Page 222 - DMGT106_MANAGING_HUMAN_ELEMENTS_AT_WORK

Managing Human Element at Work

Notes 9.5.6 Quality

Many small business organisations do not adhere to desired standards of quality. Instead
they concentrate on cutting the cost and keeping the prices low. They do not have adequate
resources to invest in quality research and maintain the standards of the industry, nor do
they have the expertise to upgrade technology. In fact maintaining quality is their weakest
point, when competing in global markets.
9.5.7 Capacity Utilisation
Due to lack of marketing skills or lack of demand, many small business firms have to
operate below full capacity due to which their operating costs tend to increase. Gradually
this leads to sickness and closure of the business.
9.5.8 Technology
Use of outdated technology is often stated as serious lacunae in the case of small industries,
resulting in low productivity and uneconomical production.
9.5.9 Sickness

Prevalence of sickness in small industries has become a point of worry to both the policy
makers and the entrepreneurs. The causes of sickness are both internal and external. Internal
problems include lack of skilled and trained labour and managerial and marketing skills.
Some of the external problems include delayed payments, shortage of working capital,
inadequate loans and lack of demand for their products.
9.5.10 Global Competition

Apart from the problems stated above small businesses are not without fears, especially in
the present context of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG) policies being
followed by several countries across the world. Let us look into the areas where small
businesses feel threatened with the onslaught of global competition.
• Competition is not only from medium and large industries, but also from multinational
companies which are the giants in terms of their size and business volumes. Opening
up of trade results in cut-throat competition for small scale units.

• It is difficult to withstand the quality standards, technological skills, financial
creditworthiness, managerial and marketing capabilities of the large industries and
multinationals.

• There is limited access to markets of developed countries due to the stringent
requirements of quality certification like ISO 9000.

List down, important small group organizations working in India.

Kibbutz Industry

n order to present this kind of rural industry, we shall take a typical Kibbutz as an
example. Kibbutz Givaat Brener was established during the twenties some 25 km
ISouth of Tel Aviv. At that time the Kibbutz was very isolated, and had many survival
problems. Today it is among the biggest Kibbutz villages in Israel, and has around 1000
contd...

216 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY