Current Practices In Small Firm Management

The definitive guide to management success for sole practitioners and leaders of small design firms Owning and operating a small architectural design firm can be challenging, with tight project deadlines, on-the-fly meetings, rush proposals, and fluctuating workloads as part of the firm’s day-to-day activities. To help small firm owners cope with the chaos and prepare for the unexpected, here is The Architect’s Guide to Small Firm Management, a no-nonsense guide to repurposing daily demands into workable, goal-directed solutions. Crucial topics such as self-aware leadership, people management, technology, financial health, scenario planning, sustainable practice, and future trends are examined using real-life case studies and business model paradigms. This definitive text explores the whole system experience of a small firm practice to deliver organizational strategies proven to keep a firm’s creative mission on a steady, productive path. The Architect’s Guide to Small Firm Management addresses how small firm owners can: Deal effectively with unexpected circumstances and shifting work requirements Meet the demands of the marketplace while creating a satisfying workplace Set and achieve goals in an environment of constant change This book is a must-have for those facing the often harsh reality of managing small design firms in a difficult and changing economy. Entrepreneurial architects and designers will discover how to define their own personal and professional meanings of success, as well as how to refocus their business approach to replace long, unrewarding hours with manageable, satisfying ones.

Products and services created by small and medium sized organizations account for the vast majority of economic activity across the globe. These organizations will prove vitally important to the emerging and developing economies that will shape future decades. Small Business Management in Cross-Cultural Environments is one of very few books to take the cross-cultural context as an opportunity to analyse and discuss the key concepts of small firm management in different parts of the world. This textbook covers important topics, such as: the global economic development process entrepreneurship the role of government SME growth and collaborations in a global context. By explaining how culture shapes and conditions the reality of small businesses and how organizational theories and models fail as management tools, this book fills a significant gap. Supplemented by a compendium of compelling case studies, drawn from across the world, and based upon 25 years of international research by the author, Small Business Management in Cross-Cultural Environments is a useful guide for students and practitioners of SME and International Management

Examining the crucial role of innovation and entrepreneurship in achieving growth and ongoing success in the small business sector, this book carefully examines the processes by which small businesses identify new opportunities, evolve appropriate marketing strategies, develop new products and services and successfully launch these into the market. The text: - Includes a dedicated chapter on social entrepreneurship and family firms - Explores issues of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Packed with supporting "real world" case studies including Apple′s iPod, Facebook, Starbucks and YouTube to illustrate how entrepreneurial firms succeed. - Learning features including learning aims, summaries, points for discussion, and further reading. - Companion website with instructors′ manual and PowerPoint slides and access to full-text journal articles for students.

Examines the development and role of small business clusters from a variety of disciplines - economics, marketing, management, and information systems. This book aims to prove that there is an approach suggesting that cluster analysis is truly interdisciplinary. It gives case studies illustrating the variety of clusters throughout the world.