Capacity building is the potentiality of an organization to achieve its vision in the best way possible. It can also be the steps or strategies a business or a company takes to ensure they succeed in their operations. The strategies can be organizational learning, financial management, leadership development, and leadership development. For your company or business to succeed as an entrepreneur, there are some vital tips on capacity building you should know.
How To Commence Capacity Building?
First and foremost, the management personnel of the business or company should meet and agree to undertake capacity building. The following are some of the steps to undertake.
Assessing Both the Internal and External Environments
When assessing the external environment, you should check out your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, funding outlook, and demand for the services you offer as a company or business. You should always check the number of staff in your organization and their skills, the financial performance, internal trends, and the services you offer when assessing your internal environment.
Identify Your Strengths and Weakness
The management of the company or organization should check on the area they are highly excelling in and the area in which they are not performing so well. This will enable you to decide which measures to take to enhance your organization’s performance.
Key Factors in Capacity Planning
Human Resource
This is a crucial factor in determining the success of your business or organization. You require skilled personnel to offer certain services or aid in producing specific products. As a business owner, always ensure you frequently motivate your human resource, increasing their productivity. You should also come up with better ways to discourage employees absenteeism.
Operational Factors
The way you run your day-to-day operations as a company or business will greatly impact the productivity of the company. Late deliveries, poor stocking, and low-quality products will cause a deterioration in the capacity building, thus leading to a decrease in sales. Efficient operational procedures such as timely deliveries and production of quality products will lead to positive customer feedback, thus escalating your sales.
Facilities
The facilities in your organization will determine the effectiveness of the service delivery. Some of the key facilities that affect capacity building include transport facilities, available energy resources, and machinery. Improving the facilities will also give you a higher completion edge on capacity building. You should ensure your business has modern facilities to enhance efficient service delivery,
Supply Chain Factors
Some supply chain factors to consider are warehousing, transportation, and distribution. Always ask yourself whether the supply chain will be able to accommodate the increase if capacity is increased. You should also figure out the effect of the business loss on the supply chain elements if capacity is decreased.
Capacity Building Techniques
- One-time intensive training- This is training held in the workplace or a different venue. This method is ideal for ensuring every company member gets access to the same information. It also enhances competence at an individual level and ensures that the core information is delivered in a structured way. This intensive training requires highly qualified trainers and a good venue, and it has a high-cost implication.
- An exchange visit is usually an arranged visit to another organization or institution to gain experience in a specific field. Exchange visits can last for a few days or even a week or so. Exchange visits are ideal for gaining new experiences and building good working relations and can be used for capacity building in different ways.
Benefits Of Capacity Building
- It enhances a sense of empowerment and ownership; thus, partners can have greater control over their future development.
- Strengthens skills, knowledge, confidence, and resources that enhance the productivity of your company or business.
- Minimizes dependence on outsiders, thus impacting necessary skills for your employees and guiding them on how to solve some of the issues by themselves.
- Increases production and effectiveness in service delivery, thus leading to increased sales.
With the right tips and knowledge, capacity building will play a key role in enhancing growth in your business or company. Always assess the internal and external environments before commencing your journey in capacity building. You should also look at your business’s positive and negative impacts when carrying out capacity building.
