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SME's - why communication is good for innovation
Written by: Dr. Rob SmorfittArticle Overview: A look at the link between communication and innovation
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Free Download - SMEs – SMEs struggling in South Africa. Why? By Dr. Rob Smorfitt |
SME's - why communication is good for innovation
The Internet as a communication tool is vital for SME's, and for remote Africa, even more so. I personally monitor www.trendhunter.com and www.springwise.com among other sites, for innovative happenings around the world. It helps to keep me up to date, and allows me to see how to innovate my own and my client businesses using some of the ideas that I pick up on the Internet.
Innovation is not necessarily, and seldom is, invention. Innovation is about improvement, sometimes gradual. It is about improving what exists. The more we are exposed to innovative thinking, the more innovative we become. It becomes a way of thinking for those who are entrepreneurial, and this is how many businesses are started and many industries given a new lease on life and their life cycle extended.
African governments must find a strategy to extend cheap fast Internet to SME's as a matter of urgency if they wish to grow the base of entrepreneurs in their respective countries.
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Article Tags: communication, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, innovation, Internet, SME, SMME, Smorfitt
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About the Author: Dr. Rob Smorfitt RSS for Dr. Rob's articles - Visit Dr. Rob's website  Have an MBA and a PhD in entrepreneurship. Three key areas of ongoing research are entrepreneurship and innovation in large business strategy, the impact of legislation on SME development and SME finance. Run my own SME blog at http://sme-smb-smme.blogspot.com as well as an entrepreneurship and innovation for large businesses blog at http://innoveur.blogspot.com I have been self-employed since 1982. I have started or purchased in excess of 50 businesses since then. Most were sold again and a few were shut down because of a lack of profitability. Many were run by staff or family while I worked full time in my bigger businesses. Author of 6 books. Written articles for various magazines, newspapers and websites. Experienced in research within developing countries.
Click here to visit Dr. Rob's website  
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Related Forum Posts
Re: Business Coaching Resources
- i think a good coach is that who create skill in a leader in such a way that he help the organization to achieve the goal of the organization, the coach must take care about the communication skill of the leader because the communication gap can create various problems.
[Link removed by forum admin. Links can be placed in a forum signature]
Re: In-House or Outsource?
- Unfortunately, in the South African context, very few SMEs see outsourcing as an option. They believe it is too expensive, and they are paranoid that someone will "steal their ideas".
I believe that the three main functions that cannot be outsourced are marketing, sales and strategy. These must be done in house I believe. If you do not have the marketing skills then get them. Hire a consultant or attend a course, but get the skills. Even if you use a consultant, you need to understand what marketing is about, as no one knows your market like you do. Marketing is made to seem difficult and complex, but everyone who really understands their markets, can easily learn to do their own marketing.
In South Africa, labour legislation is extremely inflexibile, and consequently labour broking is a large industry. This is an ideal starting point for SMEs in South Africa, as it is a legally complex area, whih comes with severe penalties.
I say do it!
Rob Smorfitt
good communication is a key
- Ditto with what Wendy's said.
Ive had good communications with the [i:3rdpvods]better rated[/i:3rdpvods] providers. They're serious about keeping their ratings at 100% and they realize that communication is a big part of the equation.
Re: What's the rule on using emoticons?
- I think that using emotions in business communication is not really a good idea, in case of misinterpretations. However a smile is generally none-sexual oriented and misinterpreted compared to a wink in my opinion.
I think emotions are better off used in msn, and other social forms
Re: Voise SMS feature on mobile...Yes/No
- [quote="Ashish":1j8d830z]As far as spam is concerned, how about if you are aware of the destination from where it's arriving. I myself believe if I had to use this form of communication and I have to choose any one of them by spending same, I'd go for the Voice SMS.
Anyone else thinks the same or majority people likes to avoid SMS communication.[/quote:1j8d830z]
Hi Ashish,
If I registered for something like a business seminar or social event, I can see the benefit of being reminded via text message on my cell phone. However, I'd still prefer text over voice SMS because even if you hired a person with the clearest voice to deliver your voice SMS... I'd still need to listen to that message twice to write down the contact person's info/phone number (if it's different than the one used to leave the message). That's a hassle as I may not have a pen and paper down with me.
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