Main sources of information, indicators and management tools used by managers of MSMEs, in Cali, Colombia

Abstract

This article presents the results of a descriptive type investigation seeking to identify sources of information, indicators and management tools used by managers of MSMEs located in Cali, Colombia. To this end, a survey was made among 270 managers of MSMEs registered in the Chamber of Commerce of said country. The criteria used for their ranking as micro, small or medium businesses were those set by the 590 Act of 2000. We could observe that MSMEs’ managers rely mainly, for their decision making, on financial indicators which are the combination of profitability, liquidity and debt indicators. Main sources of information identified are: Balance Sheet, Income statement and Cash flow statement. We also confirmed that Economic Value Added is given a very low percentage of consideration by those surveyed for their decision making. In regard to non-financial indicators, those related to market and customers prevail, while those measuring staff training, technology use and process innovation are used in a very low percentage. As for management tools, a high percentage of the managers surveyed report to be unfamiliar with them and, thereby, they do not implement them. Nevertheless, those few acquainted with such tools mentioned the balanced scorecard and ABC costs. The theory of constraints is not familiar among those surveyed.