Building community starts with managing people
By Maxie Carpenter / MVC Advisory / Bentonville
We’re all in uncharted territory as it relates to the current economic climate relative to understanding what’s happened with the country’s financial infrastructure and why. The one result of this downturn that is undeniable is that the small business community has been challenged more dramatically than any other sector, not only in terms of profitability and financial support, but with the reality of just simple surviving.
There is so much being written today about the financial implications of the business climate and how it’s affected sales, profitability, access to money for investment and growth, credit ratings, and we could go on and on. There is almost nothing being written about the most challenging aspect of any business today; managing people.
Almost any business owner or professional recognizes it that the most critical asset they have, no matter the size and no matter the sector, are their human resources. When the topic is discussed or written about, it’s most often in terms of how to re-structure or re-organize the business, how to scale back benefits, how to streamline efficiencies, or how to control payroll. If there is any focus on the processes of interviewing, hiring, training, or development of people, it’s usually as an afterthought – or Human Resource professionals in larger, more corporate organizations only focus it on.
The small business community is always recognized as the engine that drives the Gross Domestic Product of the country, yet it is that community that is most in need of general, basic operational and human resource management skills. The cost of losing an employee is far more impactful on a smaller business than it is on a larger, more profitable enterprise. In some cases, even the loss of just one individual can mean the difference between continuing to move forward and not being around tomorrow.
If we drill even deeper into the area of managing people, the most challenging aspect is how the financial collapse of the country that began last November has caused such chaos in the lives of the labor pool and how that chaos is affecting the ability of entrepreneurs to simply conduct business. This chaos manifests itself by an increase in the number of difficult personalities in the workplace; personalities that are difficult to manage unless there is some knowledge of the skill necessary to do so.
That skill is a human resource necessity no less important than operations, marketing, or sales, and one in which the small business support branches in the community would be wise to focus upon and invest in.
Maxie Carpenter is author, professional business analyst, counselor and president of MVC Advisory Resource, Inc. in Bentonville. He advocates that all any person or enterprise has to be to be successful is simple, relevant, and compelling. Email Maxie at maxie@mvcinc.org.
