Friday, February 14, 2020

Small & Medium Sized Enterprises in an International Environment Essay

Small & Medium Sized Enterprises in an International Environment - Essay Example Center of discussion in this paper are small and medium sized businesses that are imperative to the economy of a country mainly for their roles in job creation, innovation and technological advancement. In recent years, small start-up and even smallest of businesses, particularly those from the high-technology industries are internationalizing at an increased rate. Most of the small businesses are launched with a plan of conducting cross-border business activities. Within the free trade zone of European Union, more efforts are put in to unite the countries both economically and politically and this transition has made tremendous changes in the international business contexts. For small and medium sized businesses, it has become easier for them to broaden their business activities globally, bringing newer opportunities as well as threats. Basically, there are three approaches to the internationalization of small businesses; they are stage approach, network approach and the born global approach. Stage approach states that internalization of small businesses occurs gradually from the domestic marketing through the export as primary mode of entry to another country. The network approach states that internalization of small businesses occurs through developing successful networks of business relationships to facilitate global business operations. Born Global firms are those small businesses that are launched with cross-border business activities in mind. ... ternalization of small businesses occurs through developing successful networks of business relationships to facilitate global business operations (Hynes, 2010, p. 90). Born Global firms are those small businesses that are launched with cross-border business activities in mind (Longenecker, Moore, Petty and Palich, nd, p. 443). In recent years, small businesses that are launched with a view to gradually internationalize the firm’s activities and this has tremendously impacted the roles that are played by the small business in international business contexts. Importance of Small Businesses in International Business Contexts Small Businesses as Engine for Job Creation Out of the 30.23 million businesses in the United States, around 99.7 percent as accounted to be 30.14 million are considered as small businesses (Scarborough, 2011, p. 23). Though they are generally termed as ‘small’ as they employ fewer than 100 employees their contribution to the economy is greater both nationally and internationally. Small and medium sized businesses employ more than 51 percent of the nation’s total private sector workforce, but the assets these small businesses posses are considerably less than big multinational and other businesses (Scarborough, 2011, p. 23). Small businesses are critically important to the economy of a country and the international economy in general due to the roles it plays such as job creation, innovation, long term growth etc. Malchow-Moller, Schjerning and Sorensen (2009, p. 16) asserted that entrepreneurs, especially of the small businesses, are widely believed to play pivotal roles in terms of job creation and wage growth. The father of entrepreneurship, Schumpeter, explained this concept through ‘creative destruction’ as entrepreneurship replace

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Southern Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Southern Company - Essay Example Southern Company is an electric utility company headquartered in Atlanta.    The firm possesses electric gadgets in ‘Alabama’, ‘Florida’, ‘Georgia’, and ‘Mississippi’ and services millions of customers. It also provides services in fiber optics and wireless communications fields. The brands of this company are known for their customer service, which is highly excellent, have high reliability standards, and for the best part have priced their retail electric prices below the national average. The hiring system of the company was at the entry level, and individuals were promoted internally for leadership positions to be filled.  Because of this, the company had a very low turnover rate, of which the result was that an older and more tenured workforce was present. After much thought, the Company came up with a group of leaders who had a professional level of business knowledge and were conversant with the company’s organizat ion and culture. In the late 1970s, the company hired a large number of people, and this ensured that by the year 2003, most of those workers who had remained with the company were beginning to face retirement (Goldsmith, Marshall, Carter, Louis, & Best Practice Institute, 2009). The company’s employees had and still have a retirement age of 50 years old, so many executives had to retire in large numbers, and also those who succeeded them would have to follow shortly. With this, the cthis assisted the firm to review and reform their succession planning and leadership development efforts to ensure that they had a well planned from which effective leaders would be able to meet the company’s future business needs. The company’s leadership people formed teams that assisted in the overall ratings. Leaders comprehended what they wanted after the recognizing the performance standards. They were equipped with skills of making employees work outstandingly hard (Goldsmith , Marshall, Carter, Louis, & Best Practice Institute, 2009). Leaders are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that their companies have the maximum performance ability and also to ensure the effectiveness of the company’s employees. Leaders are tasked with ensuring that employees’ performance is effective, and also should be able to develop and integrate new workers (Cohen, 2007). Developing and retaining of existing workers is also a major concern, while also finding ways to attract skilled workers to a company is another role of a leader. Talent management is the process by which an organization finds ways and means to retain, motivate, attract, engage, train, plan, manage, and most importantly develop individuals who can make the company rise to unimaginable heights in the global market. For every person coming into working economy, they have a particular talent and qualification. The Talent Management program enables these qualifications and talents to be sys tematically used in the operative process of a company. Most companies have a type(s) of employee appraisal system. Many companies are at a disadvantage of experiencing the lack of manual staff evaluation systems. Many individuals have trouble differentiating between performance management and performance appraisal. Performance Management is the process whereby the employees’ activities and outcomes are in line with the company’s objective and also ensures that whatever the outcome and activities involved, they are for the success of