following opportunities. These are:
Nails, hinges and industrial fasteners (industry)
Cold storage services (service based business)
PVC moulded shoes (industry)
Xeroxing unit (service based business)
This is the smaller list from which the final opportunity/project will be selected. This can be described the "zeroing in process". The stages through which you pass may be described by different expressions, such as "entrepreneurial scanning for projects", "entrepreneurial selection matrix", "entrepreneurial musings", "entrepreneurial rambling", etc. Whatever description you might prefer, the activity involves some of the major steps described above.

What are the different measures of marketing performance? Explain any two.

2009-06-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

What are the different measures of marketing performance? Explain any two.

One of the ways to learn to manage better is by measuring our performance constantly as we move ahead, and corrects ourselves for errors. Discusses some easy to apply performance measures which will help you measure your own performance, make corrections and finally, manage your success.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF A SMALL ENTERPRISE
As a small entrepreneur,. You are in the market place because you are able to fulfil some unfilled customer needs. The success of your enterprise is therefore measurable by (i) a steady growth of new customers and (ii) a high ratio of repeat customers who sustain the business. Simple monitoring and record keeping will help you keep a track of new and repeat business. With every sale, you know whether it is a new or a repeat period of time you will get a fair idea of the percentage of customers who contribute to your sales records will let you monitor this information easily. Over a period of time you will get a fair idea of the percentage of a customer who contribute to your repeat business as also the rate at which new customers are joining in. A cursory analysis may reveal the following situation.

TABLE-1
TIME PERIOD

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Average performance
New Customers 50 52 54 56 58 61 63
Repeat Customers 0 30 31 33 34 35 37
Total 50 82 85 89 92 96 100
Performance appraisal Poor New Sales And growth strategies
New Customer 50 50 40 45 35 40 30
Repeat Customer 0 30 30 24 27 21 24
50 80 70 69 62 61 54
Poor Repeat Sales 50 52 54 56 58 61 63
0 30 26 22 17 11 06
50 82 80 78 75 72 69

The average performance scene shows a slow but steady growth (around 4%) of new customer and a 60% repeat buying rate. You can imagine the scenario that would exist if both rapid new sales and repeat sales accrue. As it is, the business has attained double the sales in the 7the period as compared to the 1st period.
The second case, poor new sales, still shows a fairly high repeat business rate, but dwindling rates of new business. The cause may be poor promotion, poor location, a new effective competitor joining the market and so on. You must analyse the reason adequately to find out the reasons for lack of growth.
The third situation, poor repeat sales, shows the same rate of new business growth as in the first case but the repeat sales fall continuously from 60% in the first period to 10% in the last. The firm is not going, as the repeat business is not adequate, the reasons may lie in poor product performance or bad after sales or indifferent consumer relations.
As a manager you would need to see both the aspects i.e. growth of new business and an adequate sustenance by repeat business. You must decide for yourself a desirable and attainable rate of new business growth as well as the percentage of repeat business to ensure that you have some steady increase in new customers and are able to retain at least 50% of your buyers as repeat customers. This measure of growth gives you a very general idea of whether you are able to serve your market adequently.
Another overall measure of performance is financial, that of earning on assets and earn on owners networth are basically survival measures. The first among these i.e. earning on total assets measures your performance in terms of efficiency with which you use all your resources. The second measure, earnings on networth, shows how much gain in wealth you have made. Just suppose you are in the chemicals business and your accounts look like the figures shown below. Let us see how the two figures can be arrived at

Co. ABC
List of Assests

Cash at hand and in Bank

Accounts receivable

Inventory
Other current assets

Fixed asset (Net)
Intangible assets

Other assets

Total Assets Value

Rs. 20,000

40,000

60,000
4,000

80,000
0

16,000

220,000 Co. ABC Income Statement shows earning of the firm

Total Sales and Receipts

Minimum cost of goods sold
All business exp.
Net profit (before taxes plus interest
Contributions
Earning, excluding compensation to officers
Plus compensation to officers
Earnings before taxes, including compensation to officer.

300,000

200,000

90,000
10,000
10,000
12,000
22,000

30,800

52,800

Your earning on assets would work out to be 220000  22000 = 10%
If the networth of the firm is given as Rs. 78,000 then the return on networth (before taxes) would be 10,000  78,000 = 12.8%.
You can now compare these figures to those of similar firms, or with the data on earnings of SSI units available with your local small industries service institute (SISI) or the local D.I.C. The data is normally given industry wise. You can therefore compare your figures with the industry norm.
THE TOTAL PERFORMANCE INDEX
You can develop a total performance measure by combining the sales index with the financial performance measure. This index also gives a basis for some preliminary diagnosis.
In order to do moderately will a business should be able to as well as the average performance level (indicated in Table 1) as also on the front of earning an assets (in which case average performance can be assumed to be 1 to 1 i.e. 100%). The total performance index would then b 1.00 × 1.00 = 100%. The total performance index of a business is the product of its sales and earnings indices. This is how you can calculate your own total performance index.
Take your own sales performance figure and divide it by the third line from Table 1 under average performance for the relevant period.
If we take the same assumption that we took under average performance then your own sales, should be increasing by 4% through addition of new customer and you should be experiencing a 60% repeat customer rate. Suppose you are in your second year of business and in your case the total customer purchases are 150% of the first year. In the Table At the number of customers in the 2nd year under average performance has increased 164% over the first year. Your sales performance index then would be 150%  164% = 91%.

Calculate your earning on assets and divide them by the industry norm for your type of business. Suppose your assets are Rs. 220,000 and your earnings before taxes are Rs. 68,000. The earnings on assets would be 31%. If the industry norm for your type of business is 27% then your index of earning performance would work out to be 31%  27% = 115%.

Now find out the product of the sales performance index and the earning performance index (91% × 115%) you get a total performance index of 105%.

The diagnosis of this figure would be that your are displaying slightly above average performance (the total performance index for average performance is 100% with a better financial performance on earnings but below average marketing performance. The suggested remedial action obviously would be to strengthen your marketing effort.

Table 2 suggests some other possible combinations of total performance index with diagnosis which may suggest appropriate action.

TABLE : 2
Total Performance Sales Performance Earning Performance Diagnosis
Index Index Index
1. 121 110 110 Excellent overall performance
2. 110 110 100 Good sales average
earnings
3. 110 100 110 Good earnings,
average sales
4. 100 100 100 Average performance
5. 90 90 100 Poor sales, average
earnings
6. 90 100 90 Poor earnings average
7. 81 90 90 Poor earning poor sales

The case 1 shows outstanding performance cases 2, 3 could improve on the areas sales or earning) where they have average showings but they are still above average. The problems cases are 5, 6 and 7 where case 5 needs to pay special attention to the sales and marketing efforts and case 6 needs to work hard on his financial management to improve his prospects on earnings performance index. Case 7 the one with real problems that may threaten his survival.
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND GROWTH STRATEGIES
You have already seen that the sales performance index is actually made up of two factors i.e. the new customers and the repeat customers. In all cases where the marketing performance is low, you would have to analyse whether it is due to low percentage of repeat customers or deficient addition of new customers.
The overall performance index enables you to evaluate your overall managerial performance against other entrepreneurs and give possible clues to the causes of your problems.

‘Plant location is a strategic decision and has to be arrived at after careful deliberations of various factors involved’. Explain.

2009-06-14T04:20:00.001-07:00

‘Plant location is a strategic decision and has to be arrived at after careful deliberations of various factors involved’. Explain.

A product is called a quality product only when it satisfies certain criteria for its functioning. Bureau of Indian Standards is doing a yeoman service by designing and laying down various criteria for a very large number of industrial and domestic products. A product should not only satisfy the criteria at the time of manufacturing but the same performance should be available over a reasonable length of time:

Quality assurance is a strategic decision. Thus it is responsibility of all functional mangers viz. Purchase, Production, Operations, Warehousing (storage) and the transportation and packaging. Quality implementation is total organisational effort.

CONTROL CHARTS: VARIATIONS IN ANY PROCESS CAN BE DESCRIBED IN TERMS OF CENTRAL TENDENCY AND DISPERSION. CENTRAL TENDENCY IS FOR THE SAMPLES TO STAY AS CLOSE TO THE CRITERIA AS POSSIBLE WHILE DISPERSION IS DESCRIBE AS THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE VARIATION FROM THE CRITERIA EXISTS YOU HAVE ALSO TO UNDERSTAND A BIT MORE OF STATISTICS BEFORE WE CAN APPLY IT FOR EVOLVING OUR QUALITY CONTROL MEASURES.

CENTRAL LIMIT THEREON STATES THAT THE MEANS OF THE SAMPLES TEND TO FOLLOW A SIMPLE STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION CALLED NORMAL DISTRIBUTION.

Therefore the procedure you follow will be:
a) Take a few samples at a time. Measure their quality characteristics.
b) Find the means of the sample. Also measure its range of dispersion.
c) Gather statistics for the ranges and the means of the various samples taken over frequent or regular intervals of time.
d) Plot these statistics approximately on a graph paper.
e) You have your control chart ready now to guide you as to when a particular process needs to be rectified and in what manner.

Based on the sample size, there is a definite relation between the standard deviation of the population and the standard deviation of the sample mean. In other works inspection of samples means statistical inspection of the whole manufactured lot.

U population
Where
Standard deviation
Means
Value of the measured characteristic
Mean of the values of x observed of the sample
Sample size

X CHART: THIS IS THE CONTROL CHART FOR THE CONTROL TENDENCY. IT IS ALSO CALLED THE AVERAGE CONTROL CHART. YOU FIRE THE LOWER AND THE UPPER CONTROL LIMITS FOR THE VALUES OF X. USUALLY THESE LIMITS ARE + 3 WHICH GIVE AN ACCURACY OF 99.97 PER CANT OF THE RESULTS. FIGURE BELOW INDICATES IT GRAPHICALLY:

An illustrative example is given below:
A company using a automotive machine fills one leg sugar boxes with a lower limit of 1.000 and upper limit of 1.005 the machines has natural process variability of 0.0003. The three-sinma limits of the machine therefore are 3 × 0.003 = 0.0009 leg on either side which means a total dispersion of 0.0018.

Since the specified dispersion is 0.005, the automatic machine is adjusted to fill 1.0025 Kg. Boxes. This becomes the Central line. You are now ready to set up an x chart to detect when the machine goes out of the control. Weigh samples of n = 5 boxes and record × the average weight per box for each sample.
Population
Using the formula X
N
We got
0.0003
5
= 0.000134 Kgs. And
3 × 0.000134
= 0.0004

R CHART: RANGE CONTROL CHART ARE FRO STUDYING THE DISPERSION. RANGE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE MAXIMUM VALUE AND THE MINIMUM VALUE OF THE OBSERVATIONS IN A SAMPLE. WE USE THE SAMPLES RANGE FOR CONTROLLING THE DISPERSION OF THE POPULATION.

THE FORMULA ARE:
R = d2 × pop.
And R = d3 × pop
Values of d2 and d3 for a given sample size n are read off from standard statistical and quality control tables.

The control limits for R charts are determined differently.

There is no need for lower control limit which is zero for n less than b
Now you apply the formula R = d2 × 6 pop

We have already seen that 6 pop is 0.0003 and the value of d2from the tables fro n = 5 is 4.918.
Hence R = 0.0003 × 4.918
= 0.00148

ACCEPTANCE SAMPLING PLAN
i) The sampling procedure consists of taking a small sample comprising in number of items form a consignment of N number of items and accepting the consignment only if the number of defective items in the sample is less than or equal to a cost number C or else rejecting the consignment.

ii) An OC curve (operating characteristic curve) is typical of a particular sampling plan. Different sampling plans given size to different OC Curves.

In using the Acceptances Sampling Plan, there is a further probability that the lot may be accepted even of the quality is not really good. Also conversely the lot may be rejected if the quality is actually good. The first type of risk is called the consumer’s risk and the second type is called the producer’s risk.

Average Outgoing Quality Level: You know that on the basis of a sampling plan a lot is either; accepted or rejected, if rejected it undergoes 100 per cent inspection at the suppliers or the consumer’s and before its acceptance. The chance of bad quality entering the consumer’s plant due to rejection of a lot is zero. The lead danger to the incoming quality is from the accepted ones. At any value of percent defectives in the lot, there is a corresponding probability of acceptance of the lot.

The defectives entering the plant due to the acceptance of the lot are = Probability of Acceptance (Pa) × percent Defectives in the lot (p).

This is the Average Outgoing Quality Level. For each possible value of a P there is a corresponding ADQ value. You as the company are interested in knowing the maximum value of ADQ. This is the maximum risk your company is exposed to under the given sampling plan.

Double Sampling: Your double sampling procedure consists of taking first a sample of size n, and inspecting it for defectives. If the number of defectives is less than or equals cut off number C1, reject the lot. If the number of defectives is more than C2, reject the lot. If the numbers of defectives are in between C1 and C2 then take another sample of a different size u2. If the number of defectives in the combined sample of u1 +u2 is less than or equal to C2 then accept the lot. Otherwise reject it.

TQM (Total Quality Management): The scope of quality management is not just devising a sampling plan for the acceptance/rejection of the incoming materials and controlling manufacturing process conditions. It is in fact a job at every step of the company’s activates.

Cost of Quality Control
(i) There is no hard and fast rule as to what percentage of product costs should contribute towards the costs to be incurred for ensured quality standard quality standards. There are so many imponderables that it is difficult to precisely define this cost.

ii) However it should remain a minor percentage of the product cost is not disputed. That is why you do not go in for cent percent inspection of each and every component. Furthermore, this percentage should remain as low as possible.

It would depend on:
a) Type of Product: its functional use, the hazard involved in the use penalties for failure etc.
b) Quality awareness Prevailing in the organisation by implementation of concepts of TQM, ID and QC.
c) Costs for ensuring higher quality standards. You can go on improving in the quality if costs are no consideration and also if functional requirements so dictate. There is no optimum value between quality and product costs.

Explain the concept of partnership firms giving real world examples.

2009-06-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

Explain the concept of partnership firms giving real world examples.

To support this mission, the VR&E program has initiated the Employment Specialist (ES) program. The ES works directly with prospective employers and VR&E case managers in an effort to cultivate partnerships and most importantly, identify career opportunities for veterans that exist when they complete their program of rehabilitation. The ES serves employers by acting as a human resource consultant, matching their labor demands with skilled, well-trained veteran-employees.
The Employer Assistance Referral Network
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) has implemented a free nationwide employer service to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the workforce. The Employer Assistance Referral Network (EARN) became available to the public March 1, 2001 and is designed to assist employers in locating and recruiting qualified workers with disabilities.
Ticket to Work
The Social Security Administration (SSA) manages the Nation’s social insurance program consisting of retirement, survivors and disability programs, commonly known as Social Security. SSA also administers the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program for the aged, blind and disabled. One of SSA’s highest priorities is to help people with disabilities achieve independence by helping them to find gainful employment.
The SSA's Office of Employment Support Programs is now in the process of implementing the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. Section 101(a) of the law establishes the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program. The Ticket to Work Program will make more service providers available to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries with disabilities who are seeking employment services, vocational rehabilitation services, and other support services. It will assist them in obtaining, regaining, and maintaining self-supporting employment. SSA will phase in the Ticket to Work Program nationally over a 3 year period beginning in 2002. The initial Ticket release will include beneficiaries in 13 States-Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin. The Ticket release will coincide with approval of final regulations.
Workforce Recruitment Program
The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) can provide agencies with a list of students with disabilities who are interested in employment. Coordinated by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and the U.S. Department of Defense, the WRP aims to provide summer work experience, and in some cases permanent employment, for college students and recent graduates with disabilities. The program partners with other Federal agencies, each of which makes a commitment to provide summer jobs.
Colleges and Universities
Many colleges and universities have career centers and/or disability resource centers that work with students with disabilities. Agencies can work with the centers to find qualified students with disabilities who are interested in Federal employment and can contribute to the work of the agency.

Hiring departments recruiting for faculty positions or staff positions at or above level 23 that will have an appointment of one year or more must complete and submit an Advertising Request Form, unless the AA/EEO Office has approved a waiver.
The purpose of advertising is to obtain a diversified pool of qualified candidates. The hiring departments are responsible for all aspects of advertising and recruitment. The advertising requirements include the following:
• Broad general advertisement according to the relevant labor market area (RLA). For faculty and academic administrative vacancies the RLA is usually national.
• Making an assertive and good faith effort to advertise in publications, newspapers, journals or other media which specifically targets qualified minorities and or females.
• Advertisements should be consistent with UMDNJ staff and faculty postings and should include required and preferred job requirements.
• The hiring departments recruiting for staff or faculty positions are responsible for submitting an approved advertising request form to Human Resources
• The hiring department is responsible for determining the type(s) of publications that will be used in the recruitment process and for ensuring the ad is placed through the Department of Human Resources.
• Upon being notified of a vacant staff or faculty position, the AA/EEO Office will provide the hiring departments with Minority and Female recruitment sources (Exhibit J) for each vacancy presented. Hiring departments are strongly encouraged to identify additional minority and female sources and not to rely solely on the recruitment recommendations made by the AA/EEO Office.
• Distribution of job vacancy announcements to minority and female organizations is the sole responsibility of the hiring department.
• Advertising may not always be effective in attracting a mix of qualified applicants, therefore aggressive use of the recruitment methods is recommended. All searches must include contacting recruitment sources, which specifically targets qualified minority and female groups. These sources include minority and female professional, social and community organizations, universities and colleges. Interviews must be conduced after the advertising period to ensure the hiring department has a diverse applicant pool.
• Advertisements must include the statement "The UMDNJ is an affirmative action/equal employment opportunity employer m/f/h/v"
• The hiring departments should maintain copies of advertisements placed in minority and female publications or proof of insertions. This documentation can also be obtained from the department of human resources.
• A minimum of two (2) weeks must occur between the date of publication of advertisements and the beginning of the interviewing process. This offers prospective candidates sufficient time in which to apply and to be considered vacant position.
Advertising on the Internet
Advertising on the Internet is recommended and supported by the AA/EEO Office as a supplement to printed publications. Internet advertising is an additional means to increase the applicant pool of minorities and females. In an effort to aid the hiring department in accomplishing this goal, the AA/EEO Office will supply the hiring department with websites (Exhibit K) that are appropriate for their vacancies.
Waiver of Job Posting and Advertising Requirements:
Staff Positions: Hiring departments must contact Human Resources for the procedure to follow in which to waive job posting.
Faculty Positions: Hiring departments must submit their request to waive posting requirements to the AA/EEO Office for review and approval. The request to waive posting requirements will be considered on a case-by-case basis. It should not be assumed that a request to waive the posting period once would be granted again.
Advertising Waiver Considerations:
The AA/EEO Office may waive the affirmative action advertising requirements under certain conditions. Waivers of the advertising requirements are granted for reasons of business necessity or as affirmative actions efforts. Waivers of the advertising requirements are granted on a case-by-case basis. Request to waive advertisement can be made by completing the AA/EEO diversity recruitment plan.
The request to waive advertisement must include a complete explanation of the reasons for the request, identify the position title/rank, identify the candidate and the candidate's race and gender, provide the length and terms of the appointment and indicate how the candidate was identified.
When a waiver has been granted the Search and Selection Activity Report must still be completed and submitted to the AA/EEO Office with appropriate signatures for approval. The minority and female representation at UMDNJ constantly changes; it should not be assumed that a waiver request granted once would be granted again. See Advertising Waiver Request Procedures, (Exhibit L).
Selection Process:
Finalist Pool for Staff and Faculty Positions:
The candidates selected for the finalist pool should be selected based upon the criteria necessary to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Any changes made in the selection criteria during the selection process to endure that all applicants have been evaluated against the new criteria. If the recruitment and selections processes have been conducted with consideration of affirmative action, the finalist pool should reflect a diverse group of candidates. The hiring department must enter the candidate data into the Banner Applicant Tracking System on a timely and regular basis. Where race/ethnicity and gender are unknown, the data must be entered as unknown. When the data becomes available it must be entered into the system.
Final Selection
It is the policy of UMDNJ to select the best person for the job. In making the final selection, close evaluation of each candidate against the requirements and needs of the position is advisable. When there is underutilization of minorities in the job group within the Vice-Presidential unit or school and there is a minority or female candidate among substantially equally qualified finalist, University policy favors selecting the minority or female candidate. In all cases where underutilization exists a good faith effort must be made at each stage of the process to recruit and hire a person from the underutilized group(s). The hiring department must enter the selected candidates data into the Banner Applicant Tracking System immediately following the candidate's acceptance of the job offer.
Completing the Search and Selection Activities Report:
Once a final candidate has been selected, but before an employment offer is made, it is necessary to submit a completed Search and Selection Activities Report and submit it to the respective AA/EEO Office for review and approval.
The hiring department must attach the following to the Search and Selection Activities Report prior to forwarding to the AA/EEO Office for review and approval:
•JobDescription,
. Copies of original advertisements or proof of advertisement insertions,
•Recruitment Letters, C.V./Resumes and Internal Bid Applications
• Diversity Recruitment plan
If applicable:
•ApprovedWaiverRequest,
•SearchCommitteeNotificationForm
•ExplanationofNon-SelectedMinoritiesandFemales.

Failure to submit the appropriate documentation will delay the review and processing of the Search and Selection Activities Report.
The Search and Selection Activities Report can be obtained from General Stores.
No employment offers can be made until the Search and the AA/EEO Office has approved Selection Activities Report Form.
The AA/EEO Office recognizes that there will be times when the hiring departments will make candidate selections that are not reflective of the underutilization that my exists within the job groups.

Suppose you want to start a small business especially in electronic goods.

2009-06-14T03:44:00.000-07:00

Suppose you want to start a small business especially in electronic goods. It is necessary to do the market demand analysis before you venture into the business. What aspects you are going to consider while doing the market demand analysis? Take the present market situations into consideration.

a) Market demand analysis: A small entrepreneur manufacturing electronic goods, the understanding of the completive situation is extremely important. In fact, it may be a matter business life and death.
A typical small enterprise may face competition from other small firms, and from large companies having established and well known brand names. The exercise of demand analysis would have already given the entrepreneur a fairly good idea of the nature and extent of competition prevailing in the market. He would have got a rough assessment of the market share being enjoyed be each competitor. However, the true nature and extent of competition can hardly be judged from the market share being enjoyed by each competitor. In a vast country like India, the nature of competition may vary drastically from market to market. We have highly price-sensitive markets as well as price-insensitive, quality-sensitive markets.

b) Analysis of competitive situation: It is, therefore, important for the entrepreneur to study the competitive situation with reference to the chosen market segments. In case of many products, the household and the institutional markets may have altogether different types of competition.
In order to asses and understand the competitive situation, an entrepreneur should try to answer the following questions:

1) How many firms are in competition with him?
2) What are their market shares?
3) What are the strengths and weaknesses of their products?
4) What kind of consumer image does each product enjoy?
5) What trade practices do the competitors employ?
6) Who are the major customers of each brand?

A study of this kind can be systematized by using a chart shown in Figure. The exercise of preparing the chart may be quite tedious but the help it will provide in understanding the competitive situation would justify the work involved.

Competitive
Products Market
Share Price Product
Features Product
Image Discount
To
Dealers Credit
Terms Major
Customers

BRAND ‘A’
BRAND ‘B’
BRAMD ‘C’

A framework for understanding the competition

This kind of rigorous analysis will brig to light where the entrepreneur can score over the competition, where the competition has an edge over him and what are the areas of opportunities and threats. The analysis will help him tune his marketing efforts to the requirements of the customers and the trade. Correct understanding of the natu5re and extent of competition is essential as the whole process of marketing planning revolves around this understanding.

(c) Analysis of consumer preferences: There are many types of intermediaries like distributors, wholesalers, retailers, commission agents, brokers, super-bazars, and export houses. Each one of these performs particular functions for the manufacturer. The kinds of services they offer are different. Some invest money in stocks before selling them for a profit. Some just provide the service of consummating a sale for a nominal payment or charge.
Depending upon the kind of service provided, each has its own terms and conditions of business.

An entrepreneur must try to understand the trade practices that are relevant to his product. If middlemen are to be employed, the chain of distribution, the selling load to be taken by each member, the discounts to be offered to the, and the general credit terms have to be studied. It is important to know where the distributors and retailers are to be appointed and what are the available modes of transportation to reach them. The prevailing sales tax and other legal implications in selling to the middlemen situated in different locations should also be studied.

In many cases, it is seen that the price of the product, especially when it is manufactured by a new, small enterprise, is determined by what the middlemen are ready to pay. They also dictate other terms of business like the length of the credit period to be allowed to them. Bigger among the trade members may even ask for their own brand name to be put on the product. A study of the trade practices in the beginning will provide some insight into how the product shall ultimately reach its customers, what are the costs involved, what infrastructural facilities are to be provided for, what kind of product features the trade members are looking for, and at what price they are willing to buy it. A realistic assessment of this kind will help in ultimately bringing out a product that is saleable through normal marketing efforts, and in formulating policies that are in tune with the market requirements.

Discuss different types of entrepreneurial competencies.

2009-06-14T03:36:00.000-07:00

Discuss different types of entrepreneurial competencies. Take the case of an organization of your choice and identify the major entrepreneurial competencies present in that organization.

1.The success of a small sale industrial venture depends on the following major factor:
a) Inherent viability of the project, i.e. technical, organizational, financial and commercial viability.
b) The way a project is planned, i.e. decisions regarding various project parameters such as where to locate, what technology to use, what should be the capacity of the machineries, etc.
c) The meticulousness with which a project is implemented.
d) The way a project is managed.
While one add certain other factor to this including the environmental factor, the said factor appear to be major ones. Let us focus our attention on the last 3 factors mentioned above, i.e. project is managed. Above, i.e. project planning implementation and management.
In a small scale enterprise, it is the promoter of the project, i.e. the entrepreneur who does most of the functions of the project planning, implementation and management. If the size of the project is big enough to call for employing professional managers, it is the entrepreneur who acts as a driving force behind performance of theses three aforesaid major tasks. In order to plan a project flawlessly, implement it meticulously and manage it effectively, an entrepreneur needs to process certain knowledge, skills and appropriate personality profile.
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India took up a research project to identify what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. The research project was initiated by Prof. David C. Mc Clelland, a well know behavioral scientist and was taken up in 3 countries-India, Malawi and Equator. The output of the research project has been identification of a set of entrepreneurial competencies or characteristics that lead to superior performance. A major finding of the research project was what that the said competencies are cross culturally valid. In other words, in order to perform well as an entrepreneur, it is necessary to possess the competencies in varying measures irrespective of the geographical locations, where the entrepreneur is operating.
In this section an attempt has made to explain the concept of entrepreneurial competencies.
WHAT IS A COMPETENCE
A competence* is an underlying characteristics of a person, which results is effective and/or superior performance in a job. A job competence is an underlying characteristics of a person, in that it may be motive, traits, skills, aspect of ones self-image or a b body of knowledge which one uses. The existence of these characteristics may or may not be known to the person. In this sense, the characteristics may be unconscious aspects of the person. In simple terms, a competence is a combination of body of knowledge, set of person. In simple terms, a competence is a combination of body of knowledge, set of skill and cluster of appropriate motives/traits that an individual possesses to perform a given task. In order to understand more and motives, which forms various components of entrepreneurial competencies.
WHAT IS BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge means collections of information and retention of facts that an individual stores in some parts of his brain. Let us take an example of swimming. One could be in a position to describe how to swim which would mean that one possesses knowledge of swimming. But this alone will not enable the listener to actually swim unless one has something more than the knowledge component to perform the activity. It means that knowledge is necessary for performing a task but not sufficient. In real life situation, one may find various examples, where people possessing mere knowledge have miserably failed while performing the task. Besides knowledge, an individual should have skills to translate the knowledge into action.
WHAT IS SKILL
Skill is the ability to demonstrate a system and sequence of behavior that are functionally related to attaining a performance goal. Using a skill is not a single action. The relationship among the specific actions is such that each contributes under some direct manner to the capability of people to function effectively or ineffectively in a given situation. Since a skill is the ability to demonstrate a system and sequence of behaviour, it must result in something observable, something that someone in the person’s environment can ‘see’. For example, planning ability is a skill. People who have this skill can identify sequence of action to be taken to accomplish a specific objective. They can identify potential obstacles to those actions. People with this skill can identify sources of help in avoiding obstacles or overcoming them when they interfere with the action sequence. None of these separate actions constitutes a skill, but the system of behavior does. People who have this skill can apply it in any number of situations or contexts.
Going by the example of knowledge of swimming, if one has to be in a position to swim, one needs to have the skill can be acquired only through practice, which enables the individual to demonstrate the system and sequence of behavior that are functionally related to performing a task. In other words, knowledge of swimming could be acquired by reading, talking to experts and so on whereas the skill to keep oneself afloat on water can be acquired by practicing on a number of occasions. Thus, knowledge as well as skills are required to perform a given task effectively.
Motives and Traits
A motive is a recurrent concern for a goal state or condition appearing in fantasy, which drives, directs and selects behavior of the individual. Motive includes thoughts related to a particular goalstate. For example people who think about improving there own performance and competing against a standard of excellence are said to have Achievement Motivation. When people with high achievement motivation encounter a situation in which their performance can be measured and a goal can be stated, their achievement motivation is aroused. Once aroused, the motivated thoughts direct and select their behavior, i.e. they will choose to do things that help them get feedback on their performance and engage in activities that may result in improved performance. In simple terms, motive is an urge for which one has continuous concern in his mind, which directs one to get into certain actions, so that the concerns that one shows gets satisfied.
Coming back to the example of swimming, the knowledge on how to swim followed by practice which would help an individual to acquire skills in swimming would lead to the individual acquiring capability swim. But then this does not lead to him becoming the best swimmer within a given reference group. The individual’s urge to do better and better leading to a desire to become the best swimmer could be termed as concern for excellence – in other words achievement motivation. It is this concern which would help the individual to constantly practice swimming, look out for ways and means of increasing the speed thereby ultimately increasing the possibility of become the best swimmer.
A trait is a dispositions or characteristic way in which person responds to an equivalent set of stimuli. A trait includes thoughts and psycho-motor activities related to a general category of events. For example, people who believe themselves to be in control of their future are said to have the trait of efficacy. When people with this trait encounter problem or issues in any aspect of life they take initiative resolve the problem or understand the issue. They do not wait for someone else to do it nor expect that luck will take care of it. The thought pattern and resultant behaviour occur in response to any general set of events, which allow the trait to be expressed.
Thus to perform any given task including that of launching an industrial venture and managing it successfully, a person needs a set knowledge, skill, motives and traits which could be together labeled as competencies.
2).The knowledge of entrepreneurial competencies has been sharpened over the last 3 decades. Earlier, there used to be a firm belief that those person with business family background could become successful entrepreneurs. Subsequently there was a belief that individuals need technical venture. In order to understand clearly what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, EDI took up a research project as indicated in above. Following is a list of major competencies that contribute towards top performance:
i) Initiative: An entrepreneur takes action that go beyond job requirements or the demand of the situation.
• Does things before being asked or forced by the events.
• Acts to extend the business into new areas, products, or services.
ii) Sees and Acts on Opportunities: Looks for and takes action on opportunities.
• Sees and acts on opportunities (business, educational or personal growth).
• Seizes unusual opportunities to obtain financing, equipment, land work space, or assistance.
iii) Persistence: Takes repeated action to overcome obstacle that get in the way of reaching goals.
• Takes repeated or different actions to overcome obstacles.
• Takes action in the face of a significant obstacle.
iv) Information Seeking: Takes action on own to get information to help reach objectives or clarify problems.
• Does personal research on how to provide a product or service.
• Consults experts for business or technical advice.
• Seeks information or asks questions to clarify what is wanted or needed.
• Personally undertakes research, analysis, or investigation.
• Uses contacts or information networks to obtain useful information.
v) Concern for High Quality of Work: Acts to do thing that meet or beat existing standards of excellence.
• States a desire to produce work of high quality.
• Compares own work or own company’s work favorably to that of others.
vi) Commitment to Work Contract: Places the highest priority on getting a job completed.
• Makes a personal sacrifice or expends extraordinary effort to complete a job.
• Accepts full responsibility for problems in completing a job for others.
• Pitches in with workers or works in their place to get the job done.
• Expresses a concern for satisfying the customer.
viii) Efficiency Orientation: Finds ways to do thing faster or with fewer resources or at a lower cost
• Looks for or finds ways to do things faster or at less cost.
• Uses information or business tools in improve efficiency.
• Expresses concern about costs vs. benefits of some improvement, change, or course of action.
viii) Systematic Planning: Develops and uses logical, step-by-step plans to reach goals.
• Plans by breaking a large task down into sub-tasks.
• Develops plans that anticipate obstacles.
• Evaluates alternatives.
• Takes a logical and systematic approach to activities.
ix) Problem Solving: Identifies new and potentially unique ideas to reach goals.
• Switches to an alternative strategy to reach a goal.
• Generates new ideas or innovative solutions.
x) Self-confidence: Has a strong belief in self and own abilities
• Expresses confidence in own ability to complete a task or meet a challenge.
• Sticks with own judgement in the face or opposition or early lack of success.
• Does something that he says is risk.
xi) Assertiveness: Confronts problems and issues with others directly.
• Confronts problems with others directly.
• Tells others what they have to do.
• Reprimands or disciplines those failing to perform as expected.
xii) Persuasion: Successfully persuades others.
• Convinces someone to buy a product or service.
• Convinces someone to provide financing.
• Convinces some to do something else that he would like that person to do.
• Asserts own competence, reliability, or other personal or company qualities.
• Asserts strong confidence in own company’s or organisations’s products or service.
xiii) Use of Influence Strategies: Uses of variety of strategies to affect others.
• Acts to develop business contacts.
• Uses influential people as agents to accomplish own objectives.
• Selectively limits the information given to others.
xiv) Monitoring:
• Develops or uses producers t ensure that work is completed or that work gets standards or quality.
• Personally supervises all aspects of project.
xv) Concern for Employee Welfare:
• Takes action to improve the welfare of employees.
• Takes positive action in response employees; personal concerns.
• Expresses concern about the welfare of employees.

ENTREPRENEURIAL COMPETENCIES FROM A PROCESS PERSPECTIVE
Similar to competitiveness, the concept of competency is also related to performance, but the focus is mainly at individual level. Entrepreneurial competencies are obviously related to managerial competencies, which are articulated by the works of Boyatzis (1982). This approach is a response to the need for possession of characteristics more than simply skills and abilities in facing the increasing competition. In other words, there is a need for combining certain values and attitudes with these skills and abilities towards competence. The process approach of studying entrepreneurial competencies is our current emphasis. It assumes that the mere possession of competencies does not necessarily make an entrepreneur competent. Rather, these competencies can only be demonstrated with one’s behaviors.
Moreover, in terms of casual relationship, behaviors are closer to performance than other entrepreneurial characteristics like personality traits, intentions or motivations (Herron and Robinson, 1993; Gartner and Starr, 1993). According to Bird (1995), competencies are seen as behavioral and observable characteristics of an entrepreneur. Consequently, competencies are changeable and learnable, allowing multi-method empirical studies including quantitative approaches to measurement. This approach also expands our horizons for intervention in terms of selection and teaching of entrepreneurship. Further, it is a variable across levels of analysis and disciplines of business management, allowing complex, multi-level, and multi-disciplinary research to advance. These natures allow entrepreneurial competencies to serve as a bridge between individual-level characteristics and firm-level performance. In this paper, a competency is defined as the total capability of the entrepreneur to perform a job role successfully (Lau et al., 1998). A number of studies in relevant literature have been reviewed (For example, Adam & Chell, 1993; Baum, 1994; Chandler and Jansen, 1992; Chandler and Hanks, 1994; Durkan et al., 1993; Lau et al., 1998; McClelland, 1987; Mitton, 1989; Snell and Lau, 1994). Consequently, six competency areas have been summarized:
1. Opportunity Competencies - This group of competencies is considered to be very central in the process of entrepreneurship. It comprises two main elements - to spot the opportunities and to develop the opportunities.
2. Organizing Competencies - This group of competencies calls for the ability to lead, control, monitor, organize and develop the external and internal resources to become the firm’s capabilities.
3. Strategic Competencies - This area of competencies requires the entrepreneur to set vision and goals, and to formulate strategies for the whole company. They represent abilities and skills from a broader perspective.
4. Social Competencies - To successfully use contacts and connections, the entrepreneur needs to possess social competencies in communication, persuasive and relationship building abilities, either internally within the firm or externally with others.
5. Commitment Competencies - These competencies are required to sustain the entrepreneur’s effort to the business or particular aims. Another aspect is the initiative or proactive orientation, that is, to do things before being asked or forced to by events.
6. Conceptual Competencies - The ability in making cognitive and analytical thinking, learning, decision making and problem solving, sustaining temporal tension, innovating and in coping with uncertainty and risk belong to this area of competencies. They involve a high level of conceptual activities as reflected in the entrepreneur’s behaviors with a shorter-term perspective, resolving instant events, or requiring intuitive responses.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESES
The above six competency areas represent the process dimension of competitiveness. Incorporating them in other constructs of SMEs’ competitiveness suggested earlier, we propose the following model of SME’s competitiveness:
Figure 5 A Model of SMEs’ Competitiveness
Central to the model are the relationships between entrepreneurial competencies with other constructs of competitiveness. These relationships are conceptualized as three principal entrepreneurial tasks as shown in the model and are explained in details as follows:
Task 1 Forming the Competitive Scope of the Firm
Addressing external potential dimension of competitiveness, the competitive scope represents the perceived breadth for the firm to act. This relates to the opportunities available to the firm and is affected by the competitive rivalry, industrial life cycle, other market forces, and more importantly, by how the entrepreneur perceives these factors. This construct is largely captured by the following four variables:
• Technological opportunity - the perceived availability of new pockets of demand for new or existing technology (Zahra, 1993);
• Perceived industry growth - a firm’s perception of the demand for industry products/services (Harrigan, 1985);
• Importance of new product/services - the weight that an industry assigns to the value of new products for creating and retaining a competitive position (Zahra, 1993); and
• Market Heterogeneity - the differences in competitive tactics, customer tastes, product lines, channels of distribution across the firm’s respective markets (Miller and Friesen, 1983).
While the entrepreneur is affected by the environment, the literature also suggests that the perceived environment is influenced by entrepreneurial activities as well (Keats and Bracker, 1988; Herron and Robinson, 1993). Hence, the competitive scope is likely to be affected by the entrepreneur’s ability to interpret the environmental conditions. The corresponding competencies lie mainly on the opportunity competencies, which call for the ability to search and to act on the opportunities. In addition, social competencies are helpful in creating contacts and connections so that many business opportunities can be established through this process. We would also suggest that hidden opportunities can be uncovered with stronger conceptual competencies, which equip the entrepreneur with sufficient skills in conducting analysis, decision making, learning and problem solving. This leads us to the first hypothesis:
Hypothesis 1: The opportunity, social, and conceptual competencies of the entrepreneur are positively related to the competitive scope of an SME, which is indicated by technological opportunity, perceived industry growth, importance of new products, and market heterogeneity.
Task 2 Creating the Organizational Capabilities
Representing the internal potential dimension, various internal sources of competitiveness have been identified and discussed earlier. Our emphasis is to consider these factors as a dynamic construct of organizational capabilities, which are defined as the capabilities for a team of resources to perform some tasks or activities (Grant 1991). Following this approach, we can generalize four organizational capabilities as follows:
• Innovative ability - the ability to innovative in new products, services or processes;
• Quality - the ability to maintain or achieve high quality of products or services, which lead to good image and reputation;
• Cost effectiveness - the ability to achieve cost effectiveness so as to set competitive price; and
• Organicity - the ability to create and maintain flexible, organic organizational structures and systems for achieving production speed and responsiveness.
The task of creating organizational capabilities is seen as a function of the entrepreneur’s ability to gather and utilize resources (Garter and Starr, 1993; Ostgaard and Birley, 1994). The relevant competencies are mainly related to the organizing competencies which call for the planning, organizing, and controlling of marketing, human and financial resources, and the monitoring of the whole operation towards efficiency and productivity. In addition, social competencies are required for gathering external resources like external consultants and financial support. Moreover, the conceptual competencies also play the roles in Analysing the organizational problems, making important decisions and innovating in either new processes, products, or services. Hence, the second hypotheses is that:
Hypothesis 2: The organizing, social and conceptual competencies of the entrepreneur are positively related to the organizational capabilities of an SME, which are indicated by innovative ability, quality, cost effectiveness, and organicity.
Task 3 Setting Goal and Taking Actions for the Goal through Assessing the Competitive Scope and Utilizing the Organizational Capabilities
Firm performance is the ultimate criterion in the model. However, there exist few performance measures deliberately applied to SMEs’ competitiveness. Nevertheless, we have reviewed the performance criteria in other studies of firm-level competitiveness (World Competitiveness Report, 1993; Buckley et al., 1988; Kravis and Lipsey, 1992; O’Farrell and Htichens, 1989; Feurer and Chaharbaghi, 1994). Also, after considering the need of multiple measurements (Murphy et al., 1996), their suitability for applying to SMEs and the four conditions for measuring competitiveness proposed earlier, we suggest that SMEs’ competitiveness performance is best indicated by the following three variables:
• Efficiency - Measuring a firm’s capabilities in maximizing resources allocation and profitability, indicating the controllability aspect of competitiveness;
• Growth - Including the present growth rate and the potential to growth. This is an indicator for the potential and dynamic aspect of competitiveness; and
• Relative performance - Addressing the relativity aspect of competitiveness when comparison is made with the firm’s competitors.
As the owner-manager of the firm, the entrepreneur must set the direction for the company, to be visionary, strategic and goal oriented. He or she must keep an eye on the opportunities and resources available and to have the ability to integrate them together. Hence, the primary competency area required in this task is strategic competencies. In addition, an entrepreneur also needs to possess strong commitment competencies which equip him or her with necessary drive and initiative, and to sustain his or her efforts. By being persistent and committed to the task, the performance of the firm is more likely to be enhanced.
Nevertheless, the level of competitive scope and organizational capabilities will determine the extent to which the entrepreneur can apply his or her strategic and commitment competencies.
To illustrate, a broader competitive scope will allow more space for the entrepreneur to take actions. Similarly, higher organizational capabilities let him or her perform with less constraints. These imply a moderating effect by competitive scope and organizational capabilities respectively. Therefore, we propose the following two hypotheses:
Hypothesis 3a: The strategic and commitment competencies of the entrepreneur are positively related to the performance of an SME, which is indicated by its efficiency, growth, and relative performance. This relationship is moderated by the competitive scope of the firm.
Hypothesis 3b: The strategic and commitment competencies of the entrepreneur are positively related to the performance of an SME, which is indicated by its efficiency, growth, and relative performance. This relationship is moderated by the organizational capabilities of the firm.
Finally, considering the direct influences exerted by an SME’s competitive scope and organizational capabilities on performance, we propose the final two hypotheses as follows:
Hypotheses 4a: The competitive scope of an SME is positive related to its performance, which is indicated by its efficiency, growth, and relative performance.
Hypothesis 4b: The organizational capabilities of an SME is positive related to its performance, which is indicated by its efficiency, growth, and relative performance.