Strategy for succession in family owned small businesses as a wicked problem to be tamed

Contemporary strategic-planning processes don’t help family businesses cope with some of the big problems they face. Owner managers admit that they are confronted with issues, such as those associated with succession and inter-generational transfer that cannot be resolved merely by gathering additional data, defining issues more clearly, or breaking them down into small problems. Preparing for succession is often put off or ignored, many planning techniques don’t generate fresh ideas and implementing solutions is often fraught with political peril. This paper presents a framework to explore the idea of wicked problems, its relevance to succession planning in family businesses and its implications for practice and policy. A wicked problem has many and varied elements, and is complex as well as challenging. These problems are different to hard but ordinary problems, which people can solve in a finite time period by applying standard techniques. In this paper we argue that the wicked problem of family business succession requires a different approach to strategy, founded on social planning processes to engage multiple stakeholders and reconcile family/business interests to foster a joint commitment to possible ways of resolution. This requires academics and practitioners to re-frame traditional business strategic planning processes to achieve more sustainable family business futures

Evaluation of the Mortgage Breathing Space scheme

Since 2009, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council (WMDC) has been delivering Yorkshire and Humber’s regional Mortgage Breathing Space (MBS) scheme, which offers assistance to homeowners who are in mortgage difficulties or under threat of repossession. The assistance is twofold: 1) an interest-free secured loan to pay off mortgage arrears and/or mortgage instalments for up to 12 months (if needed); 2) financial advice and financial capability guidance

Using simulation to develop business strategy skills of entrepreneurs - Some reflections on a pilot

It is recognized that the value of entrepreneurship education and the recruitment of practising entrepreneurs for such learning programmes can be problematic. This raises an important and challenging issue for universities when they are increasingly being asked to develop the leadership and management capabilities of entrepreneurs. In this account of practice, the authors explore the role for business simulation in the development of existing entrepreneurs’ and small business leaders’ strategic decision-making skills. The article describes and reflects on a pilot business simulation course, considering the challenges in the planning, the engagement of entrepreneurs and the delivery of the programme. It provides insights into the value of introducing this form of learning experience and exposes the significant challenges associated with engaging small business leaders

Degree apprenticeships: Reflecting on university–employer partnership practice to improve workforce development in the United Kingdom

This article offers an early assessment of the extent and scope of participation by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Degree Apprenticeship (DA) provision for meeting the broader workforce development objectives of the UK Government. While the take-up of DAs by HEIs and businesses has been undeniably lower than the publicly declared Government targets, the issues seem to be related to matters of institutional ‘stickiness’ in HEIs and implementation practicalities for businesses. The article reflects on the institutional dynamics involved in HEIs’ collective shifting of their practice in response to Government intervention to associate funding with HE–business collaboration. The authors’ observations are drawn from the experience of one HEI; they adopt an auto-ethnographic perspective to reflect on the role of the DA model as one way of stimulating how HEIs can work with businesses to co-design workforce development initiatives and offer ideas for future development

Developing SME performance management practices: interventions for improving productivity

Purpose The paper is a proof of concept (PoC) intervention study aimed for developing performance management (PM) practices in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the longer-term aim enabling the SMEs to improve their productivity. The intervention was designed and deployed by a collaborative quartet of academics, management consultants, accountancy firm and a commercial bank manager. Design/methodology/approach The paper firstly musters a set of initialising PM practices aligned to productivity improvement. These are utilised to design a knowledge transfer intervention for deployment with a set of manufacturing SMEs incorporating some associated productivity tools. The evaluation of the intervention utilised a case study approach founded on a logic model of the intervention to assess the development of the PM practices. Findings The intervention contributed to a partial development of the mustered practices and the productivity diagnostic based on the multi-factor productivity (MFP) abstraction and a data extraction protocol had the strongest impact. The study revealed the importance of the three interlaced factors: Depth of engagement, feedback opportunities and the intervention gradient (the increase of independent action from the participating SME's and the diminishment of the external intervention effort). Research limitations/implications The case study is based on a limited number of individual SME's, and within just the manufacturing sector. Practical implications SME businesses will require a more sustained programme of interventions than this pilot to develop PM capability, and depth of engagement within the SME is critical. Professional stakeholders can be utilised in recruitment of firms for intervention programmes. Business can start developing PM capability prior to PMS implementation using the tools from this programme. Originality/value The productivity diagnostic tool, based on a synthesis of MFP and the performance pyramid, an array of potential initialising practices for PM capability and discovery of potential mechanisms for PM practice development

An application of static marginal analysis in the generation of a U.S. Navy repair material requirements list

An analysis is made of current Single Supply Support Control Point procedures for developing a Repair Material Requirements List. The objective of this thesis is to minimize the expected cost of stockouts over all line items subject to a budget constraint, given the probability distribution of demand. The concept of static marginal analysis is applied in the generation of a revised Repair Material Requirements List. The revised and the present generation techniques are compared by the use of a simulation of a R3350 aircraft engine overhaul production facility. Results indicate that the Poisson probability distribution function closely matches the demands experienced on the contract used for investigation. Results further indicate that drastic reductions in the number of stockouts, and in the number of orders, can be effected by the use of static marginal analysis in the generation of the Repair Material Requirements List.http://archive.org/details/applicationofsta00deviCommander, United States NavyCaptain, Royal Danish Air ForceApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited