|
||||
| Business
development services: A case of blind leading the blind?
Why should you be worried about this conference and its implications? If you are either dreaming of a business or are already in business as a SME (small or medium enterprise), BDS suppliers are the guys (and girls) who will be your consultants and service providers. Or else, because you are a provider of BDS services yourself. This article and the next will focus on what BDS are and why would be entrepreneurs or SMEs need to become familiar with BDS providers. However, before you can make head or tail of this article, it is necessary for us to define BDS as well as what weaker markets are. BDS is a blanket term covering a wide range of services required by enterprises. According to Gunaseele Gunananda, Acting Director of the Enterprise Development and Productivity Division of the Ministry of Industries, Tourism and Investment Promotion, there is really no widely accepted definition of what comprises BDS. She feels that the definition in which BDS means "a wide range of services used by entrepreneurs to help operate and expand their businesses" does not cover the full scope of BDS. She points out that, in some instances, the genuine BDS provider may give advice that prevents an entrepreneur taking on an unsuitable project. Although the entrepreneur receives a service from the BDS provider (who prepares his feasibility report), the above definition does not cover that particular aspect. Gamini Senanayake, CEO of Industrial Service Bureau (ISB), an organization providing a comprehensive range of business development services, agrees by stating that the term BDS itself will change in a few years. According to Senanayake, BDS "encompasses a wide range of non-financial services including consultancy and other services for enterprises." This ambiguity and the resulting segregation among the service providers is a key stumbling block to developing the quality of services and promoting BDS as an industry. It is a challenge that the organizers of the BDS Conference 2004, the new Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise Development, and supporters and facilitators such as the SIYB Sri Lanka Association, the ILO, Swisscontact, GTZ and the ADB funded Business Support Service Facility (BSSF) understand only too well. Most of them will agree that in many cases, BDS as practiced by many, is very far from the ideal. It is indeed a case of blind leading the blind. Let us begin searching for solutions by looking at BDS from two angles; one from the clients' or the entrepreneurs' point of view and then from the point of view of the BDS providers, majority of whom are one man or freelance operations. Many aspiring entrepreneurs do not know where to go for basic services. How do you draw up a business plan? How do you prepare financial projections? How do you assess marketing feasibility or test the market? Have you picked up a good idea in the first place? Who can help you decide? Who will help you register the business? How do you go about doing all these things that are necessary to get your business up and running? Problems of SMEs do not end at the start up stage. Often, they need support in continuing operations and developing their business. How do you capture the market that you identified in the business plan? What is the appropriate technology? Should you pay a little bit more for a machine that gives a better productivity in the long run? How do you find foreign machinery suppliers? Who will help you go through the selection and importation process? Who will help install and train your staff? These are issues that even large, established businesses find it difficult to solve. How do you get your records-which often tend to be neglected at the start up stage-straightened out? Who will help with your tax calculations and advice you on tax planning? Who will help you with labour regulations? Who will help you train your staff and workforce? Unless you are a maverick-which unfortunately most of us are not-you will need some sort of advice. Where will you get it and at what cost? What is the guarantee that your chosen provider will perform as expected? That is the whole problem. We do not know yet. It is evident, from the many hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs who contact me through this article series and through the Athwela Business Journal, the Sinhala magazine for SMEs, that there is a big vacuum that needs to be filled in respect of educating the general public of where and how to obtain these basic services. And added on top of all this Sri Lanka, by virtue of being a developing nation, is naturally a "weaker market" for BDS. A weaker market can mean many things; isolation in geographic terms restricting market access by BDS providers; inadequate infrastructure and lack of access to basic services; inadequate legal framework and conflict such as in the North and East. So, all in all, Sri Lanka is a virtual hell for BDS providers. And that naturally leads to a great challenge to those who wish to change the situation and to entrepreneurs themselves. We will continue this discussion next week. Until then remember that, advisers will come and go; but you are the boss and you need to take responsibility for your business. Don't blindly hand over decision making to consultants. Close down the business instead. It is probably cheaper on the long run. Tell us your ideas on how business development service can improve to serve you, the entrepreneur, better. You can contact us on ft@sundaytimes.wnl.lk or on 5-552524 The
writer is the |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
