Small Is Beautiful
In 1992 I wrote the following article as an employee in the small scale sector. Today I have my own MSME unit. I feel that part one still holds true, but there is another side to the coin, as an employer in the small scale sector. The objective of this article is to open the eyes of SSI employers to MBA’s and there usefulness in today’s competitive world.
Employees Birds Eye View:
Employers Perspective: It is very evident that the SSI unit has much to offer to the MBA. yet very few prefer this option unless forced to by situation or born into the situation. As the unit begins to grow the owner finds he cannot cope with the growing needs of the business and its customers in terms of time. Earlier, at the start-up stage he oversaw production, marketing, finance and administration. Today because of growth he begins to find he has to be in to many places at the same time.
It would have helped if he had some systems, some reports so that he can control functional areas by exception. Of course the owner knows by gut-feel where the problems lies but he does not have the time to tackle it but on the other hand the business cannot afford a full time salary overhead. At this point there seems to be just one option, carry on the one man show and hope for the best. Usually the situation will worsen. Either the owner will neglect his customers or production will suffer or some government dept. returns will be effected.
The above will draw reactions like “We manage” Or “Its not that Bad”. But honestly to survive today growth is imperative, volumes or variety, are the key. So whether we like it or not we have to grow and if we can get some help the better.
I feel there is an option. An option that helps you get assistance part-time. An option, that gets you used to working with professional. So that when you are ready you can afford, hire and keep MBA’s full time. Your reaction, would most likely be “Why do I need an MBA ? anyone will do, I can train him.” Exactly, the reason you need MBA’s is that you do not have time to run your growing business, leave alone train someone. An MBA has spent two years learning the ropes in school. Ofcourse reality is different, but they learn to adjust. More importantly they are armed with concepts that if implemented properly can benefit your Organisation.
My suggestion has two parts, one is the orientation portion and the second is the permanent portion.
The first step would be to hire MBA students to do small projects for your unit. It could be a market study, process/layout analysis with regard to efficiency or maybe plain valuation of inventory lying around the units premises. This would help sort out issues pending because you did not have time. It would get you accustomed to working with people who think and can suggest, a bit different from working with people who only take instructions. It would mean getting the job done but not carrying a fixed cost. For different functional are you could hire different students as they also have areas of specialisation and the projects could be taken up as the previous one get completed.
The benefit to the student is he gets hands-on experience. Something they need but do not enough. They get exposed to the SSI sector and can see the potential for learning and growth in the SSI. Something they will find hard to believe by just reading this article.
Once the employers starts working with MBA’s under training, he will get confident to ask them to do bigger projects. With the business growing there will come a time when he will feel he can handle a full-time MBA. By then he will have learnt to handle them- PROFESSIONALLY, and will therefore be able to retain them.
There will be many pros & cons to this approach but the best way to find out the taste of a cake, is to eat it. So my fellow SSI owners go ahead and give it a try, you have nothing to lose but your inhibitions.
Blaise Costabir, Managing Director GMI Zarhak Moulders Pvt Ltd. Visiting Faculty Goa Institute of Management
