Managing and Leading SMEs

Introduction

Background on the SME

SMEs are steady goers in a business than ordinary businesses. The chosen business of Brew Bird coffee shop enterprise works within U.K, as it has been moving in a steady and slow state of growth in the market. However, this business enterprise also faces tremendous level of challenges due to the changing factors in the preference of the public, food policies, populace, and rumors related to food and high price of the raw materials (Whitcombe, 2020). Besides, entrepreneurs in UK-based market has been growing on a good scale despite of numerous challenges

From this graphical statistics, it shows that it approximately better start for non-employers and then followed by the competition among the small, micro and medium-sized ones. Technology has driven majority of startups towards better positioning (Merchant Savvy, 2020).

SME Start-up processes

The SME start up process includes the steps of business planning, naming it and confirming the place and address for governmental registration, one should be a legitimate resident to start it, licenses are required to sell food. A South-London café named Brew Bird is a unique one of its own, as it is a social enterprise type of business (Brewbirdcoffee.co.uk. 2020).

Business Concept

The business concept an SME is different from a large or medium-sized business, instead of financing payoffs to the shareholders its preference is reinvesting surplus into their social objective (Safar et al. 2018). It produces revenue, which in turn is used for its own funding. Hence, in this process, the concept goes on steady with less than 250 staffs as an asset.

Sources of competitive advantage

The performance outcomes of the SMEs are much more than those of the large firms. The cost of maintenance and staff is also low for the SMEs, where it gains a competitive advantage. At the same time, other sources of competitive advantages are in respect of having some suitable cost, service differentiation and using innovation in low budget and always going for niche strategies (Simplybusiness.co.uk. 2020).

Findings

The current level of demand and the competitive environment

The integration of the web technology into the business model of the SMEs could assist them to develop a competitive environment. In other words, the ongoing pandemic situation has forced these businesses to adopt digital marketing strategies and provide online service to its consumers (Swaffield et al. 2018). For example, certain innovations have continuously influenced on the rise of SMEs to cater to the preferences of its customers.

According to the review, it demonstrates that bakery is positioned at the top with closely 2360, whereas; other food products have at secondary position and dairy at 530 by products (Statista, 2020). In this respect, the chosen SME, Brew Bird café seems to be more than a coffee shop and it works as social enterprise for community interest companies serving its coffee and baked cakes and drinks. However, it has also been found to be supported under the Mayor of London and paid for its staffs in the chain of Costa coffee brand and Virgin Train (Whitcombe, 2020). This gives a picture that how the business finds its position along with some weaker aspects.

SWOT analysis for chosen SME (refer to appendix)

Key Strength of Brew Bird Café

The café works with its key strength areas of managing the business using its fresh and high standard catering services for corporate events and functions. In other words, strength of an SME is in creating value-based services to its customers to create positive impression and generate a sense of healthy ambience (Ly et al. 2018). The café has developed this bond with its customer by involving with socialization and activities that creates community value and sustainability to others (Centigen, 2019).

Weaknesses:

On the other hand, its major weakness is its limitations of variation in coffee items that are not of different ranges as well as not much of beverage items included in the menus that has been weaker part of this business (Whitcombe, 2020). According to the study and market survey, it has been acknowledged that weakness of a brand make its possibility of growth hinder in terms of gaining complete access to the customers.

Threat:

Threats for SMEs can weaken and create barriers in terms of generating revenue more from the end of competitors operating in the market (Figueira et al. 2020). The growing demand of the shop has affected largely on the business especially during COVID in the market. In fact, the business model is quite simple, so in that case, the wealth of financial support is not heavily available so that it can take an abrupt initiative towards a new innovation (Whitcombe, 2020).

Opportunities:

Opportunities in a business can be driven from any aspect that are mainly generating from attributes as well as acquired provision of making a business active in terms of quality services (Centigen, 2019). Considering the current scenario of the market, it has been later on acknowledged that the brand has launched a new Pantry in the supermarket in partnership with Clarion Futures that is more expressive and socializing way of providing high quality groceries at £3.50-per-week subscription to the vulnerable residents.

Identify the current growth and development strategy

Brew bird coffee is a communal venture which serves the UK at its best. The current growth and development strategy has been identified that it applies socializing concept to run its business to give the felons a second chance in life to stand up with heads held high. In addition, the owner St.Giles Trust aims to offer his customers the brewed coffees and cakes and at the same time encourages the offenders to shine in life by giving them a second chance (Whitcombe, 2020).

On the other hand, for the development of his employees it also takes initiatives in training its employees in barista. They are even taught how to serve their consumers the best. In other words, the strategic implementation of using niche strategy and service differentiation is being effective in the café environment (Simplybusiness.co.uk. 2020). Hence, it had so far beneficial for the purpose of exploration of employment services for many.

Suitable leadership style that the business owner could use for growth and development

For the growth and development of the Brew bird Coffee the owner can acquire the skills and approaches of Servant leadership style suitable for its services. According to Samuel et al. (2018), it is a believer of ethical consumerism in one goes that plays a significant role in a society being a superior position. In other words, the style of servant leadership approach is of exploration of affinity not a mere entrepreneur. For example, in this chosen business, the owner, St. Giles Trust is itself influences people being an authentic value and trust and ethics (Whitcombe, 2020). Hence, it throws light on the following aspects and outcome on its characteristics below:

Idolized impact: It might give an idolized impact on consumers in general and its key stakeholders, communities for a long term basis.

Exhilarating stimulation: It would make people feel at home ambience for them to give the best output (Boone, 2018). This would work positively for this socialization of entrepreneurship here for Brew Bird to stand on its position.

Fair-trade Relationship: Having a Fair Trade Relationship is effective in terms of providing better managing capacity as well as maintaining sustainability along with business growth.

Giving Reasons for supporting the style using a theory

The leadership of entrepreneurs is the pumping of heart for an organization. This quality in a leader decides the successfulness of a firm. He is the only star that can make the firm run smoothly. According to Bruce Crowther’s theory is concerned, practicing Fair-Trade gives a legendary influence on an individual’s performance (Samuel et al. 2018). Certain leadership qualities can bring out avant-garde ideas for the flourishing of a firm. May it be a small, medium or a large scale company with leadership caliber is of utmost importance. At the same time, it can also works within an entrepreneur or an owner like St. Giles, may have the opportunity to flourish and explore his intellect in the business through concentration on its listening, empathy, conceptualization, awareness and foresightedness for development.

Suitable organizational culture type that small business owner could use to

The corporate culture must be suitable enough for any organization to be able to bear the consequences of the business strategies and sets. The sets should be encased in such a way that the expectations and the desired aims of the companies be fulfilled at the best standard (Harel et al., 2020). The distinctive character should be established so as to follow the traits of the mission that explicit the genre. The aims of the business and the strategic methods need to be adopted along with all the external affairs. This would enhance the appearance of the company on one hand and tender the utilization properties on the other. All the sectors of the business environment accounts to financially strengthen the operational approaches of the companies (Ameen et al. 2018). The corporate culture states the directions for the retentive characteristics and thus helps to collaborate with the changing atmosphere for the weak companies. The effectiveness of the cultural strata is most significant at this point when the appointments of the employees are done. Thus the technological alteration can be determined from prior utilities.

Give reasons using suitable theory/theories about leadership and organizational culture

As per the theory stated in Business Leaders (2020), the most significant strategy of leadership can be influenced by the distributions of the apprehensions and certain norms for the organizations to keep in touch with the efforts that aided to formulate the maintenance. There can be specifically different adaptability in regard to the links between the cultures of the organizations on one side and the leadership on the other. The different types of approaches that stated the propositional values of the leaders are the primary operative forces that calculate the procedures for the management of the cultural environments.

According to Li et al. (2019), the theory of Corporate Culture of an organization stated that the mechanisms which are utilized by the leaders allocate the asset values and the profits that create the infrastructure of the organizations. The statement that puts the official formulations of the philosophical ideas of the organization helps to produce the ability to provide with strengthening visions for the fortunes. On the other hand, the approaches ideally state the concepts for the items that the organizations should treat as the main base rather than an optional method. In other words, the culture cannot be moved by mere employees or staff but by the leaders who manage the steps of accomplishments (Langevoort, 2019). At the initial stages, the culture requires to be chosen as per the creative quality of the managing leaders. The integration of the structural beliefs should thus be concluded accordingly.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussed theories regarding the SME produced the methods, which the companies must adopt to update the economic benefits. It can be processed through the strategies that the companies should abide by. The increase in the economic standard deserves a great role at such points. The acknowledgment of the operations follows the critical strategies minutely. The aspects involved the rates of the banking credits that allowed them access in the internal matters.

On the other hand, the predictability of the SME can be used in order to achieve the performance which can maintain strict rules for the periodical phases to remain under-covered. The entire impact has the only cause to get revealed for a variation in the nature which can conclude the analysis as the most significant one. The appropriate measures should be thus approved for better conduction of the policies at different marketing levels.

Recommendations

The SME like Brew bird Café would need to adopt the following steps for better growth and development:

According to Olatayo et al. (2020), the small industries require adopting new policies to increase the profit levels. The investments and shares in the markets must be adjusted simultaneously.

Castellanos et al. (2018), stated that the particular norms of the small businesses require up-gradation to harmonize with the changing environment and cultures of different sectors.

As per the statements of Ramón-Jerónimo and Herrero (2017), the boundaries that circumscribe the movement of the businesses must be abolished in order to gain international speculations. The adaptability towards the global markets needs to be increased to flourish better.

Kaur and Silva (2017), opined that the small-scaled enterprises capture the main wheel to steer the improvement in the economic conditions. In fact, it comes with the incrimination at GDP, simplifying the procedures for the development in the rural areas.

Take a deeper dive into Management of Technological Risk with our additional resources.

References

• Ameen, A.M., Ahmed, M.F. and Abd Hafez, M.A., (2018). The Impact of Management Accounting and How It Can Be Implemented into the Organizational Culture. Dutch Journal of Finance and Management, 2(1), p.02.
• Boone, L.W., (2018). Servant Leadership: Attitudes, Skills and Behaviours. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Brewbirdcoffee.co.uk. (2020). Brewbirdcoffee.Co.Uk. 19 Oct. Available at: http://www.brewbirdcoffee.co.uk/ [Accessed 19 October 2020].
• Castellanos, C.M.P., Olivos, P.C., Flores, J.L.M. and Sánchez-Partida, D., (2018). Proposal of a Model of Strategic Alliances to Strengthen Microenterprises. International Journal of Applied, 8(3).
• Centigen, L., 2019. Brewbird. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 October 2020].
• Figueira, P.T., Bravo, C.L. and López, J.L.R., 2020. Improving information security risk analysis by including threat-occurrence predictive models. Computers & Security, 88, p.101609.
• Harel, R., Schwartz, D. and Kaufmann, D., (2020). Organizational culture processes for promoting innovation in small businesses. EuroMed Journal of Business.
• Kaur, B. and Silva, D., (2017). Future growth development Strategies.
• Langevoort, D.C., (2019). The Effects of Shareholder Primacy, Publicness, and Privateness on Corporate Cultures. Seattle UL Rev., 43, p.377.
• Li, Y., Liu, B. and Huan, T.C.T., (2019). Renewal or not? Consumer response to a renewed corporate social responsibility strategy: Evidence from the coffee shop industry. Tourism Management, 72, pp.170-179.
• Ly, P.T.M., Lai, W.H., Hsu, C.W. and Shih, F.Y., 2018. Fuzzy AHP analysis of Internet of Things (IoT) in enterprises. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 136, pp.1-13.
• Merchant Savvy. (2020). UK SME Data, Statistics & Charts (Updated Feb 2020). 19 Oct. Available at: https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/uk-sme-data-stats-charts/ [Accessed 19 October 2020].
• Olatayo, K.I., Wichers, J.H. and Stoker, P.W., (2020). The advanced and moderate-growth development paths for the viability and future growth of small wind energy systems. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 117, p.109496.
• Ramón-Jerónimo, M.A. and Herrero, I., (2017). Capturing firms’ heterogeneity through marketing and IT capabilities in SMEs. Sustainability, 9(12), p.2180.
• Safar, L., Sopko, J., Bednar, S. and Poklemba, R., (2018). Concept of SME business model for industry 4.0 environment. TEM Journal, 7(3), p.626.
• Samuel, A., White, G.R., Martin, H. and Rowling, M., (2018). Influencing Fairtrade consumption through servant leadership: Bruce Crowther’s story. Society and Business Review. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/106092/3/Servant%20Leadership%2012th%20Oct.pdf
• Simplybusiness.co.uk. (2020). What Is An SME? A Simple Guide And SME Definition. 19 Oct. Available at: https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2020/05/what-is-an-sme/[Accessed 19 October 2020].
• Statista. (2020). UK Food And Drink Sector: Number Of Smes 2018 | Statista. 19. Oct. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/282095/smes-in-the-food-manufacturing-sector-of-the-united-kingdom-uk/ [Accessed 19 October 2020].
• Swaffield, J., Evans, D. and Welch, D., (2018). Profit, reputation and ‘doing the right thing’: Convention theory and the problem of food waste in the UK retail sector. Geoforum, 89, pp.43-51.
• Whitcombe, L., (2020). Brewbird Coffee Is Aim To Give Ex-Offenders And 2Nd Shot. 19. Oct This is Money. Available at: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/smallbusiness/article-3524890/Brewbird-Coffee-serving-flat-whites-aims-ex-offenders-second-shot-s-set-social-enterprise.html [Accessed 19 October 2020].

Appendix

SWOT