An assessment of Peoples Bank Business' service to SMME's sponsored by the Khula Indemnity Scheme
- Authors: Bredenkamp, Monique
- Date: 2012-01-16
- Subjects: Small business , Small business finance , Banks and banking , Risk management , Commercial credit
- Type: Mini-Dissertation
- Identifier: uj:1910 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4271
- Description: M.Comm. , South Africa's Minister of Trade and Industry, Alec Irwin, stated that "one of the most striking features of the South African economy is the underdevelopment of small and medium enterprises" (Polkinghorne, 2001). A lack of sufficient capital and credit is often a major handicap to the development of SMMEs, particularly in their early growth stages. The growth and development .ofthe small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector is acknowledged by most interest groups and policy-makers as being of critical importance to South Africa's ability to address the serious problems of unemployment. The South African government suggests that the SMME sector -with the help of government support -is capable of fulfilling these obj ectives and has introduced a number of supply-side measures to promote the formerly neglected sector. The overall objective is "to create an enabling environment" and "to level the playing field" (South Africa, 1995) in terms of national, regional and local policy frameworks for SMME development. Khula Enterprise Finance Ltd. was established in 1996 in terms of a Department of Trade and Industry (DT!) initiative and provides access to credit to SMMEs through various delivery mechanisms. One of these delivery mechanisms is a scheme that was created to assist SMMEs to access finance from traditional financial intermediaries by providing guarantees on a risksharing basis. Khula Enterprise Finance Ltd. has assisted in delivering almost 103 000 loans, credit guarantees and other facilities to SMMEs since the agency started operating in 1996. The total value of the loans and guarantees exceeds R550 million (Martins, 2001). ii However, Khula Enterprise Finance Ltd. has to contend with intermediaries applying its programmes -banks that are not renowned for their spirit of adventure, and welfare-oriented service organisations that lack business acumen (Khula: Some business ... , 2002: 53). The perception among the general population in South Africa is that most banks have neither the capacity nor the will to actively and creatively manage SMME loans to South Africa's emerging markets -"emerging" meaning political customers who have not been seen as critical in the past, but who are seen as such in the future. In South Africa these are largely people of black African descent (Polkinghorne, 2001). The target of Peoples Bank Business includes previously disadvantaged communities such as black persons, women and the disabled. Additionally, clients are assisted with venture capital or loans to fund start-up businesses. Emphasis is placed on assistance to the community in addition to traditional criteria such as bottom-line results. This study attempted to assess the service provided by Peoples Bank Business to clients sponsored by the Khula Indemnity Scheme. This study did not attempt to provide solutions to problems experienced, but rather to identify the deficiencies/gaps in service as experienced by clients of Peoples Bank Business.
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Applying McKinsey's 7S model within managed healthcare systems (MHS) to assess the organisation's effectiveness and ability to adapt
- Authors: Malan, Adéle
- Date: 2012-09-06
- Subjects: Organizational effectiveness , Organizational change -- Management , Managed care plans (Medical care)
- Type: Mini-Dissertation
- Identifier: uj:9693 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/7107
- Description: M.Comm. , Persons often perceive effectiveness differently. Once the term effectiveness is used, every person in an audience would probably have a different point of view of what is meant by effectiveness. The aim of this study is to provide a survey to the personnel of MHS, to obtain a diverse audience that is familiar with the organisation and through analysis to establish what is required to ensure the effectiveness of MHS as an organisation. An organisation's management will often identify that a problem exists within the organisation. They are however unable to diagnose exactly what the problem is and may even have much different perceptions of the management problem than employees working at the ground level. This study is meant to guide management decision making, by providing recommendations to resolve identified problems during transformation planning in the organisation and before any changes are implemented. The study will assist in diagnosing the organisation's ability to adapt to the future. The model can also be applied to establish which of the links that exist between each of the S's can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation. No S on it's own is a strength or a weakness; it is only relevant to the degree that it supports the other S's. Any of the S's that harmonise with all the other S's will be deemed strengths. Any dissonances are weaknesses (Enock, 2001a: 3). The model will highlight how changes made in any one of the S's will have an impact on all the other S's. Therefore if planned change is to be effective, then changes in one S must be accompanied by complementary changes in the others (Enock, 2001a: 3). The crux of the study lies therein that: "The 7S framework provides a way of understanding how interrelated elements fit together in trying to implement a strategy. It is the degree of difference between what a firm does well and the requirements of a new strategy that determine the degree of difficulty of implementation" (Harvey, 1988: 199). The key to implementing reengineering strategies is to ensure that all the elements are in alignment, or fit, with the proposed strategy (Harvey, 1988: 199).
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