Saturday, March 18, 2006
Growing pains of traditional Chinese owned companies
I was just reviewing a report Enterprise insights - market trends (February 2006 issue) published by holistic (and great) Singapore business portal Enterprise One (http://www.business.gov.sg) when I came across section describing strengths and growing pains of Chinese Family-owned companies in Singapore...here is one paragraph that relates to our business..
"Lack of proper management system. Control mechanisms and management systems are lacking in most traditionally managed Chinese organisations. As a consequence, managers spend most of their time reacting to day-to-day operational matters and “fire-fighting”, rather than focusing on pro-active activities such as formulating and implementing long-term plans and strategies. At the same time, proper systems to manage and measure staff performance are often absent; and individual performances are often evaluated on the basis of good conduct rather than measurable targets."
While being out there at the "market" every day I meet lots of business men (and women) and I listen to their stories and most of them are very surprising, even shocking but also inspiring. Many times I see Singapore based companies (even small family owned ones) as a big role models to other organizations. I assume they have systems and strategies in place and that is why they have been around for many years. However, its not necessarily true and the more stories I know, the clearer picture I get and I realize how true the article is and how much it sometimes doesn't matter...but sometimes does.
I have heard the following story recently. There is one family business owned by Chinese that has been established 30 years ago and its successful. The business is still around, second generation is running it and everything seems fine, the number of customers and their expectations is growing .... When I asked the owner about their management systems in place, she said that first ten years there was no need for any system as all customers were remembered by heart and everybody was doing everything anyway. Then its never been a priority to define or automate the system and Excel has been serving them quite well. However, these days they start feeling overwhelmed without proper IT management system in place and they are thinking of getting one. .....
What striked me the most is the fact that business that has been around for 30 years has still the same system it started with, there is same number of employees handling it and that number of customers did not reach 500 yet. I am not saying its wrong, its no. I do admire this business and this family that have been committed to this business and has run it from the heart for so many years - they just do not want to grow, its their choice and maybe they really do not need any proper management system in place. Maybe it would destroy the real flavor of traditional family run business, which is their biggest asset when it comes to customers loyalty and satisfaction. As long as they do a good job, everything is in place, right?
Those are small inspiring stories for me that makes me believe in my business even more. And hope to see NextLogic around in 30 years.
"Lack of proper management system. Control mechanisms and management systems are lacking in most traditionally managed Chinese organisations. As a consequence, managers spend most of their time reacting to day-to-day operational matters and “fire-fighting”, rather than focusing on pro-active activities such as formulating and implementing long-term plans and strategies. At the same time, proper systems to manage and measure staff performance are often absent; and individual performances are often evaluated on the basis of good conduct rather than measurable targets."
While being out there at the "market" every day I meet lots of business men (and women) and I listen to their stories and most of them are very surprising, even shocking but also inspiring. Many times I see Singapore based companies (even small family owned ones) as a big role models to other organizations. I assume they have systems and strategies in place and that is why they have been around for many years. However, its not necessarily true and the more stories I know, the clearer picture I get and I realize how true the article is and how much it sometimes doesn't matter...but sometimes does.
I have heard the following story recently. There is one family business owned by Chinese that has been established 30 years ago and its successful. The business is still around, second generation is running it and everything seems fine, the number of customers and their expectations is growing .... When I asked the owner about their management systems in place, she said that first ten years there was no need for any system as all customers were remembered by heart and everybody was doing everything anyway. Then its never been a priority to define or automate the system and Excel has been serving them quite well. However, these days they start feeling overwhelmed without proper IT management system in place and they are thinking of getting one. .....
What striked me the most is the fact that business that has been around for 30 years has still the same system it started with, there is same number of employees handling it and that number of customers did not reach 500 yet. I am not saying its wrong, its no. I do admire this business and this family that have been committed to this business and has run it from the heart for so many years - they just do not want to grow, its their choice and maybe they really do not need any proper management system in place. Maybe it would destroy the real flavor of traditional family run business, which is their biggest asset when it comes to customers loyalty and satisfaction. As long as they do a good job, everything is in place, right?
Those are small inspiring stories for me that makes me believe in my business even more. And hope to see NextLogic around in 30 years.
