Page 16 - KZN Business Sense 9.6

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR SMES

David White, 1. Vision and leadership – defining area goes through significant engaged people thinking in the legislation and encouraged by
Chairman, the enterprise’s value creation change as the enterprise business, working in teams, and best practice, and gathering
BusinessFit SA and ability to meet this migrates from one Tier to focused on making decisions at information and understanding
intended purpose. the next, and so too does the the point of contact with internal of the business and its evolution/
he 2. A business appropriate leader’s management and staff and external customers, suppliers maturity level to help prepare for
concept functional framework engagement style. and stakeholders. the ‘Stage 4 deep dive 32-point
Tof At Tier 3, the organisation has focus round table meeting’.
developing a 3. Having clearly defined To provide a simple explanation created systems that produce Stage 5 is about customer
business tool operational and stakeholder of the evolution of the HR quality information flows to help testimonials, where the business
to support the measures functional area… consider that a support effective decision making. leaders receive feedback from their

start-up SME, a Tier 1 enterprise,
growth and 4. Energy from staff and teams to Staff and teams understand how customers, which is made formal
sustainability meet key performance generally has centralised decision the business works i.e., what within the app.
of SMEs was indicators (KPIs) and drive the making. In HR terms we refer to makes it successful, and how
this management style as street
initiated by enterprise’s strategy forward gang or mafia leadership (it is they as individuals and teams Tinder for Business
BusinessFit in contribute to the enterprise
2012, when Each of the Pillars have my way or the highway). Here success and sustainability. The app… also termed Tinder for
the business leader does all the
12 KZN eight focus areas within them, thinking and directs and controls Business, creates opportunity for
business which transfer understanding each activity within the business. Tier 3 enterprises encourage large organisations to identify and
leaders joined together to focus of important aspects of the Tier 1 is about survival, where the that staff bring their full selves engage with potential suppliers
their minds on discovering “how business, and help to define defining KPIs are customers and to work, and not just their skills directly through a ‘Request
to help more SMEs to be more a more ‘scientific approach’ cashflow. Many family businesses and experience. This helps people Contact’ facility, and for SMEs to
successful more often”. to understanding, planning, working in the enterprise feel they engage with each other directly.
and decision making within a also fit into this category, for belong and are valuable assets. Other exciting features on the
The team of 12 KZN business business. Once an enterprise example where the family works This has an exponential effect on app include a clear description
leaders sat together for two hours, has been through the deep dive together, and dad makes all the energy and engagement levels.
every second week, for 18 months 32-point checklist, the leaders of final decisions. When likeminded people, with of the organisation’s BEE status,
a facility to provide and receive
to define a ‘business framework’ these enterprises would have had Many SMEs are successful at a commonly supported outcome reviews, capacity to store contacts,
to help SMEs to build better the opportunity to consider and the Tier 1. However, their growth intention have the freedom to do requests, and notifications, as well
businesses that meet governance define actions and KPIs within and innovation is often stifled in what is right for the enterprise and as providing location and distance
and stakeholder expectations, each critical focus area of their the longer term. The only way its stakeholders… magic happens. from an engaging company.
and that will last into the future. business… and from addressing an organisation can move out of People become self-directing,
We considered that if we were defined corrective actions, they Tier 1 is through advancing to management responsibilities The BusinessFit app is mobile
able to create a model to help are well on their way to ensuring Tier 2. At Tier 2, from an HR are shared, and the enterprise active, and downloadable from
entrepreneurs and business leaders their creation of an ethical, perspective, we look at each of the discovers that it is more often than PlayStore for Android phones,
better understand and lead their compliant, and sustainable activities required to ensure that not, in the right place at the right and AppleStore for iPhones. The
enterprises, we would significantly enterprise. the customer receives a quality time, providing the right products back end, which we refer to as the
improve their decision making and assured product or service, and to existing and new customers, call centre is computer based. The
success rates. SMEs are of course 5 Stage Quality Assurance that the enterprise receives its engaging with the right value BusinessFit app Stage 1 is open at
cited to be the employment creators Process financial dues timeously. From adding suppliers, and being more no cost to all SMEs.
of the future, however, their this information we are able to effective and more sustainable. We welcome all SMEs to take
The BusinessFit model follows a
ongoing success and sustainability 5 Stage Quality Assurance process draw up an organogram for the advantage of this marketing and
outcome is often very low. enterprise, create role profiles BusinessFit Quality Assurance
which helps business leaders to App business development platform –
A Huge Impact build a solid governance centred defining the actions (KPIs) that and to register as Stage 1 enterprises
framework for their enterprise, need to be met by each person and Stages 1,2 and 3 of the BusinessFit on the BusinessFit app. 
Each of the business leaders creating a common language for functional area, draw up standard Quality Assurance App help
meeting to support this mission the business which defines ‘what operating procedures to ensure a each business focus on ensuring
shared all they knew about makes the organisation work’, defined quality control process is they are ‘legitimate’ i.e., meeting Contact David White,
T: +27 (0)31 767 0625
business development, governance, and detailing how individuals followed, to help encourage the all reporting and compliance E: david@drg.co.za
strategy, and sustainability… and teams contribute individually intended outcome is achieved. responsibilities as defined by W: www.drg.co.za
which in itself had a huge and collectively towards ensuring
impact on the success of the 12 that the organisation meets Tier 2 companies can also lose
contributing businesses. Each it operational measures and their way, as often they will revert
of the 12 businesses grew so to micromanagement and silo
considerably during this period of stakeholder expectations. mentality, where department
team interaction and sharing, that We also recognised that each heads preside over their portfolios.
some of the businesses ran out of enterprise, whether small, In cultural terms we refer to this
capacity for further growth and medium, or large, follows a stage as being army style, or chain
of command, where whatever the
opportunity. It was an incredible predictable evolutionary path. We
experience for everyone. defined these evolutionary steps person at the top says, or what
the board agrees, is filtered down
as commencing in Tier 1, and over
We started each meeting with through each of the departments,
a two-minute contribution from time migrating to Tier 2 and Tier and measured in relation to the
each person, sharing the successes 3. These Tiers are also known leader or board’s expectation.
and challenges we had in the as S-Curves and help to explain Tier 2 is essential for an
two weeks since our previous how an enterprise’s functional enterprise’s advancement to
gathering. As each of the 12 foundation and culture change as
business leaders were professionals the business matures. If enterprises Tier 3, but it can tend to become
over structured, and often does
themselves, from different are not aware, or do not embrace not encourage contribution and
disciplines and industries, we these changes that occur naturally innovation from staff and teams,
were able to learn a huge amount as their business grows, the other than for those whose role
from each other, and to help each enterprise tends to become too profiles define responsibility to
other solve immediate challenges, complex to manage, and their advance the enterprise’s strategy
identify opportunities, etc. demise tends to commence. and sustainability.
There is always a lot of
4 Pillars Tier 3 does require guidance
business information being
Together we discovered four given to SMEs, but unless the and re-induction, however, its
critical focus areas that exist information is specific to each model is far simpler than the
within every business, large and Tier, or to support transitioning highly structured and directing
small, to help ensure their ongoing from one Tier to the next, it is of Tier 2 framework and chain of
success and sustainability, which little value to the business and command enterprise culture.
we now refer to as the 4 Pillars. business leader. Each functional Tier 3 is characterised by highly

16