Strategic management of information in small companies: comparative study of cases in companies of the industrial sector of São José do Rio Preto - SP

Author(s)

Ana Laura Wiethaus Bigaton

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC/SBD)
• Defense date: 2005-07-08

Examining board members

Edmundo Escrivão Filho; Edson Walmir Cazarini; Wanda Aparecida Machado Hoffmann

• Advisor: Edmundo Escrivão Filho

Abstract

This dissertation aims to present proposals for the improvement of the strategic management of information in small companies considering their management specificity. The bibliographical revision on the process of information management and the specificity of small companies allowed defining the research variables. In the field work four companies of the industrial metal-mechanicals section, installed in São José do Rio Preto were studied. The field research allowed identifying the information used to analyze the external and internal aspects of the companies; and the way those companies collect, process and distribute data and information to decision-makers. To make companies improve their and apply their scarce resources to what will really help their growth and development, the following proposals are presented: besides to make leaders aware of the relevance and the benefits of strategic information management and relevance and the benefits of the strategic administration of the information, also to teach them their systematization; to contemplate the influence and relationship of the internal and external variables on the performance of the company and to choose the most important aspects about each internal and external variable; to train the employees of the several departments to accomplish the data collection of all the variables; to discuss, to analyze and to interpret the data obtained in the collection and to turn them in valid information for to make decision; to register not only the resulting information, but also the principal reflection points generated on the meetings; to use more the writing form for the spread the strategic information and to publish for the whole company the existence of the minutes, reports, etc.; to do a feedback of information management constantly; and finally, to create an office of the information. Despite the difficulty in generalizing conclusions, the present study is expected to help future researches and the construction of specific administrative theories for small companies. (AU)