Keeping sustainability in processes of change: 

Capacity building and industrial modernization programmes 

Summary

• The capacity building and upgrading programs "Management of Change" combine innovative methodology and Pharos Navigator IT platform to provide entrepreneurs and business consultants with powerful, practical yet simple and effective solutions for systematic improvement of business results and sustainability.
• The platform applications facilitate systemic, quantifiable, measurable and practical implementation of sustainability concepts in each application as well as relevant culture of management in developments.
• The resulting improvements of enterprise performance by programme participants are monitored in benchmarking reports by programme coordinators and entrepreneurs in real time.
• The measurable, documented and validated results can be achieved within the time span of 9-18 months.
• The service package is delivered to each participating industrial enterprise and includes training workshops, complete Pharos Business Navigator digital information services for enterprises and follow-up assistance by local national consultants.
• The training of trainers and support in training workshop for enterprise managers is provided by international consultants.
• The cost of the complete annual service package per participating enterprise depends mostly on the total number of enterprises in the Programme and salaries of national consultants providing on-site assistance to enterprises.
• The improved business culture, systematic planning and monitoring of performance results, introduction of best continuous improvement practices, elimination of inefficiencies, knowledge capital gains and overall improvements of business sustainability are main programme results.
• The participated enterprises improve productivity, quality, managing of investments and innovations, trade and exports, capacity to resist unstable markets and economic impacts, comply to relevant international standards and WTO requirements.
• The benchmarking reports are easily available by each participating enterprise providing traceability of business results over time, its comparison to the whole group of enterprises participating in the programme.
• The service package is delivered to each enterprise, has highly practical content, can be easily customized to different industrial priorities and modernization programmes
• The programme presents unique instrument facilitating recovery from the economic crises, mitigation and adaptation services,  improving sustainable performance of industrial sectors in regions and countries.
• The programmes provides effective instrument for setting and monitoring of high performance standards for suppliers for large national or multinational corporations which operate in complex and unstable regions.
• The results help to improve evidence basis for policy making by major stakeholders at the regional, national and international levels.

Introduction

The content of capacity building and upgrading programs "Management of Change with Pharos Business Navigator digital information services is based on introducing basic methodology and advanced information platform for strategic, financial and production planning, establishing and maintaining of realistic business targets, performance monitoring and development of best continuous improvement practices by entrepreneurs of small and medium enterprises.

Pharos Business Navigator digital information software services allow effective monitoring, management, analysis and benchmarking of actual business results at each enterprise. The capacity for systematic and corrective, right in time actions by enterprise management and specialists is developed during the programme. The relevant service package had been developed and successfully applied within several UNIDO and EC Programmes implemented in different countries since 1999.

The Programme objectives

• Introducing basic knowledge, methodology and tools for enterprise strategic, financial and production planning,
• Improving capacity for trade, exports, investments, access to markets, preparation to and implementation of major international standards such as 9000, 17025, 14000, 26000, 50001
• Providing organisations with Pharos Business Navigator digital information services, relevant training of management in its applications,
• Developing best practices, knowledge capital and applications facilitating easy setting up of business targets, monitoring of business results and continuous improvement,
• Assisting entrepreneurs on-site in enterprise benchmarking  diagnostics, managing innovations and investments,
• Obtaining diagnostics and benchmarking results by each participating enterprise providing evidence for post - programme results evaluation,
• Certifying of enterprises and entrepreneur in actual performance achievements,
• Upgrading capacity of local consultants in providing business assistance services to enterprises.
• Upgrading capacity of administrative and investments specialists and policy makers in preparing and evaluation of evidence based policies for SME industries

The Product

Comprehensive practice-oriented package of training and consulting services for industrial enterprises and national consultants which integrates as follows:

• Training and certification of national consultants to enable them supporting the programme implementation on-sites
• Capacity building by training of entrepreneurs, managers and key staff in regions
• Comprehensive set of reference materials supporting methodology and implementation of best practices
• Pharos Business Navigator digital information software services 
• Follow-up support in software implementation and development of best continuous improvement practices by consultants at the enterprise sites (for 6-12 months depending on Programme budget)
• Pre- and post-programme benchmarking of companies to measure actual performance improvements and facilitate national and international investments
• Enterprise and its staff certification based on actual benchmarking results

The Programmes may be further upgraded to include evidence policy making support and monitoring of performance of industrial sectors, clusters, industrial zones, regions in real time.

The content of package delivery

• Training workshop for senior managers / specialists, 5 working days, 7 hours per day, total 35 hours
• Complete sets of training and reference materials covering strategic planning, financial and production performance management issues
• Subscriptions for Pharos Business Navigator digital services providing enterprise software on sites
• Enterprise on-site guidance and consulting for the period of Programme implementation introducing best practices by certified national consultants
• Benchmarking and measuring of initial and post-programme enterprise performance results by each participating enterprise
• "Enterprise Business Performance Excellence" Certificates acknowledging actual improvements achieved within the Programme implementation period
• Qualification certificates for enterprise staff
• ·                 Final conference of participants, reporting of programme results, summary and statistics related to implementation. recommendations and exchange of views

The Programme outline: 

• Identification of participating stakeholder groups, funding sources, programme executive body and steering committee
• Approval of the budget and programme executive body by stakeholders
• Awareness seminars for entrepreneurs
• Selection of participating enterprises from the pool of applicants and formal contracting
• Selection of national consultants
• Training and certification of national consultants
• Training workshops for enterprise executives and senior management in regions
• Local support and on-site assistance for each enterprise by national consultants including
  • Pharos Navigator enterprise server and clients installation
  • Identification of enterprise objects, its states,
  • Checking definitions of object indicators and targets, data sources, import procedures, local customization
  • Formulation of major strategies for sustainability and effective operations
  • Launching the Pharos Navigator software services on site 
  • Developing best management practices based on real time monitoring of results
  • Simulation optional business decisions including risks and uncertainties
  • Selections of "best decisions", planning of its implementation
  • Implementation of monitoring and corrective actions
  • Evaluation of results, final benchmarks  
• Development of applications and best business practices for continuous improvement
• Pre & post programme enterprise diagnostics and benchmarking, manufacturing cost measuring, production efficiency analysis based on actual
• Certification based on assessment of benchmarking results, measurement of improvements and audit by national and international consultants
• Training of entrepreneurs in presenting the enterprise performance improvement results to investment and credit institutions.
• Evidence policy making support: options and methods, enterprise groups' performance monitoring and measurements, evaluation of trends and optional policies

 The typical structure of the industrial modernization programme is presented in the picture.

The budget

The budget is defined by the stakeholders and sponsors accordingly to the programme content and scale. The participating enterprises shall cover the part the overall package costs (15% - 50%) with the rest of funds contributed by the national and international sources. The typical budget includes salaries of national consultants assisting enterprises on-site during the implementation period (typically 12 months). 

The stakeholders

• Governmental agencies supporting economic development and SMEs in countries, regions, states and      provinces
• Associations of Industries and Entrepreneurs, Chambers of Commerce, consulting and other organizations assisting and coordinating SME support programs in countries, regions, states and provinces
• National and international financial institutions sponsoring programmes for economic and industrial development, trade and export facilitation, modernization, entrepreneurship and knowledge based management
• National quality, productivity and entrepreneurship centers
• Consulting, Vocational Training, Quality and Productivity and Entrepreneurship centers

Expected Results

• The improvement of major key performance indicators by enterprises is within the range of 25% - 300%
• The entrepreneurs and key enterprise specialists receive valuable knowledge capital, improve their business culture and capacity for systematic and effective management of change in times of uncertainty
• The introduction of enterprise management to Pharos Business Navigator digital information software services as advanced powerful yet simple in use enterprise information technology facilitating best continuous improvement practices and sustainability
• The reference benchmarking basis is formulated for the enterprise comparison, audit and certification facilitating the selection process for investment and modernization programs (within the sector, cluster, region)
• The establishment of national benchmarks for excellence in business performance for key industrial sectors 

• Stakeholders, individual SMEs, Governments and International Development Agencies will see improvements in

• • Sustainability of SME developments and industrial sectors as a whole, investments climate and taxation outcomes,  
  • Capacity for trade, exports, access to markets, competitiveness, productivity and quality,
  • Business transparency, entrepreneurs' ability to manage investments and innovations,
  • Effective compliance to implementation of international standards and WTO requirements,
  • On-line reporting of business results to investors in accordance with established international practice
  • Simplicity and overall costs of enterprise audit and performance certification implementation.

   

Organizational framework

• Stakeholders: formulation of programme objectives, priorities and budget
• National Programme Executive Committee: programme setup, implementation and supervision
• National Programme Steering Committee: programme guidance, implementation feedback, local priorities and advice by stakeholders
• Technical assistance in training of trainers, providing training materials, quality monitoring, certification,  support of national consultants, implementation of policy making support tools, access to Pharos Business Navigator digital information services and its major upgrades,
• Enterprises: implementation, benchmarking, evaluation of results

The conclusion

• The industrial modernization Programmes "Management of Change" provide unique, effective and cost-balanced instrument for improving performance of enterprises and industrial sectors at the regional and national levels
• The programmes were successfully applied for improving business culture, competitiveness, productivity, quality, capacity for investments, innovations, trade and exports in different countries
• The strong improvement results can be achieved within the programme implementation period
• The evidence policy making support instruments become available for stakeholders
• The Programme ensures introduction of innovative business intelligence information technology and upgraded operational knowledge to large number of national enterprises under minimum implementation costs

 Additional information:

UNIDO Integrated programme for Colombia