Big Observations from Small Potato - Hong Kong SME (2)

The success in old time doesn't mean they can sustain and grow with the old practice, as the environment and competitors keep changing.



To echo on my previous point that the company can't move on with time and will be eliminated, one of the key reasons is they can't retain young staff, because of lack of development opportunities and the poor benefits and welfare policies. Only those who have worked there for long time (>10 years) or people who want to pursue a more stable lives will stay. The result is OLD practices.

Management style (1) - NO planning, just execution and operation
In that company, all the employees work for the management. As no one will challenge the management and they all work according to management's priority, if there are problems in the management styles, the whole company will suffer.

They are short-sighted. They focus on the present but not the future. There is no planning and no direction. In the marketing department, the employees act as firefighters to put out the fire (problem and request from management). For example, when there is a request from management to prepare some presentation used in a meeting with clients, all of their effort will go there. They have done lots of things but the impact is not significant.

All the resources will go to those urgent tasks and they don't care about their importance. They are passive and can only act when problem arises.

Management style (2) - Micro-manage
Management likes micro-manage. They want everything to go through them and approved by them, regardless of the importance of each task. It increased the workload on management and decreased the efficiency of the whole company. At the same time, no one is capable to do things such as checking the catalogue content and preparing tender. It is like a blind alley. Management is too busy with daily routines that can't really analyze the situation. As a result, there is only execution but no strategy.