In writing the book, our intention was to deliver a comprehensive practitioner's guide for SME principals and their teams to provide them with the essential Skills, Strategies, and Tactics they need to learn, then adopt, followed by the clinical Actions they will need to take to be highly successful in their business. Our ultimate aim for the SME Leadership cohort is to transform and become our SME version of the Corporate World's Highly Competent Generalist.
In pursuit of that quest, we have graded and logically compressed the seven strengths that emerged from my two decades of research into The 5 Critical Success Factors of SME Leadership. They are:
1. The Foundations,
2. The Finances,
3. The Front-Line,
4. Managing Time, and
5. Sustainable Collaborative Leadership.
Critical Success Factors 1, 3, 4 and 5 are predominantly universal capabilities, regardless of where your business trades globally.
Critical Success Factor 2, The Finances, is unique in that Tax and Statutory Compliance Obligations differ from country to country. A core premise of our advice that accompanies Critical Success Factor 2, The Finances, is the importance of retaining a competent, locally skilled contract bookkeeper (part or full-time), or allocating those responsibilities to a staff or family member who has those skills, and also to retain an external Tax Accountant/Advisor to deal with your unique annual higher order Taxation and Statutory Obligations, wherever your business trades.
The accumulated learnings to be gained from universally adopting and following The 5 Critical Success Factors is not only for the benefit of the principal or CEO, but also for senior members of any business team, small or large, who are committed to learning and contributing to the success of the venture they work for.
