SITUATION
A few years after successfully launching a new business, an entrepreneur found himself spending 16-hour days running from one appointment to another, negotiating with customers, drumming up new business, signing checks, and checking up as much as possible on his six employees. The founder realized that his own strength was in selling, but general managerial responsibilities were very time consuming and interfered with his sales efforts. He even slept in the office two nights a week.
Despite his hard work, however, he knew that employees weren't organized and that many problems existed. He lacked the time to set personnel policies or to draw up job descriptions for his six employees. One employee even took advantage of the laxity in supervision to skip work sometimes. Invoices were sent to customers late, and delivery schedules were sometimes missed. Fortunately, the business was profitable in spite of the numerous problems.
Question 1 Is this founder's problem one of time management or general managerial ability? Would it be feasible to engage a management consultant to help solve the firm's problems?
Question 2 If this founder asked you to recommend some type of outside management assistance, would you recommend a SCORE counselor, a student consulting team, a CPA firm, a management consultant, or some other type of assistance? Why?
Question 3 If you were asked to improve this firm's management system, what would be the first steps you would take? What would be your initial goal?