Management Skills in SMEs: A Case Study of Eu Yan Sang

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Topic 1
TYPES OF MANAGEMENT SKILLS REQUIRED
In the case of SME's, management needs to be efficient and effective in order to ensure
businesses survival and promote its growth (Danielson, Wu, Fales-Williams, Kirk, &
Preast, 2012). The competitive nature of the business environment makes it necessary
to the management of the SME's to be able to not only manage the day to day business
operation but also direct the business on a growth path. This prerequisite establishes
the need for the management skills in the managers as well as the organisational
management (Robles, 2012). The different types of management skills that are
considered necessary can be categorised as technical, motivational, conceptual, and
human skills. The human skills are necessary for a manager since it’s a necessity for
effectively working with others such as the employees of the organisation and the
businesses that interact with the organisation. It’s also a necessity to make others work
efficiently. The motivational skill is a necessary aspect since motivation is an important
precursor of employee performance (Danielson et al., 2012). The level of motivation
defines the level of performance of the employees. The conceptual skills help a
manager or the organisational management to analytically consider a scenario to take
the necessary steps in order to effectively manage the organisational performance. It
also supports effective problem-solving. The technical skills involve knowledge of the
respective functions and expertise in handling relevant tasks (Olivares, 2015).
The nature of the business of Eu Yan Sang is manufacturing and selling traditional
Chinese medicine. Such an area of work requires specialised knowledge hence the
critical requirement of the Technical skills (Robles, 2012). Also, the Eu Yan Sang retail
store is a small-time venture that requires exceptional performance of all the employees
to attain its growth objectives. This indicates the importance of motivational skill that's a
necessary aspect of employee performance. The human Skills comes into play since
the operation of Eu Yan Sang involves dealing with suppliers that supply specialised
ingredients that are otherwise unavailable in the market and maintaining a healthy
relationship is a necessary aspect of managerial responsibility (Olivares, 2015). These
skills are also necessary to manage the employees efficiently while minimising conflict

and promoting performance. The conceptual skill is critical since a small SME like Eu
Yan Sang faces a variety of problems in their routine course that requires efficient and
fast resolution. The analytic thinking is a boon for an SME manager since it allows
efficient planning of devising approaches to attain goals while handling the competition
(Danielson et al., 2012).

Topic 2
TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP APPROACH
Transformational leadership is theoretically the best leadership approach. The concept
was first put forward by James McGregor Burns in 1978 (Thomson III, Rawson, Slade,
& Bledsoe, 2016). He considered it a process that leads to the evolution of both leaders
and followers to a higher level of motivation and morality (Thomson III et al., 2016). The
concept was further developed by Bernard M. Bass and he provided certain
characteristics of a transformational leader (MALOŞ, 2012). A transformational leader
has high expectation from his followers, possesses a clear vision of goals, motivates
others at an emotional level, supports his followers, recognises their efforts, makes
followers see things beyond their self-interest and helps followers attain things they
consider improbable (MALOŞ, 2012). The basic attributes that define transformational
leadership are Charisma, individualised consideration, inspiration, and intellectual
stimulation (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). A transformational leader’s charisma lies in the
fact that they are visionary who have a clear sense of direction towards their goals that
can be installed in their followers. They instil a sense of pride in the endeavour in their
followers and gain their respect and trust. They inspire by breaking down tasks in
simpler parts, focusing the follower's efforts, and expressing a higher level of
expectation from their followers and a belief in their followers in attaining the same.
They help their followers to be a rational thinker and problem solvers while promoting
intelligence among followers. They act as a coach or mentor to everyone and give
individualised attention to their followers (MALOŞ, 2012).
For an SME like Eu Yan Sang retail store, growth is of paramount importance and it can
only be achieved by transforming the employees to think out of the box and strive to
achieve the improbable (MALOŞ, 2012). The transformational leadership approach will
be highly effective provided the leader can project the necessary charisma to make the
employee trust and respect their leader in a capacity that pushes them to strive towards
their vision or goal. Such an approach can be instrumental in transforming the workforce

into a competitive advantage that outperforms the competition. Also, such an approach
is the most viable during the transformative phase and being a small scale business
expansion and growth can be such an avenue (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013).

Reference List
Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2013). Transformational and charismatic
leadership: The road ahead. Emerald Group Publishing.
Danielson, J. A., Wu, T. F., Fales-Williams, A. J., Kirk, R. A., & Preast, V. A. (2012).
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Olivares, S. O. (2015). Business graduate skills: Competency-based model. In Diverse
contemporary issues facing business management education (pp. 25-51). IGI Global.
MALOŞ, R. (2012). THE MOST IMPORTANT LEADERSHIP THEORIES. Annals of
Eftimie Murgu University Resita, Fascicle II, Economic Studies.
Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s
workplace. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453-465.
Thomson III, N. B., Rawson, J. V., Slade, C. P., & Bledsoe, M. (2016). Transformation
and Transformational Leadership:: A Review of the Current and Relevant Literature for
Academic Radiologists. Academic radiology, 23(5), 592-599.