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To acknowledge one’s
own business culture and to recognize it
as a value is important on the global market.
Small and medium size businesses also need
to realize this.
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Business culture is a fascinating subject, both broad
and multi-faceted. I would like to define some of
its features from the perspective that I am most familiar
with: small and medium enterprise. The first thing
to point out is that , when speaking of small and
medium business, we should speak of business
cultures,
plural, rather than of a single one. Actually, business
as a whole has no recognized cultural model to refer
to; this is equally true for small and medium business.
Therefore it has yet to be created.
The starting point of this creation must be the
daily life of each business concern; its everyday
work in production, market approach, distribution
and sales; its knowledge of technology, advanced
processes, product innovation; the know-how of its
employees and their human and personal contribution.
Business culture is an asset made
up of relations resulting from these inter-connected
facets.
Two features in particular form the basis of business
culture in sme:
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the family culture,
typical of small and medium business. |
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the group culture,
(and this is much less obvious), that concerns
every single person working in a small or
medium company, because each individual plays
an essential role, through
which that person may express a personal style
or business idea. |
The key for creating small and medium business culture
grows out of a combination of these two features.
The result is a
wealth of knowledges
which, although often underrated, are instinctively
managed. Such knowledges represent a vital force for
the company and its natural stakeholders, especially
the surrounding community and territory.
A business starts and grows thanks to the skills
and intuition of a single person. The contributions
of colleagues and employees (and others) increase
the value of the business over a period of time.
However, to become aware of this process
means going one step further, a step only few companies
take, because it is difficult to transform a spontaneous
process into a rational one. Finally, sharing and
communicating this process to the public and converting
it into a common heritage is very rare, especially
among first generation entrepreneurs.
Only the second, or even the third generation allows
the company to «detach» from its founder.
This is a fundamental step in order to make leaders
and employees eventually feel that their business
is a patrimony to be shared with the group (rather
than simply identified with its founder) and then
with the whole community. A patrimony that, in the
very process of sharing, creates perceivable
values and wealth for the community.
This is not a simple one-sided communication, but
implies cultural growth that involves
the entrepreneurs and the community. Both must reconsider
the role of business and to acknowledge its cultural,
as well as its economic significance. This might
sound obvious when speaking of big companies, that
are even able to change to social layout of an urban
area. It is not obvious when speaking of companies
with a very small number of employees in relation
to the population of their territory.
Despite the difficulties, small and medium entrepreneurs
can no longer avoid change in the face of current
reality. By now, the «home trade» territory
of an SME extends to the EU borders. SMEs need a
far-reaching revision and rationalization
of their structure if they want to survive and increase
their competitiveness on the global market. Small
business must acquire highly specialized skills
in IT, production, marketing, and technology as
they enter new markets where they are less protected
by national norms or privileges.
To sum up, each small and medium enterprise should
draw upon its «wealth of knowledges»
in order to become fully conscious of its own business
culture. The next step is to perceive that culture
as a value, an opportunity for development, economic
and otherwise. The final step is to communicate
that culture to the entire community. Given that
SMEs share distinct characteristics, it follows
that the path for achieving these goals will be
different from that taken by multinational companies.
I think it is worth the effort. In this time of
great uncertainty in business, it might be useful
to look back and reconsider the past experience
in terms of relations, skills, innovation and research,
in order to take new strength from it, and to be
able to look to the future with greater confidence.
