Overview:
The monthly SBIL Masterclass sessions are a means of empowering and supporting the development of Uganda’s SME sector. Both FlyHub and SBIL are subsidiaries of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited. SBIL was established in 2018 and has become an integral part of Uganda’s SME capacity-building ecosystem as a resource centre.
Owners of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been advised to embrace technology and leverage the benefits to improve business efficiency.
Diane Kateeba, a Product Manager at FlyHub Uganda, was presenting the July Masterclass virtual talk organised by the Stanbic Business Incubator Limited (SBIL) on the theme, ‘Leveraging technology for process optimization and business efficiency’.
She said process optimization is the methodical or steady improvement of business processes to enhance efficiency and productivity by identifying and addressing bottlenecks and inefficiencies. It involves analyzing the current state of the business and implementing changes for better results.
Kateeba said, “The success of a business process is determined by the efficiency with which it completes a specific task within the said process. Business Process Management (BPM) offers several benefits to organizations of all sizes and across various industries.”
The major advantage of BPM is that the adoption of automation tools increases efficiency and lets employees focus on tasks that require human expertise and interventions.
“Defining business processes is crucial, because it results in the easy management of teams, allows teams to react quickly to crisis, reduces boring decisions so that one can focus on outstanding ideas and standardize actions in repetitive tasks. The ultimate benefit of ‘technifying’ your business is that it can grow faster, and tasks can be completed in significantly shorter timeframes,” Kateeba said.
The monthly SBIL Masterclass sessions are a means of empowering and supporting the development of Uganda’s SME sector. Both FlyHub and SBIL are subsidiaries of Stanbic Uganda Holdings Limited. SBIL was established in 2018 and has become an integral part of Uganda’s SME capacity-building ecosystem as a resource centre.
The sessions are intended to strengthen the capacity for business owners to achieve their relevant goals by creating an environment in which to exploit new opportunities, notably through networking and sharing ideas.
In June, Idro Taban Jr, the founder of Taban Invest Group and CEO Idros Street Foods spoke on the need for entrepreneurs to ‘Unlock their business success through overcoming the challenges of hiring the right talent’.
Idro said, “It is very important for entrepreneurs to have a clear culture of how they want the company to run, and a company’s productivity is negatively impacted when it lacks a clearly defined culture, leading to low employee output”.
Idro gave attendees insights on the causes of scarcity in finding the right talent and keeping it. “Some companies use unprofessional recruitment agencies that use nepotism to hire. This, among others, is a significant deterrent to finding the right people,” Idro said.
He said the gig economy prioritizes cutting operational costs over talent. He however urged employers to invest in training and orienting employees to fit in and own the business culture, to manage egos and attitudes and create job loyalty.