These strategic guidelines for the implementation of a management model to be applied to groups of entrepreneurs, are contextualized in the province of Misiones of the Argentine Republic, in urban and semi-urban areas.
It is intended to propose some guiding axes that can be considered as a support base for the effective consideration of this problem within the public and private agenda.
Its implementation implies the strategic management of resources from the transfer:
- From productive resources from formal sectors to sectors of the informal economy From existing corporate sectors to atomized and excluded sectors From actors who receive the greatest fruits of globalization to the large number of participants who have been left out of the system distribution of wealth From those responsible for designing and managing public policies towards vulnerable citizens of the productive system From those who have access to knowledge, innovation and development towards those who involve in systems of fragmentation and poverty.
The basic strategic lines outlined below are based on the SWOT analysis of the productive subsistence enterprises, the characterization of the system in which they operate, the analysis of the experiences described and the global diagnosis of the province.
Potential to develop
It is possible to rescue the following aspects as potential to be developed by entrepreneurs jointly with the actors of society from the public and private spheres:
Potential for social capital: melting pot, cross-border regional culture, knowledge of the agrarian sector based on strong work histories started with immigrants from the last century; knowledge of the urban sector that today subsists with real re-engineering of survival, flexibility in situations of instability due to highly permeable borders in more than 90% of the province of Misiones.
Primary capital potential: primary wealth based on agricultural and forestry operations and an immeasurable reserve of flora, fauna, rivers, streams, waterfalls, and landscape and ecological resources (land, air and water).
Secondary capital potential: based on industries related to yerba mate, tea, tobacco, livestock; the agribusiness generated in various productive basins and in productive diversification; the forestry industry and tourism.
Tertiary capital potential: infrastructure for energy, communication, commercial, transport services, and navigable land and waterways; health and educational services, distributed throughout the province.
Basic Strategic Lines
Based on the potential described, 5 basic strategic lines are proposed:
- Quality in human relationships Strengthening
1- Human Development Strategy of social capital
- Cultural potential Organization and networks Fiscal administration and public budget Microfinance
2- Growth Strategy
- Reorientation of employment funds and social programs Associativity and cooperativism
3- Market Strategy
- Development of Tertiary Markets Education and Training Advice and technical assistance
4- Positioning Strategy
- Participatory public management Local Development
5- Participation Strategy,
- Organization of entrepreneurs Organization and empowerment Strategic alliances Preparation of legal framework
1) Human development strategy
A human development strategy is carried out based on the gradual recovery of the rights of all people in the democratic societies in which they live. This resumption of rights raises the category of citizens void of content in terms of the full exercise of citizenship and opens other doors of wealth to entrepreneurs such as the right to work, to earn a living, to manage their resources, to participate in the market, to feel useful, to live with dignity.
“Development in the purely technical and economic sense causes the worsening of the two poverties - material poverty for so many excluded, and also a poverty of the soul and the psyche. Human development then means integration, combination, permanent dialogue between techno-economic processes and the affirmations of human development, which contain in themselves the ethical ideas of solidarity and responsibility. In other words, we have to rethink human development to humanize it ”.
This human development strategy that contemplates the quality of human relationships, the strengthening of social capital and cultural potential, the organization and constitution of networks, can be developed in various ways. There are multiple and deep bibliographies and experiences on the subject.
Human development supported by social capital, understood as social networks, organizations, shared values, the ability to act synergistically, is embodied with its own driving force and is capable of forcing the course of history, qualitatively improving relationships human.
The Human Development strategy, considering cultural potential as a primary factor that consumes resources but generates returns on investment and determines the countries' economic growth, will gradually close the gap between culture and development. “To inject a new impulse, to give vitality to social life, a cultural change based on the appreciation of human nature is required. This one deserves a vote of confidence. It is the only legacy received, without any will ”.
Poor groups do not have tangible material wealth and are generally stigmatized as the authors of their own poverty with characteristics that devalue them at work and socially. However, they have an inherited cultural background that must be recognized and respected.
This, as a starting point, favors the conditions for the use of the knowledge, beliefs and abilities that are its own, the ways of connecting with the natural and local environment and the ability to self-organize and survive even in totally adverse conditions. In this way, it contributes to recovering their self-esteem and collective identity.
Cultural activities can complement and reinforce both formal and informal education. They are a stimulus to participation and creation, giving rise to spaces of belonging and personal growth especially for young people.
In this cultural development, the cultivation of values that are related to the vocation of service, solidarity, perseverance and tenacity, the interest in the general welfare and collective responsibility, can contribute to the cohesion of efforts that unblock powerful impediments. of economic development.
“In this world that is often revealed to us full of uncertainties and emptiness of meaning, in a time in which many values have become ephemeral and unstable, nothing is as necessary as recovering the consciousness of ethics, understood as one of the inalienable dimensions of the human condition. History has placed the Latin American nations before an inescapable challenge: to find the paths that lead their peoples to full political, social and economic growth through the implementation of institutional systems based on unrestricted compliance with the principles that guarantee Democracy and the State. of Law and permanent respect for the dignity of the human person ”.
In this sense, the promotion of volunteering from a very early age in the search for greater equity is of vital importance. Volunteering brings together a large part of the aforementioned values and opens a space for participation and meeting that feeds and empowers each other, generating results of greater well-being in all those who participate in this rich giving and receiving that these actions generate.
“Humanity grows and develops and at the same time inequalities between nations and within peoples increase. If education achieves that children and young people acquire the fundamental skills and knowledge for a good performance in social life and - above all - that this is independent of their living conditions, it will be making its contribution to the lives of these people and communities and to break the reproductive forces of social inheritance and inequality. If in the coming years Latin America is capable, through its educational systems, of offering relevant and quality learning opportunities to its majorities, then perhaps for the first time it will not be so far or unattainable to advance in closing the gap in education. inequity and consequently in the construction of a more just and humane society ”.
Education generates, in the medium and long term, crucial differences in the improvement of people's lives, in the development of families, in the productivity of companies and in the macroeconomic results of a country. It is a bet on the future as a "winning" strategy with benefits for all. Nutrition and health go hand in hand, accompanying education as the basis and springs of human capital.
The strategies that are promoted must contemplate, from the organization and from the network vision of the existing social capital:
- Spaces for reflection and exchange Recovery and revaluation of local culture and acquired knowledge Training in values Strengthening of entrepreneurial capacity with:
- Mobilization of entrepreneurial potential Education and Training
- Political and institutional responsibility
These strategies, based on the human potential of entrepreneurs with fewer resources and as Yunus maintains "Step by step and little by little", accompanied by strengthened Social Capital, will contribute to the human development of entrepreneurs and gradually to the sustainable development of their productive ventures.
2) Growth strategy
The growth strategy marks a different course in the treatment of small informal subsistence enterprises in which self-employment or family activity must be considered as a real business.
"The alternatives in economic and social matters are multiple and depend on the intellectual and practical attitude adopted. A democratic practice, activated according to the dogmas of conventional wisdom and at the service of the established power, abandons the egalitarian passion that forces one to think and value others (different) as oneself ”.
This growth strategy must be based on a program that generates a more ethical redistribution of resources.
"We can then highlight that, with regard specifically to institutional stability and legal security, the delay in assuming adequate management and administration for the new tasks that the globalized society develops, as well as the temporary difficulty in responding to social demand within this framework, they cause the immediate decrease in spending to become a supplementary cost with a wide impact spectrum, both in the investment made and in the potentially existing one ”.
In their actions, the Social Entities must reorganize and strengthen themselves. "Establish a model of social development centered on people to guide us, both today and in the future, in building a culture of cooperation and solidarity to respond to the most immediate needs of those most affected."
This growth strategy can be given in different ways, but there are certain concordances such as:
- Legislative treatment of the problem in the different governmental instances: municipal, provincial and national Optimization in the use of resources, improve the ratio of inputs / results redirecting public spending towards the processes of production of goods and services Increase in the effective use of resources human, material, financial and others available for management Improvement of decision-making mechanisms: increase in the speed of decision-making, promote more flexible decisions that are sensitive to the requirements of citizens, with an approach that deactivates corporate interests that drive economic barriers that are very difficult to overcome. Increase in the responsibility of the intervening actors in terms of decision-making and action.This implies Improving participation strategies from Corporate Social Responsibility and University Social Responsibility, expanding it with the incorporation of Citizen Social Responsibility Design of social control strategies that replace bureaucratic control with the incorporation of more qualitative and quantitative information and greater dissemination, contributing to the reduction of corrupt practices. Encouragement of the good performance of the organizations that participate in the support of entrepreneurs as well as the entrepreneurs who start this growth path. Training and awareness in Values. Review of the functioning of the ethics councils and design of codes of ethics.expanding it with the incorporation of Citizen Social Responsibility Design of social control strategies to replace bureaucratic control with the incorporation of more qualitative and quantitative information and greater dissemination, contributing to the reduction of corrupt practices Encourage the good performance of organizations that participate in supporting entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who start this growth path. Training and awareness in Values. Review of the functioning of the ethics councils and design of codes of ethics.expanding it with the incorporation of Citizen Social Responsibility Design of social control strategies to replace bureaucratic control with the incorporation of more qualitative and quantitative information and greater dissemination, contributing to the reduction of corrupt practices Encourage the good performance of organizations that participate in supporting entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who start this growth path. Training and awareness in Values. Review of the functioning of the ethics councils and design of codes of ethics.Encourage the good performance of organizations that participate in supporting entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who start this growth path. Training and awareness in Values. Review of the functioning of the ethics councils and design of codes of ethics.Encourage the good performance of organizations that participate in supporting entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who start this growth path. Training and awareness in Values. Review of the functioning of the ethics councils and design of codes of ethics.
The strategy that is promoted must include what is related to:
- Public Budget and Fiscal Administration Microfinance Reorientation of unemployment funds and social programs.
Public Budget and Fiscal Administration: the distribution of resources at the national level is a faculty of the Legislative Power. Said Power discriminates the priorities annually, setting the allocation guidelines that the public administration must then execute.
Decision-making on the allocation of resources appears formally as an autonomous resolution, influenced by the presentation made by the Executive Branch through the Ministry of the Economy, but whose conclusion depends on the National Congress.
Not knowing the importance of the budget invalidates many political proposals that are characterized by the unviable or utopian of their proposals due to the lack of allocated resources. This leads to highlighting that among the most significant features to be developed as active policies in the role of the State during globalization, is that of assuming efficiency in management and proper administration, with "transparency in obtaining resources and in the allocation of the same, essential to propose a fiscal policy that promotes equity in the distribution of taxation ”.
These resources, appropriately reallocated from the institutional power, will serve to satisfy the potential demand of this sector of hardworking entrepreneurs towards growth with social justice. The budget, although it is subject to the capacity of the tax administration to collect genuine resources to pay for spending and investment, also depends on the social responsibility of citizens promoted and assumed in the different areas.
Regarding the development of Microfinance Mechanisms for entrepreneurs with fewer resources, these systems must have the following basic characteristics:
- Loans with solidarity group guarantees Gradual amounts Monitoring of Peers Dynamic Incentives Regular Repayment Plans.
Group Loans, with joint guarantee systems, create mechanisms that give program beneficiaries the incentive to choose the safest activity and reduce the risks assumed by the bank. The members of each group have the ability to impose contracts among themselves and together they decide what types of risks they can take individually and as a group.
The so-called dynamic incentives are the possibility of accessing new credits and other benefits that are offered to them for being within the system. Microcredit programs begin by lending small amounts of money, which later increase if they achieve a satisfactory repayment of the installments. The repeated nature of interactions - and the credible threat of eliminating all future loans if loans are not repaid - can be exploited to overcome the problems of imperfect information and improve efficiency, regardless of whether the loan is individual or group.
Incentives are higher if beneficiaries can anticipate larger loans. A critical point is keeping interest rates low and sustaining operating costs.
Regular payment systems expose unruly clients and give loan officers early warning of emerging problems, anticipating recovering the cash flow before it is fully used.
Through microfinance mechanisms, entrepreneurs will be able to access small capital to improve their productive activities, eliminating one of the barriers that prevents them from accessing productive resources.
“Orient preferential loans with greater speed and adaptability to regional needs towards the development of forms of social management that reactivate consumption and employment. The communal self-managed forms of creation of shared networks of self-management of consumption, popular housing and self-construction, in the installation of infrastructure services and in business forms of micro or small companies with a low dimension of advanced capital for their installation and development, are priority activities of the official bank ”.
The reorientation of unemployment funds and social programs, aimed at strengthening the productive activities of entrepreneurs with fewer resources and their social security, should be considered as a direct investment in productive social capital, which will generate the reconstruction of local economies with positive consequences on consumption and employment in the country.
3) Market strategy
Today's markets are presented to entrepreneurs with fewer resources with many barriers -some of them inaccessible- given that the production of their goods and services does not reach the level of formality and quality required in them, nor can they offer goods at prices determined by large companies. They operate as price-accepting ventures and are highly atomized.
How to join the commercialization activity with its productive characteristics with such small and unstable profit margins without giving up a large part of its effort and capital?
There are many entrepreneurs that exist today; this indicates that they have a place!
That place they occupy can be revalued to the extent that, jointly, they recognize the network and join it. From this network, they will be able to channel legislation that contemplates and makes them visible. Thus, they will also have more possibilities of accessing education, training and financing; They will be able to develop tertiary markets that allow a more direct encounter between consumers and producers and a greater power of negotiation with suppliers and service providers.
The turbulent context, the speed of change, the situation of uncertainty, technological advances require the entrepreneur to use strengths, neutralize weaknesses, know and be prepared to face threats and take advantage of opportunities so that, with anticipation capacity, they can:
- Perceive the context Plan alternatives Respond quickly Be versatile in decisions Flexible to change
Capable of:
- Formulate hypotheses Evaluate strategies and develop actions without losing imagination and intuition.
The entrepreneur can and should incorporate the strategy by integrating technical excellence and knowledge with comprehensive business management based on the local and with the global vision. Strategic, operational and comprehensive planning consists of adopting clear strategic concepts.
“The results of the search for competitiveness in the bellicose way promoted by conventional wisdom are already more than evident. As in any war, all the other values that dignify life were degraded ”.
This is what these informal entrepreneurs must contend with.
They cannot do it alone !!
Here again, shared responsibility from the public and private will make it possible to the extent that they are part of and commit to:
- The development and strengthening of solidarity exchange networks The development of tertiary markets Training for the improvement and diversification of production Advice and technical assistance An accessible, gradual and continuous financing.
4) Positioning strategy
The positioning of a productive enterprise implies a particularly differential location that places the goods and services produced above the multiple consumption options that people access daily.
Reaching this position from what is established by current Marketing, implies resources and actions that it is not possible for entrepreneurs to access. However, within the markets in which they develop their activities, they seek and manage to position themselves among competitors with similar characteristics, with strategies that have to do - above all - with personal and creative resources.
The positioning that enterprises should necessarily achieve, which would allow them a gradual and gradual transition to formal markets, is related to all the strategies that are being analyzed. But, fundamentally, with a change in paradigms that should take place from the awareness of officials, businessmen, educators, the entire citizenry, about the poverty in which these entrepreneurs are immersed and the growing abyss in which are found with respect to a dignifying quality of life.
"The term Competitive Nation does not have much meaning for the purposes of economic prosperity: the main economic goal of a nation is to produce a high and growing standard of living for its citizens."
The awareness of new paradigms that would allow the empowerment of entrepreneurs and the possibilities of achieving a greater position in the market are related to:
5) Participation, organization and empowerment strategy
This strategy based on participation, organization and empowerment recovers the transfer of resources and values and the potential capitals mentioned above. This strategy is analyzed from the integrative approach of an open, dynamic and complex system constituted by the network of informal entrepreneurs with fewer resources in search of a fairer insertion into the citizen dynamics of production and employment.
They are presented as a totality that depend on the multifunctionality and interdependence of all the actors responsible for the situation of exclusion in which they currently find themselves.
In this chaos of interests and obligations, of desires and realities, of an order that presents deep ruptures and breaks in different dimensions, one must think about constructive participation. It must advance breaking ideologies, power and structures, giving rise to a new system consistent with ethics and human development.
Strategic analysis, from the contribution of the sciences of strategic management, is essential to understand and act in the complexity of the global prevailing today in our daily work.
The process of implementing projects and programs, from different Government institutions in order to overcome poverty, shows antecedents in the sense that not all the expected results are obtained.
On the basis of this diagnosis and in conjunction with government policies aimed at decentralization, important modifications have begun to be proposed regarding the way of working with poverty.
A relevant aspect is to prioritize the territory, which in an integral way demands a second action: working together with different local actors, with the community. This implies the participation of the actors, their organization and their leading role in decisions.
The perspective of overcoming poverty places the accent not only on the poor individual but also on the variables of the context where their life takes place. In this sense, it aims to activate local and community resources, access to basic services, to generate economic incentive policies for own initiative, access to soft loans. In the individual dimension, it is oriented to training so that people acquire skills and knowledge and thereby prepare to take advantage of present opportunities.
In the province of Misiones, this practice of participation, through the local municipal Social Councils or the provincial Multilateral, has been developing for several years. It has had progress and setbacks, but with results that today can be considered positive and preparatory to carry forward the national proposals for social economy and local development, such as the Food Safety, Manos a la Obra, Redes, Incluir, Prodernea, Plan Familia programs., among others.
It is a question, then, of working considering institutional, economic, social, cultural and political variables that, in their change and transformation, generate better conditions to favor opportunities for social insertion for the individual and poor families.
“Common life rests on the adoption of a simple arithmetic: the obligations of society towards each of its members are the counterpart of their involvement.
The re-founding of solidarity and the redefinition of rights imply, in effect, a better articulation between the practice of democracy, that is, the invention of the rules of living together and the deliberation on justice and the management of the social; They also invite us to think differently about the very idea of reform. From now on, deepening democracy and social progress must necessarily go hand in hand ”.
The participation, organization and empowerment strategy must contemplate:
- The development of participatory public management mechanisms and citizen control. The organization of entrepreneurs in the informal sector, improving their negotiation skills and promoting strategic alliances with other organizations to access a greater proportion of resources. The creation of the legal and political framework that ensures the exercise of basic rights: Dignity, Self-esteem, Social Recognition and Social Integration.
