In the Interreg BSR funded project SNOwMan business intermediaries, owner-managers and universities jointly developed and applied innovative tools and methods for business counselling tailored for owner-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The challenge:

There is a difference in counselling owner-managed, or family-driven, small and medium-sized enterprises compared to ones run by employed managers. Owner-managers of SMEs tend to be driven by different considerations than SMEs run by employed managers. This includes the owner-managers´ own families’ well-being, the employees’ situations, and the lack of time for developing their own managerial skills. In owner-managed companies, the counselling processes are characterised by a lack of trustful dialogue with the intermediary. Based on the observations and surveys, many owner-managers have a sceptical attitude to counselling from business intermediaries and academics.

On the other hand, business intermediaries tend to experience difficulties in establishing a transparent and rational counselling environment. Thus, owner-managers felt a lack of trust, common language, values and culture, while business intermediaries expressed difficulties in counselling owner-managers as they often had strong commitment and responsibility for the company.

In order to make the counselling process easier, more transparent and well-going, the project gathered together business intermediaries, owner-managers and universities to jointly improve counselling.