The BLC was set up to help SMMEs in rural and township settings better connect with metropolitan markets, which is essential to their development. According to Jones and Jackson (2021), SMMEs play an essential role in South Africa's economic recovery by generating greater output and more jobs. If t...
the swot analysis of establishing business leadership clinic blc by the unisa graduate school of business leadership
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University of South Africa (Unisa)
Introduction To Economics (PBA4808)
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Question 1
Introduction
According to Jones and Jackson (2021) the business Leadership Clinic (BLC) is a
centre of entrepreneurship, innovative and leadership which was established by the
UNISA Graduate School of Business leadership. The establishment of the BLC was to
assist Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) located in rural areas as well as
townships so that they can link with the urban markets well for their growth. Jones and
Jackson (2021) elaborate that SMMEs are very crucial for the recovery of South Africa
economy as they contribute to more output and job creation. Failure to give attention to
these SMMEs will compromise the sustainability of the future economy. The main
challenge faces by these SMMEs in rural and townships is to adjust rapidly to changes
in technology which is the most adapted way of doing business these days. The most
challenge faced by rural and townships SMMEs is the slowness in adopting digital
systems to link and access urban and international markets. The BLC seeks to address
this challenge through its technology entrepreneurship lab (TEL) and Technology
Entrepreneurship Platform (TEP). the aim is to end technical barriers which constraints
the rural and townships SMMEs from linking with urban markets through digitalisation.
The BLC did not achieve it’s objectives because of some challenges experienced by the
organisation. To analyse these challenges the SWOT analysis will be implemented.
According to Benzaghta et al. (2021) swot analysis is a technique which is used in
planning and managing organisations through analysing organisational strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The strengths and weaknesses are the internal
factors that the organisation can control or are caused by the internal environment. The
opportunities and threats are those factors that affects the operations of an organisation
and it does not have the ability to influence them.
Strengths
According to Ahmadi et al. (2016) strengths refers to organizational practices that the
organisation do particularly well as compared to their competitors. These strengths
gives the organisation a competitive advantage over its competitors and secure a
,significant market share because of these strengths. The strengths of the UNISA SBL
BLC are as follows.
Easily accessibility and flexible
The BLC is an online program which can be accessed at any place internationally. The
institution can enroll a number of rural and townships entrepreneurs across the whole
country without being limited by distance barriers (Andriani et al., 2020). One of the
major challenge which can be faced by other institutions isbto bring these entrepreneurs
or learners to a central location which they can acquire the digitalisation knowledge they
require for them to link with urban markets. Through the e learning system adapted by
the institutions an SMMEs can have access to knowledge despite their geographical
location. As indicated by Kamrozzaman (2020) E learning helps to overcome the
distance barrier in the movement of knowledge among people.
Wide areas of learning
In South Africa entrepreneurs ventures into different business ideas and different
sectors in the economy. Therefore, the digitalisation cannot applied the same way in
different sectors and entrepreneurs. For instance, the use of digital systems to link with
urban markets may differ between the health and the agriculture sector. Each discipline
need to be equipped with the right technology which improves operations of
entrepreneurs. Unisa in an tertiary education institution which offers a variety of
programs which are applicable in most sectors of the economy. The knowledge from
these sectors can be integrated with the digitalisation so that entrepreneurs in different
sectors may be able to acquire knowledge they specifically require.
Improve skills and creative of employees
On daily basis the communication technologies are improving and the SMMEs will need
to be updated on these development and how to digitalise their operations to link with
urban markets. The researchers within the organisation will keep on researching digital
information and present the developments to the lectures who assist their student in the
organisation. This will be a continuous process within the organisation which enable the
department to equip the most effective and competent employees. Since they need to
, deliver the latest digitalisation message to their clients they should always be updated
on communication technology
Weaknesses
According to Benzaghta et al. (2021) weaknesses are limiting factors or constraints that
inherent within the organisation and they stop the organisation from reaching its optimal
level. These weaknesses gives an organisation a competitive disadvantage against its
competitors. However, the organisation has the ability to influence these weaknesses
when they are identified in the organisation. The weaknesses of the UNISA SBL BLC
may include the following..
Lack of competent stuff
The establishment of the BLC requires a lot employees who are IT experts. The skilled
IT employees will be requested in establishing TEL which will be used by lectures to
deliver information to their students. In most cases it may be challenging to find
employees with such skilled and this may compromise the success of the organisation
in promoting digitalisation on rural SMMEs. When the organisation find employees with
the required expertise they may be expensive to pay and it will be costly to the whole
organisation. Whenever the digital systems improve the lectures and all the stuff
members need to be updated and this cannot take place simultaneously creating a
situation were the employees may lack some relevant information for short period of
time. The employee will need to be continuously upgraded to meet the students
requirements (Andriani et al., 2020).
High investment costs
To establish the BLC, they are a number of equipment and both hard and soft systems
that will be requested tin TEL and TEP. These equipment can require a lot of money
since they are various entrepreneurs across the country which may use different
systems and tools and they will all need to be carted for. As the technology improve
some equipment and devices will be outdated and some new device will be requested.
With the rapid development of technology in the 4 th industral revolution, the organisation
will require huge amount of capital to secure new devices which are relevant on the
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