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MANAGERS' COMPETENCE AS A FACTOR OF SME GROWTH

The paper deals with the nature of SME growth i.e. the aspiration of entrepreneurs and managers to find appropriate answers for the challenges of growth in different stages of the life cycle of a company. Besides the benefits they bring to owners, managers and employees, companies with high growth rate contribute to employment and economic development in a country. The results of many important researches used as a theoretical background of the paper, show that there is a disproportion between managers’ aspirations regarding growth and their realization. Most managers fail to ensure companies’ growth. The paper examines the reasons for their failure while a special prominence is given to managers’ competences that are by a number of studies proved to be a key obstacle to SME growth. The paper presents a part of the research results. The research was conducted on a sample which included 149 manufacturing SME. By the application of a mathematical model we identified 32 companies out of which 16 are with substantial growth potential whereas the other 16 do not show such a tendency. A sophisticated questionnaire, which included 285 questions in 10 groups, served as a basis for collecting data on growth indicators, managers’ roles and other relevant features of managers’ competence, in order to analyze the correlation between managers’ competence and company growth. In data processing various scientific quantitative and qualitative methods were used in order to define key competences of successful managers. The research results enabled us to create a model of developing managers’ competences called “competence diamond”.