esults of an empirical study. Management competency assessment of sme entrepreneurs in Cali, Colombia. A review of 43 smes in four different industry sectors in Cali

Abstract

This article discusses an assessment of 43 SME entrepreneurs in four different industry sectors in Cali. It is the outcome of the project titled "Proposals for training in key competencies aimed at directors, mid-management officers, and operating personnel at small and medium-sized companies in Cali." This review encompassed a number of companies in the following industry sectors: metal-mechanical (15), plastic (8), rubber (5), and foods processing/manufacturing (15). Conducting this empirical study involved the selection of twenty important competencies for a director or manager of an SME to achieve proper performance. It is worth noting that the decision was made based on a previousassessment by three subject matter experts. The sets of selected competencies were as follows: learning and innovation; communication and interpersonal relations; energy and operational effectiveness; business vision, and use of technology and management competencies. The sets of competencies listed above were selected based on research in available literature and validated by experts. This allowed preparing a list of competencies to be assessed. Entrepreneurs rated their strength in each competency from one to five, one being the lowest and five being the highest score. The overall mean score obtained from the entrepreneurs' evaluation was 3.4, which enabled us to identify the competitive profile of the entrepreneur group and each sub-group included in the review. The results of this assessment were compared against those of a previous competitiveness assessment of the same set of companies. This comparison showed that there is a certain cause-effect relation between business competitiveness and the entrepreneurs' competitive profile.