Hello Everyone!

Welcome to Erin and Sam's online (and exciting!) Blogging website. 

We hope you take the time to participate, contribute and comment on our "online presentation" when necessary. We tried to make this as fun and exciting as we could, so we hope you enjoy! :)

Step 1. Read the article "Competitive advantage and management development in small hospitality firms: The need for an imaginative approach". Simply copy this journal article and paste it into Google-it will be the second article that comes up in PDF. If you're having any issues, the authors are Graham Beaver and Conrad Lashley.

Step 2. Read the news article 'How large and small businesses differ' written by Abby Johnson in SmallBusinessNewz. The article can be found online at http://www.smallbusinessnewz.com/topnews/2011/02/23/how-large-and-small-businesses-differ. Take some notes on the similarities and differences between both articles.

Step 3. Follow our online guide to become knowledgeable on competitive advantages in small and large hospitality firms! 

Quick Reminder: Please write your name after every comment and contribution during the presentation. Thank you!

Article #1

Article # 1: 'Competitive Advantage and management development in small hospitality firms: The need for an imaginative approach' 

• Authors: Graham Beaver, the Nottingham Business School and Conrad Lashley, the Head of the Centre for Hospitality Management, Nottingham Business School.

• The article was published in the 'Journal of Vacation Marketing', Vol.4, on October 30th, 1997.  

Purpose: This paper examines the management and market perception in small enterprises and shows that there are significant differences in the managerial tasks in small and large firms.

Table 1: The small firm management process

Table 1. The Small Firm Management Process

• The table below represents an organizations structure and is developed around the interests and abilities of the key role players. 
• The article stresses the fact that the management process in the small firm businesses is seldom a readily visible process-it often has an abstract rather than concrete form.
• The key role players must fulfill a number of roles if the organization is to succeed.
• A lack of attention to these fundamental managerial activities (ex. negotiation, innovation, risk taking, strategic planning, etc.) may threaten the survival of the firm.

The complexity of the small business environment demands a unique blending of skills (in the table above) to succeed in exploiting competitive advantage.

Management in Small vs. Large Firms

Characteristics of Small Firms:

• Personalized services
• Often plays roles of entrepreneur, owner and manager of business
• Closeness of key role players to the operating personnel and activities (this provides key role players an opportunity to influence these operatives and activities)
• Large diversity of motivations, expectations and abilities

“For any firm to remain successful over a sustained period there must be a capability to adapt to changing circumstances. Failure to adapt to a series of ‘crises’ caused by growth is one of the principal causes of failure for all organizations”.

Question: Can you list 3-5 characteristics of large firms? Please comment below in the "comment box".

Table 2. Perceived Managerial Skill Deficiencies

1. Fifty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers in ten different categories of hospitality businesses-hotels, large, medium and small, bed and breakfast establishments- restaurants- cafes- pubs, bars and clubs.
2. The research instrument asked respondents to identify where they might have a training need. The skill areas were arranged under finance, marketing, communications, management, computer skills, etc. The research did in fact provide rich data on managerial perceptions of training needs across the sector’s small firms.

Key themes noticed in the research were:

·Limited additional resources to invest in the business

·Few firms have on-going development plans, training and development is often triggered by short-term problems (trying to mitigate issue)

·It is a mistake to assume that all small business owner managers are motivated by the same drives and ambitions

·The terms “small business” and “entrepreneur” mean different things to the individuals represented these generalisations

·“Small business” implies that the key focus is in relation to the size of the resources available to it

·The term “Entrepreneur” reflects the motives and nature of management

Types of Entrepreneurs

Types of Entrepreneurs within in the hospitality context:

1. Entrepreneurial Venture: dedicated to growth and seizing opportunities as they arise; only a minority of firms can be said to be “entrepreneurial”.

2.  Lifestyle Enterprise: provides owner managers with a means of desired survival, within a desired style of living. The business may be around a leisure activity, for example water sports or skiing.

3.  Family enterprises: common within the hospitality industry; many independent hotels, bed and breakfasts and restaurants represent this type of entrepreneur. In many cases, the family venture represents just one of several sources of income to the family.

4.  Female enterprise: this type of entrepreneur has witnessed an increase in growth; it provides an opportunity for some women to meet domestic role expectations and earn an income.

5.  Ethnic minority enterprise: provides members of various ethnic minority groups an opportunity to gain employment in the host community. The restaurant sector is a prime example of the types of businesses these entrepreneurs tend to develop.

Question: Do you personally know anyone or have you heard of anyone who fits into these roles? Please provide an example.

Article #2

Article # 2: 'How Large and Small Businesses Differ' 

• Author: Abby Johnson
• The article was published in 'SmallBusinessNewz', on February 23, 2011

Purpose: This article outlines the differences in being involved in small and large businesses.

 We liked this article because:

• It was short and to the point
• It highlighted similarities between the first article, for example small business owners are responsible for all of the actions that the business takes
• There was a video that highlighted all of the main points in the news article

Similarities to Article #1:

• In a small business setting, each employee plays a greater role in the company- as mentioned earlier, this allows for opportunity
• Large business employees often don't get a say in the company and often do not have a sense of belonging
• Problems are dealt with immediately in a small business setting as noted in the news article, to help mitigate the issue
• They mentioned how small business owners are able to establish a personal relationship with customers and learning exactly what their needs are.
• Large businesses do not usually have the ability to build personal relationships with customers or have the ability to learn their needs.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we felt that the article became repetitive but had valuable information. It often seemed as though the research seemed to be common sense with some of its conclusions. In the end, the article claimed that "managers running smaller firms have a wider variety of roles and different priorities than those running larger enterprises", which seems like an obvious conclusion. The paper also argues that much of the management development literature is dominated by the concerns of the development of larger organizations. So perhaps the gap lies in a lack of information on the management of smaller organizations.

After reviewing both articles, it is clearly evident how small business firms can have advantages compared to larger firms. It depends on individual motivations and what kind of entrepreneur the owner/manager is and the direction they want their business to go in.

Article #1 mentions that “success if frequently identified in terms of universal economic indicators when many of these firms are being run by people who have other motives for running the enterprise.” Watch the video and answer the question of "Who and What Defines Success?"

Reminder to write your name when you comment! Thank you.