An Examination of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in a Global Context

The provided content comprises a selection of journal articles and book chapters that focus on various aspects of small business and enterprise development. The articles explore topics such as barriers to growth, social enterprises, entrepreneurship, and small business performance in different sectors. Additionally, the content includes online resources related to change management models and the Small Business, Enterprise, and Employment Act.

Small Business Enterprise

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1...........................................................................................................................................1
1.2...........................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1...........................................................................................................................................4
2.2...........................................................................................................................................5
2.3...........................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1...........................................................................................................................................6
3.2...........................................................................................................................................7
3.3...........................................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
4.1...........................................................................................................................................8
4.2...........................................................................................................................................9
4.3.........................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1: Kotter's change management model.........................................................................9
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Profit Evaluation................................................................................................................3
Table 2: Sales Comparisons.............................................................................................................3
Table 3: Employee's Satisfaction.....................................................................................................3
Table 4: Customer Satisfaction........................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Small business enterprises are the organizations with few employees and are operated on
lower level of scale (Beaver, 2002). These enterprises are the backbone of European countries
because they have 90% turnover or revenue from small business enterprises. The small
businesses provides many employment and carrier opportunities for the individuals. In the
present report, these enterprises are discussed to acquire deep knowledge about their business
operations and functions. In order to understand the concept of small business enterprise the Silk
House hotel has been taken into account.
It possesses operation near east London next to Victoria Park. The Hotel has a great view
of its interior and options for rooms in varied ranges. With respect to this, several changes are
proposed in the below report to improve management and business performance and examine the
impact of change management on the operations of the business.
TASK 1
1.1
In order to understand the deep portfolio of small business enterprises, I have selected
Silk House hotel which is well established and well furnished (Kitching and Smallbone, 2012).
To gain an in-depth knowledge about the cited firm, its overall view and structure is discussed
below: Business portfolio: The structure and interior of the hotel is designed according to 18th
century. It has wooden spiral staircase, the old nuns chapel and scenic garden at the rear
so that coming guest will enjoyed the whole theme. The enterprise has 24hr reception and
a relaxing lounge overlooking the garden. Although rooms are in numerous ranges and
categories such as double, twin, family rooms etc. along with comfortable beds, thick
duvets and wash basin (Bridge and Neill, 2012). Moreover, it has 4 floors and located
near to the Homerton station. Its current information is given below:
Address
Silk House Hotel
100 HASSETT ROAD
E9 5SH Hackney London
United Kingdom
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Phone number
General phone: [phone]
Reservations: [phone]
Group/Events Sales: [phone]
E-mail
General email: [e-mail]
Reservations: [e-mail]
Sales manager: [e-mail]
 Mission: The mission of Silk House hotel is to provide premium quality along with an
affordable cost.
 Vision: The mission of Silk House hotel is to operate its business operations on a large
scale and cover the maximum are of country.
 Strengths
 Varied categories in rooms along with range of options such as single room with
shared bathroom, double room with shared bathroom, single room with en-suite, twin
room with shared bathroom etc. (Charantimath, 2005).
 Its location is near to all the popular stadiums, stations and centres and this point
capture customer’s attention.
 Affordable budget prices so that customers can give priority to the hotel without
thinking to an extent.
 Enterprise has also established Customer Relationship Management platform at
workplace in order to solve queries of customers and managing better relationship
with them in an appropriate manner
 Weaknesses
 The main drawback of the Silk House hotel is that it has no restaurant facilities for the
guest (Beaver and Prince, 2004). Due to this, those customers who preferred for both
hotel and restaurant are automatically drop down and this ultimately cause impact on
its profits and revenue.
 Hotel also have limited market segment which influences its sales and profit margin
of hospitality firm.
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 Interior of the hotel is also its major drawback and due to this they losses their
customers.
1.2
In this section, work performances, profits and revenues of Silk House hotel has been
compared to another hotel of the same level i.e. Jesmond Hotel. It is also a small business
enterprise operated on a low scale (Beaver and Prince, 2004). Silk Hotel can be compared with
Jesmond hotel because of the same services and work environment they provided to their
employees and customers. The same has described below:
Table 1: Profit Evaluation
Year Silk House hotel
- PBT (Profit
before Tax) (₤)
PAT (Profit
after Tax
@20%) (₤)
Jesmond Hotel -
PBT (Profit
before Tax) (₤)
PAT (Profit
after Tax) (₤)
2015 75,00,00 60,00,00 60,00,00 48,00,00
2014 62,00,00 49,60,00 57,00,00 45,60,00
2013 60,00,00 48,00,00 52,80,00 42,24,00
2012 56,50,00 45,20,00 47,60,00 38,08,00
2011 47,80,00 38,24,00 43,90,00 35,12,00
From the above table, it can be analysed that the profits of Silk Hotel are very high as
compared to Jesmond hotel (Chen, 2006). The company is continuously achieving high level of
profits from the past few years which shows that it has more customers than other competitor.
Table 2: Sales Comparisons
Year Silk House Hotel (₤) Jesmond Hotel (₤)
2015 79,00,00 64,57,00
2014 71,80,00 61,30,00
2013 66,50,00 59,87,00
2012 62,10,00 50,90,00
2011 56,78,00 45,97,00
From the above table, it can be analysed that that sales of the cited firm are gaining a
competitive era and attaining high market position as compared to its competitor operating on a
same level of scale.
Table 3: Employee's Satisfaction
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Year Ending 2015 Silk House Hotel Jesmond Hotel
Employee Turnover 11.00% 9.00%
Sick Leaves 6 days 8 days
Job offers acceptance 8.00% 7.00%
Job satisfaction surveys 78.00% 85.00%
From the above table, it can be analysed that employees of Jesmond are more satisfied
from its business environment and operations (Gill and Biger, 2012). Above table reflects that
employees of Silk house hotel are not much satisfied and it is increasing labour turnover ratio of
firm. So Silk house have to adopt effective management and leadership styles and theories to
motivate employees and capture their retention in the organization.
Table 4: Customer Satisfaction
Year ending 2015 Silk House Hotel Jesmond Hotel
Value for money 8 7
Can deliver superior performance 9 10
Comparisons with competitor offerings 7 9
Future given competitive innovations 9 8
From the above table, it can be analysed that customers are satisfied more with the
services offered by Jesmond hotel because they give free wireless internet which is the basic
need of customers now-a-days; Ironing facilities; Full English and continental breakfast etc. so
cited entity needs to focus more on the services they offered to their customers. Silk House
Hotel is also providing better value for money which impacts customer satisfaction level in
positive manner.
TASK 2
2.1
Every business has some weakness and in order to overcome such weaknesses enterprises
should have to adopt effective measures and techniques. With respect to this, Silk House hotel
also have to adopt some measures, techniques and strategies to overcome from the weaknesses
that are mentioned above (Matlay, 2004). The first and foremost thing that organization should
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focus is to hire a business consultant or an expertise that can recommend and suggest them about
their business operations. Consultants can advise in a better way about how to improve the
performance level of business. They know the outside scenario of the hotel and can deliberately
provide information regarding hotel industry. Moreover, entity can select another method to
overcome from their weakness i.e. to take feedbacks from the customers. Feedbacks can be taken
in many ways such as if customers likes the services of the hotel then they can rang the bell.
Even feedback box can be used to take customers advice and suggestions regarding services and
overview of the business. By increasing staff involvement, organization would be able to
encourage motivation level of staff-members. Moreover, firm also need to focus on activities
which can amend its profit and financial aspects. Advancement in financial aspect will facilitate
management of Silk House Hotel to increase its investment on restaurant activities and other
renovation of hotel. Company can also look forward to various sources which can amend the
financial status and overcome the issues regarding restaurant and interior of hotel.
Further, cited firm can use another methods i.e. they can conducted market researches,
surveys etc. to know about their performance level from other competitors and customers way of
thinking about them (Perry and Coetzer, 2009). It can also prepare questionnaires for the
customers for the purpose of gaining feedback regarding services provided, quality, pricing,
structure, interior and other feedback. With the help of questionnaires, it is very easy for the
hotel to know about their customers thoughts regarding their services and structure. Furthermore,
entity can work more on the quality they offered to their users because consumers give more
priority to the quality they get from establishments.
2.2
Silk House hotel is a well-established small business enterprise which has its own major
strengths that competitors power in the market is very low which enhances business
opportunities. To maintain and expand this strength enterprise needs to adopt effective methods
and measures. For example, firm can give superior quality of services to customers along with
their rooms (Roomi and et.al., 2009). The facilities that the organization offered are not up to an
extent that satisfies users. Moreover, they have different categories of rooms such as single room
with shared bathroom, double room with shared bathroom, single room with en-suite, twin room
with shared bathroom, double room with private bathroom, family room with shared bathroom
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and triple room with shared bathroom. This option is their biggest strength because different
customers have different choices and ranges. But along with these rooms if they provide superior
services like free internet, daily housekeeping, ironing facilities, swimming pool and daily
newspapers then they will able to capture more customers attention and their loyalty.
Further, entity has another major strength that is of location. The firm is located near to
the main station, popular stadiums and centres by which it is very easy for tourist and other
members to approach the cited hotel (Woods and Dennis, 2009). For better enhancement of this
option, owner of the Silk House hotel can made different banners and postures and keep them
between roadside so that it is easy for consumers to know about the direction of the hotel. In
order to boost the strength and maintain diverse standards in effective manner the management
of Silk House hotel can focus on improved adaptation of technology. It will facilitate in
overcome diverse issues at compatible price as compared to its competitors. Number of
motivational techniques can also be used by management to amend the employees motivation
level and reduce the ratio of labour turnover. It will also lead business to impressive success.
2.3
Silk House Hotel has numerous options and opportunities to expand its business in order
to gain better competitive advantage over competitors and achieve sustainable competitive
advantage. The entity first and foremost opportunity is to open a well-furnished restaurant along
with its hotel (Thelwall, 2000). This opportunity is highly profitable for the organization because
it fulfils the objective of the firm and overcome the weakness of firm.. The vision of the
enterprise is to operate its business on a large scale and this opportunity meet out this objective
of firm. Even, if mentioned firm establishes a restaurant, then it will be always a profitable for it
because more of the population prefer a hotel which provides accommodation and restaurant
together. Often there are customers who prefer only restaurants. So for the satisfaction of such
customers entity should open a well-furnished and well established restaurant.
Further, Silk house Hotel has other growth opportunities such as they can expand their
business in other regions of the country. For this firm needs to adopt additional strategies,
techniques and modern technologies to compete with the competitors (Vusi Gumede and
Rasmussen, 2002). It will improve the opportunities for global reach which always helps
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enterprises to attaining their competitive advantage, high success and their all over establishment
of market position.
TASK 3
3.1
Objectives are the long term plans that organizations made to achieve their market
position and competency. Silk House hotel has its own objectives, goals and long term plans for
the smooth functioning of its business operations (Carter and Evans, 2006). The long term
objectives and short term plans of the organization are described below:
 The first and foremost objective of the entity is to enhance its market share among
several competitors. Market position can only be enhanced with the reputation and
popularity of the firm. The same can be achieved only by more customer’s traffic and
their satisfaction level.
 Another objective of the firm is to satisfy their employees as well as their customers.
Employees of the organization helps it in deciding the pricing policies of the services
they offered to their customers (Passerini and et.al., 2012). So employee satisfaction is
the key factor responsible for the success of the enterprise. On the other hand, customers
needs have great impact on the profits and sales of the firm so customer satisfaction also
considered as very significant factor.
 Silk Hotel will have a long term objective to open a well-established and well-furnished
restaurant for the satisfaction of customers as well as for the enhancement of the profit.
Restaurant always leads to more profitability because they are the top priority of
customers and if consumers are satisfied then this will ultimately leads to more profits
and revenue (Carter and Evans, 2012).
3.2
Small business enterprises have always operated on a low scale and due to this they earn
low profits and sales as compared to business enterprises operated on a large scale. To earn more
profits and revenue, Silk House hotel will open a restaurant in future for achieving higher level
of success and market position. For this plan all the objectives and goals of the organization has
been changed and new plans are prepared to achieve this new objective (Down, 2010). In order
to have better accomplishment of organizational objectives the management should focus on
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proper planning and forecasting of the whole criteria. Proper time frame also need to be
designed for achieving the objectives of plan. Entity should hire a business expertise or
consultant who can give knowledge related to restaurants whether they have to open it or not. So
the new objective of the firm is to establish a new restaurant within 1 year.
Further, company should emphasis more on their employees and customers because it is
not possible to achieve success without them (Hines, 2005). They need to alter their aim of
employee and customer satisfaction because they not only need satisfaction; they also want
reputation and popularity of the enterprise because if the organization is reputed then they will
not take burden related to the services offered by the mentioned firm.
3.3
To open a new restaurant and give employees and customers more satisfaction, entity
needs to take some action and implement several changes.
Legal requirement analysis: For this, owner needs to gather some legal and regulatory
information regarding opening a new restaurant. Even enterprise needs to gather information
relating to legal acts and regulatory norms to establish a new restaurant.
Market analysis: Moreover, organization can conducted market researches and prepared
questionnaires to know about customers interest level regarding the new opening (Smallbone and
et.al., 2008).
Recruitment process: For this purpose, enterprise needs to hire employees who are good
in cooking, housekeeping, serving and other related services.
Promotion: Further, cited company can give effective advertisements about the new
opening including atrocious banners, postures, pamphlets, television, newspapers etc.
Advertisement is an excellent approach for the promotion of products and services and it can
easily helps firm to attract more and more consumers. Furthermore, mentioned enterprise can
adopted effective and comprehensive promotional tools such as social media sites for the
promotion of the new business.
Measurement of actions: Apart from promotion and advertisement, organization needs
to completely assess about licensing policies, intervention of government agencies, legal
procedures and requirements, documents to be submitted, ethical and reliable practices to start up
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a new restaurant (Thurik and Wennekers, 2004). All these activities are must to open a new
restaurant as well as to satisfy employees and customers to an extent.
TASK 4
4.1
After establishing a new business there are several changes which are faced by the cited
entity. The changes cause direct impact on the business as well as its personnel.
Various changes faced by a business are:
 Positive changes are faced by the business in terms of opening a new business. The
growth level and performance progress of the enterprise has enhanced because of more
traffic of customers and business operated on a large scale (Yang and Xu, 2006). Its
performance level has increased to an extent which has impacted positively in the profits
and sales as compared to former performance.
 The market position of the organization is also enhanced due to more customer's and
employee's satisfaction. If customers of the firm are satisfied then they will not speak a
negative word of mouth against enterprise and this will ultimately create a positive image
of the business (Morrison and Teixeira, 2004).
Various changes faced by personnel's are:
 Positive as well as negative changes are faced by the employees. They highly satisfied
from the organization because with the expansion of business their salary packages,
incentives and work environment also get some advancements which improves their
satisfaction level while working in the firm (Chahal and et.al., 2014).
 Changes may also cause negative effects among performances of employees because
there may be chances of conflicts among different employees due to the work given to
them and the benefits provided to them.
4.2
To manage the changes in the business, Silk House has adopted Kotter's change
management model and the same is described below:
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Illustration 1: Kotter's change management model
(Source: Ramakrishnan, 2014) Create a sense of urgency: Under this step, firm identifies the potential threats and
examine the possible opportunities for opening a new restaurant. It has to forecast about
its future strategies and policies needed for a new business. Form a powerful Coalition: It is easy to start a new business but same requires effective
and powerful team for running of the same. So the enterprise needs to adopt
comprehensive motivational and leadership theories to motivate and influence employees
towards contributing for organization's objective (Kitching and Smallbone, 2012). Create a vision for change: Change is always necessary but is not possible that
employees always understand the change that has been made. So the entity has to develop
a specific vision and the ways to achieve that vision. Communicate the vision: In this step, the company deliberately communicate its vision
to all its employees so that they better perform and coordinate to achieve the firm's goal. Empower action: To achieve this approach, cited enterprise removing those barriers
which affects the performance of the business (Reid, 2002). In simple means they reject
those strategies and plans which have no role in the new opening of business.
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 Create quick wins: For this stage, enterprise needs to offer various bonus, incentives and
compensation benefits to the employees so that they work more effectively and speedily
to achieve the objectives and goals of the cited firm. Build on the change: In this step, entities make new changes to the business policies and
strategies because new changes always attract employees. This approach ultimately
enhanced the market position of the enterprise (Thelwall, 2000).
 Make it stick: This is the last stage in which organization make employees familiar with
the changes made in the business. For this firm has telling some success stories and
motivate employees towards work management.
4.3
After opening a new restaurant, it is very essential for the enterprise to monitor its
performance level and progress over a time-scale. For this, entity has to adopt several methods to
measure its level. It can adopt balance scorecard approach which measures various performances
levels. With the adoption of this method, it is easy for the firm to evaluate its performance level
after opening a new restaurant (Small Business, Enterprise and Employment (SBEE) Act, 2014).
This method clearly gives a view of progress level. Moreover, enterprise can adopt feedback
method in which feedbacks are taken from employees of the company, customers and other
business partners. Feedback is the best way to check one's progress.
Further, the company can adopt checklist method in which various trend analysis,
performance analysis has done and it is easy for the owner to check its business level and
progress. Even entity has to attend several business meetings and conferences to know about its
market position and performance progress. So all these methods help organization to measure
and evaluate its performance.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above study that small business enterprises are operated on a
small scale with few employees. In the above report effective tools and strategies are discussed
to understand how to operate small business functions and operations. Even Silk House Hotel
has adopted comprehensive leadership and motivational theories and change management model
to achieve market position and attain sustainable competitive advantage.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beaver, G. and Prince, C., 2004. Management, strategy and policy in the UK small business
sector: a critical review. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 11(1). pp.
34 – 49.
Beaver, G., 2002. Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development. Financial
Times/Prentice Hall.
Blackburn, A. R. and et.al., 2013. Small business performance: business, strategy and owner‐
manager characteristics. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 20(1).
pp.8 – 27.
Bridge, S. and Neill, O.K., 2012. Understanding Enterprise: Entrepreneurship and Small
Business. Palgrave Macmillan.
Carter, S. and Evans, J. D., 2006. Enterprise and Small Business: Principles, Practice and
Policy. FT Prentice Hall.
Carter, S. and Evans, J.D., 2012. Enterprise and Small Business. 3rd Ed. Pearson Education
Limited.
Chahal, H. and et.al., 2014. A comprehensive model of business social responsibility (BSR) for
small scale enterprises in Indian context. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development. 21(4). pp.716 – 739.
Charantimath, M.P., 2005. Entrepreneurship Development and Small Business Enterprise.
Pearson Education India.
Chen, J., 2006. Development of Chinese small and medium‐sized enterprises. Journal of Small
Business and Enterprise Development. 13(2). pp.140 – 147.
Down, S., 2010. Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Small Business. SAGE.
Gill, A. and Biger, N., 2012. Barriers to small business growth in Canada. Journal of Small
Business and Enterprise Development. 19(4). pp. 656 – 668.
Hines, F., 2005 .Viable social enterprise: an evaluation of business support to social enterprises.
Social Enterprise Journal. 1(1). pp. 13 – 28.
Kitching, J. and Smallbone,D., 2012. Are freelancers a neglected form of small business. Journal
of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 19(1). pp. 74 – 91.
Matlay, H., 2004. Contemporary training initiatives in Britain: a small business perspective.
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 11(4). pp. 504 – 513.
Morrison, A. and Teixeira, R., 2004. Small business performance: a tourism sector focus.
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 11(2). pp. 166 – 173.
Passerini, K. and et.al., 2012. Information Technology for Small Business: Managing the Digital
Enterprise. Springer Science & Business Media.
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Perry, M. and Coetzer, A., 2009. Small enterprise relations with banks and accountants. Journal
of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 16(2). pp. 306 – 321.
Reid, G., 2002. Small Business Enterprise: An Economic Analysis. Routledge.
Roomi, A. M. and et.al., 2009. Women‐owned small and medium enterprises in England:
Analysis of factors influencing the growth process. Journal of Small Business and
Enterprise Development. 16(2). pp. 270 – 288.
Smallbone, D. and et.al., 2008. Developing the small business market for business development
services in Chengdu: Policy issues and priorities. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development. 15(4). pp. 656 – 674.
Thurik, R. and Wennekers, S., 2004. Entrepreneurship, small business and economic growth.
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 11(1). pp. 140 – 149.
Vusi Gumede, V. and Rasmussen, K., 2002. Small manufacturing enterprises and exporting in
South Africa: a preliminary assessment of key export success factors. Journal of Small
Business and Enterprise Development. 9(2). pp. 162 – 171.
Woods, A. and Dennis, C., 2009. What do UK small and medium sized enterprises think about
employing graduates. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 16(4).pp.
642 – 659.
Yang, K. and Xu, Y., 2006. Regional differences in the development of Chinese small and
medium‐sized enterprises. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 13(2).
pp. 174 – 184.
Online
Ramakrishnan, S., 2014. Change Management Models. [online]. Available through:
<https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/march/change-management-
models>. [Accessed on 5th September 2015].
Small Business, Enterprise and Employment (SBEE) Act. 2014. [online]. Available through:
<https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/small-business-enterprise-and-
employment-bill>. [Accessed on 5th September 2015].
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