SBANC Newsletter
February
15, 2005
Issue
359-2005
QUOTE
"If
you do build a great experience, customers tell each other
about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."
-- Jeff Bezos
FEATURE
PAPER
Critical Management
Issues In Small Businesses
This
paper was presented by Barbara Dalby and Patrick Jaska of The
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, TX at the 2004
Allied Academies
International Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 7-10,
2004.
Although
both the popular press and the academic literature discuss the
importance of the small company to the U.S. economy, the strategy
books, business
courses, and research remain centered on the large multinational
firms. What are the issues that the leaders of small companies
(less than 2000 employees) must solve? Are these leaders able
to engage
in long-term planning and business development? Are these companies
concerned about the global market place and the need to effect
change? Or, are these leaders working a day-at-time to keep the
business going? This study is the beginning of an attempt to answer
the central question of what are the issues that face the senior
leaders of small companies.
The
challenges that businesses face in the 21st Century range from
the globalization of the market place to the digitization of
technologies revolutionizing communication (Barkema, et al.,
2000). Other major challenges range from outsourcing of core
business processes to innovation and customer relations (Insinga,
2002; Gutek et al., 2002). The majority of the research on challenges
and issues of the 21st Century has been on large corporations.
This
study takes a look at the issues managers of small to medium
size companies are facing at the beginning of the new millennium.
In
a recent research study in Canada, the top six issues facing
business were competition, attracting new customers, access to
capital/financing, growth (how to grow), recruiting new employees,
and increasing costs (strategis.gs.ca, 2003). Are the issues
the same in the U.S.? This research study was undertaken to examine
the issues facing small to midsize companies in the US. Preliminary
results indicate some agreement with Canadian findings. In this
study, some of the issues identified were: growth, training and
keeping good employees, change management, government regulations,
and customer/vendor relations.
Read the Entire Paper...
TIP
OF THE WEEK
The Need for Quality Employees
In his classic
study of good-to-great companies (companies that advanced from
being really good to become truly great), Jim Collins found that
the great companies first "got the right people on the bus."
The
executives who ignited the transformations from good to great
did not first
figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take
it there. No, they first got the right people on the
bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured
out where to drive
it. They said, in essence, "Look I don't really know where
we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the
right
people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the
wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it
some place great."
The reasoning
is particularly relevant to personnel in key positions, as the
right people in the right places provide a strong foundation
for any business. In a broad sense, this concept is applicable
to all employees, in view of their direct or indirect
impact on business accomplishments.
Employees affect profitability in many ways. In most small firms,
salespeople's attitudes and their ability to serve customer needs
directly affect sales revenue. Also, payroll is one of the largest
expense categories for most businesses, having a direct impact
on the bottom line. By recruiting the best possible personnel,
a firm can improve its returns on each payroll dollar.
Recruitment
and selection of employees establish a foundation for a firm's
ongoing human relationships. In a sense, the quality of
a firm's employees determines its potential. A solid, effective
organization can be built only with a talented, ambitious workforce.
Longenecker,
J., Moore, C., Petty, J., & Palich, L. 2006. "Small
Business Management." 13
ed. p. 421. Mason, Ohio: Thomson South-Western.
CONFERENCES
National
Women's Business Council
The National Women's Business Council is holding
its February Teleconference on February 22, 2005
from 3:00-
4:00p.m. February's Women's Business
Connection will feature four staff members from the Senate and the
House Small Business
Committees speaking on their
upcoming legislative activities. Following the presentations, you will
have an opportunity to ask questions, make suggestions and comment
on their issue priorities as well as participate
in the discussion on what
role women-owned businesses play (and can play) in national small business.
To participate, call 1-877-326-2337
and enter code #3687613.
For more information, visit: http://www.nwbc.gov
Federation of Business Disciplines Annual Conference
The Federation of Business Disciplines is holding its Annual Conference
at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas on March 1-5, 2005. FBD
developed into one of the largest, most prestigious annual meetings
for those disciplines common to business administration and has
both national and international constituencies of more than 1,300
college professors from schools of businesses attending its annual
meetings.
For more information, visit: http://www.fbds.org/
International
Council for Small Business 50th World Conference
The International
Council for Small Business (ICSB) is
holding its 50th World Conference at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Washington,
D.C. on
June
15-18,
2005. The theme for the Conference is “Golden
Opportunities for Entrepreneurship.”
For more information, visit: http://www.usasbe.org/icsb/icsb_reg.asp
Marketing Management Association
The Marketing Management Association (MMA) is holding its Spring
Conference on March 16-18, 2005 at the Palmer House Hilton in
Chicago, Illinois. The Conference theme is "Exploring New
Frontiers in Marketing."
For more information, visit: http://www.mmaglobal.org/sprconfcallforpapers05.htm
Gateway
Series for Entrepreneurship
The 18th Annual International
Gateway Series for Entrepreneurship will be held at Saint Louis University at
the John Cook School of Business in Saint Louis,
Missouri on April 14-16, 2005. The Conference
theme is "Assessing Outcomes in Entrepreneurship Education." The 2005
Gateway Conference will help you learn about and discuss world-class outcome assessment
techniques, and is co-sponsored by the Kauffman
Foundation
and the Entrepreneurship Affinity Group of the AACSB.
For more information, visit: http://eweb.slu.edu/gateways_conference.htm
CALL
FOR PAPERS
High Technology Small Firms Conference
The Annual High Technology Small Firms Conference will be held
at the Manchester Business School in Manchester, England on May
26-27, 2005. The theme of this year's conference is Academic
Enterprise, a topic of central importance to the HTSF formation
and growth in all economically developed and developing nations.
Submission Deadline: February 18, 2005
For more information, enquiries, and bookings, contact: Mrs. Debbie
Toth
HTSF Conference Administrator
Manchester Business School
Booth Street West
Manchester, M15 6PB, England
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6540, Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 7143, E-mail: debbie.toth@mbs.ac.uk
IPSI-2005
Massachusetts
IPSI is holding a Symposium on Challenges in the Internet and Interdisciplinary
Research at the Hotel at MIT in Cambridge on July 7-10, 2005.
Topics for the symposium include: Education, Computer science and engineering,
B2B, B2C, E-Business Management, etc.
Submission Deadline: February 20, 2005
For more information, visit: http://internetconferences.net/usa2005/index.html
IPSI-2005
Belgrade
IPSI is holding a Symposium on Challenges in the Internet and Interdisciplinary
Research at the University of Belgrade, Serbia on June 2-5, 2005.
Topics for the symposium include: Education, Computer science and
engineering, B2B, B2C, E-Business Management.
Submission Deadline: April 15, 2005
For more information, visit: http://belgrade.internetconferences.net/
Decision Sciences Institute
The 36th Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute will be
held at San Francisco Marriott (Downtown) in
California on November 19-22, 2005.
Submission Deadline: April 1, 2005
For more information, visit: http://www.dsi2005.org/
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Encouraging
Message from Dr. Don B. Bradley III
Dr. Don B. Bradley III of the University of Central Arkansas would
like to encourage you to send in papers for the Family Business
sector of the upcoming Allied Academies Conference at the Hilton
Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 14-16,
2005. Papers will be published in the Academy of Family Business
(AFB), which seeks theoretical, empirical and practical works in
Family Business.
For more information, visit: http://www.alliedacademies.org/memphis-call.html
Survey Request
Lloyd W. Fernald, Jr., D.B.A., a Professor of Management at the University of
Central Florida is requesting your participation in a small business questionnaire.
The results of the survey may help by providing information to you and other
small business owners and managers with respect to training and development
programs and Internet usage. This information also will be useful to those who
provide training and development programs and assistance to small businesses.
The questionnaires should be printed from the following link and returned by
mail by
February 28, 2005.
To print the survey, visit: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/newsletter/2005/survey_merge.pdf
Update
on Dr. Solomon
Dr. George Solomon from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. is out
of
the hospital and doing well. His surgery was a complete success and is expected
to
recover without any problems.
Notice
of Downed Server
The server that the Small Business Advancement National Center runs on has informed
us that on Sunday, February 20th, they will be doing work on the electrical equipment
in the building that houses our Internet connection in Little Rock. While power
is out for this building, our Internet connection will be off. The work is scheduled
from 7:00am to 5:00pm. We are sorry for this inconvenience.
The SBANC Newsletter is provided as
a service to the members of our affiliates: Academy
of Collegiate Marketing Educators (ACME), Association for Small
Business& Entrepreneurship (ASBE), Decision Sciences
Institute (DSI), Federation of Business
Disciplines (FBD), International Council for Small Business Congress
(ICSB), Institute
for Supply Management, The International Small Business Congress
(ISBC), Marketing Management Association (MMA), Small Business
Administration
(SBA), Service Corps of Retired Executives, Small Business Institute
(SBI), Society for
Marketing Advances (SMA), United States Association for Small Business& Entrepreneurship
(USASBE), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Western
Decision Sciences Institute (WDSI). If you are interested in membership
or would like
further information on one of our affiliates, please see our web
site at
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu
SBANC STAFF
Main Office Phone: (501) 450-5300
Dr. Don B. Bradley III, Executive
Director of SBANC & Professor
of Marketing
Direct Phone: (501) 450-5345, E-mail: donb@uca.edu
Esther
Mead, Co-Lead Development Director, E-mail: estherledelle@yahoo.com
Amanda Harris, Development Intern,
E-mail: abharris84@yahoo.com
Michael Flanagin, Development Intern, E-mail: whiffleball@aol.com
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the SBANC
Newsletter, please E-mail SBANC at sbanc@uca.edu
