Emerging
Management Team Skill Analysis
Created on Friday, 14 November 2008 04:04 Last Updated on Friday, 06 May 2011 11:37 Published Date Written by Small Business Can Hits: 1377
As your company develops, you will need different sets of skills. The skills you used several years ago to propel your company through the start-up and early growth phases are not the same as the skills you now need for growth and maturity
Growth requires not only a broader range of skills but also deeper understanding and ability in each.
You need to decide which areas of your business are most critical for its growth and analyse your own education, experience and skills (and that of your other promoters and management team) in each of these.
EXERCISE EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS — GAPS AND FILLING THEM
First summarise your education, experience and skills:
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Period |
Institution |
Course |
Applicability to your business during growth stage |
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Period |
Organisation |
Position/Responsibility |
Applicability to your business during growth stage |
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Period |
Source |
Nature of skill |
Applicability to your business during growth stage |
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Next, identify the areas critical for growth in your business – and how your education, experience and skills match and where gaps remain:
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Area |
Match of: |
Gap |
How to Fill the Gap |
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Education |
Experience |
Skills |
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It cannot be emphasised enough that the promoters and management team are the most critical determinant of a company’s growth. Without able, committed management to drive the business forward, growth will not happen. Hence the importance of further analysis in this area. Skill Levels Every stage of a company’s life cycle demands different skills of management. The table below shows the business life cycle, the issues that each stage brings, the key success factors for each stage and their relative importance. Business Life Cycle
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STAGE |
Survival |
Consolidation |
Control |
Expansion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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ISSUES |
Owner is the business |
Developing systems |
Taking on and managing staff |
Delegation and decentralization Market expansion |
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KEY PROBLEMS |
Finding customers Managing cash-flow |
Generating repeat sales Maintaining financial control |
Fighting competition Developing new markets Control of margins/costs |
Maintaining financial control |
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KEY Success Factors |
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Owner |
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Goals (personal & business) |
3 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
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Operational ability |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
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Managerial ability |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
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Strategic ability |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
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Business |
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Financial resources (cash/borrowing power) |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
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Personnel resources (quality of staff, especially at management level) |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
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System resources (information, planning and control systems) |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
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Business resources (goodwill, market-share, technology, reputation, etc) |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
Drive, value and passion are internally driven and are hard to change. But skill levels can always be developed, whether one is talking about “hard” skills (functional capabilities, such as marketing or financial skills), or “soft” skills, like dealing with people or managing change. You need to analyse the current skill levels of your management team and identify the new skills that the business will require in the future.
EXERCISE SKILL LEVELS
Current skills Planned requirement Skill Gap
- What are your strong points?
- What are your weak points?
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What areas do you need to improve on?
- Sales
- Finance
- Innovation/product development
- Production
- Marketing
- Management
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Change Management
- Other (specify)
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