Assessment of Cooperatives in the Poultry Industry - 2013.pdf - Seda

Research Report: Addressing the Needs, Opportunities and Challenges of Cooperatives
and Collectively Owned Enterprises in the Poultry and Related Industries
region. Industry experts also highlighted a lack of leadership amongst cooperatives and the
challenge of insufficient management capability. This often hinders the growth of cooperatives as a
lack of strong leadership creates stagnation and a lack of vision for the long term. Greater
encouragement of individuals who have leadership experience and drive would improve this
problem.
The following recommendations address these entrepreneurial challenges:
Encourage entrepreneurship and leadership:
Entrepreneurship is a key contributor to enterprise development and makes significant
contributions to job creation. Through entrepreneurial prowess new and innovative
businesses are created and the capacity of people to improve their standard of living is
enhanced.
o
Leadership development: Due to a lack of strong management many cooperatives
struggle with a lack of commitment from members and a lack of direction in their
business. One of the factors which encourage success in new business is the presence of
a strong and common purpose amongst the members. Due to this, leadership should be
emphasised and encouraged. Unfortunately, industry experts have highlighted that
cooperatives often do not have strong leaders. In order to encourage the establishment
of new businesses and the expansion of existing small cooperatives and businesses, the
provision of leadership and entrepreneurial development programmes could assist in
identifying and nurturing good leaders and business people. It is recommended that a
leadership programme be developed specifically for cooperatives should be provided to
cooperatives who apply. This will ensure that leadership is taken seriously and that the
program is well regarded. Additionally, it will encourage word of mouth on the
programme and instil pride in those cooperative members who have attended the
training. In the programme identified leaders are educated on how to effectively
manage cooperatives, provide strategic leadership and identify new opportunities for
development and expansion.
o
Spotting entrepreneurial talent: While entrepreneurship can be taught, there are
people who have a greater inclination towards it inherently. It is, therefore,
recommended that individuals wanting to start businesses or cooperatives be screened
to determine their entrepreneurial inclination. Individuals displaying good
entrepreneurial and leadership traits should also be taken up into the entrepreneurship
development programme, through which this latent potential can be nurtured and
developed. Once graduated from the programme, these individuals can be further
supported in establishing new enterprise, in line with an individual training and
development plan (as described above).
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