SMES BUSINESS ISSUES

SMEs Business Issues



Table of Content

Letter Of Transmital3

Executive Summary5

Introduction6

Conceptual Overview6

SMEs Business Issues7

Lack of IT Support7

Lack of IT Literacy8

Lack of Formal Procedure and Discipline8

Uneven IT Awareness and Management Skill8

Lack of Financial Resources9

Lack of Human Resources9

Lack of Experience of Using Consultants9

Strategizing for SME Business Success10

Critical Commentary and Future Directions11

References15

Letter Of Transmital

xyz ----------

New York, NY University 83843

(208) 882-7xxx

XYZ@hotmail.com

Nov. 23rd, 2009

Mr. --------(Teacher Name)

Commerce Department

University of Idaho

New York, NY University

Dear Mr. (Teacher Name):

Enclosed is a copy of “SMEs Business Issues.” This report is a summary of my findings from the work that I completed during the tiem span of August to December at the Unversity. It will aid in the future management of Small and Medium Size Enterprise Management. It adds new information to the established baseline data of this population. I completed the report on schedule and met all my proposed objectives within the allotted time frame.

If you have any questions and/or comments regarding the interpretation of this report please feel free to contact me at the addresses or phone number above. Thank you for your funding of this project, and I look forward to working with you again soon.

Sincerely,

XYZ

Enclosure: Final Report

Executive Summary

With the change of economic environment and fierce competition between large enterprises, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) survive difficultly, for they are facing increasingly diversified and complicated risks in the activities of production, operation, management and decision-making. Thus people begin to explore how SMEs could convert from enduring consequences of risks passively to using risks positively to create value. Competitive intelligence, which is developed in the course of competitive activities, involving collecting and extracting the information about competitors, competitive environments and competitive strategies, aims to win and maintain competitive advantages of enterprises. Its successful application helps SMEs to win competitive advantages by identifying the potential threats and opportunities in the market as soon as possible and by reducing competitors' response time, equal to increasing their own response time. To be specific, competitive intelligence not only facilitates risk management by predicting, identifying, avoiding, transferring, spreading and controlling risks well, but also helps SMEs to enhance the capabilities of risk awareness and risk prevention.

SMEs Business Issues

Introduction

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are independent businesses that are usually managed, funded, and operated by their owners, and with staff size, financial resources, and assets comparatively limited in scale.

Conceptual Overview

Arend (2006) mentions small and medium businesses are the most common form of organizing business worldwide. Zimmerer and Scarborough note that there is no universal definition for SME, as descriptions vary from country to country. The United Kingdom, for example, uses a legal definition; other countries use total net sales and/or funding to categorize enterprises. Most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries use the number of employees to define small and medium enterprises. In the United States, small business often means enterprises employing fewer than 100, while SMEs are defined as firms employing fewer than 500 (Arend, 2006). The European Union defines small firms as employing fewer than 50, and SMEs with fewer ...