Resources/Enhancing Performance

To achieve growth and sustainability, it is essential for the microenterprise field commit to achieving higher performance. That means pushing on the issues of scale, efficiency, cost recovery and improved program outcomes.

To that end, FIELD compiled a set of resources that explore measurement and assessment of performance quality, as well as the importance of developing an effective overarching program strategy. These resources are organized as follows:

Resources on Performance Measurement and Standards

  • Performance Measurement for Microenterprise Programs.  This 5-page summary provides an overview of the data collection and performance measurement process, and how it can benefit microenterprise organizations seeking to improve the quality of their program. (September 2005, 5 pages, The Aspen Institute/FIELD.) 
  • MicroTest Overview and Introductory Materials.  MicroTest, an initiative of FIELD, is a management tool that empowers microenterprise practitioners to gauge and improve the performance of their programs and the outcomes of their clients. The MicroTest performance framework, developed through a collaborative effort with industry practitioners since 1997, has been used by more than 70 microenterprise organizations. While the MicroTest Web site www.microtest.org provides a wide range of information on MicroTest and numerous publications on the performance of the microenterprise industry, the following key documents provide a quick introduction to the MicroTest process: 
  • MicroTest data findings. FIELD has been collecting data on U.S. microenterprise programs through its MicroTest program for more than five years. The findings from this data collection effort can be found in the following MicroTest and/or FIELD publications:
    • AEO Microenterprise Standards and Accreditation Project (MSAP). AEO has launched the Microenterprise Standards and Accreditation Project (MSAP), to define standards of acceptable operation for microenterprise organizations and to measure compliance with them. The goals of MSAP are to:
    • Ensure that entrepreneurs across the United States have access to, and information regarding, high-quality microenterprise development services.
    • Increase the capacity of microenterprise development service providers to deliver quality services through a coherent framework for the provision of these services, as well as to increase recognition for those that meet quality standards.
    • Provide funders at the local, regional and national level an effective mechanism to identify effective microenterprise development service providers.
    Information on MSAP can be found on the AEO Web site.

Resources on Innovation and Strategy

  • What is Strategy? In this article from the Harvard Business Review, author Michael Porter argues that today's dynamic markets and technologies have called into question the sustainability of competitive advantage. Under pressure to improve productivity, quality and speed, managers have embraced tools such as Total Quality Management, benchmarking, and re-engineering. However, Porter suggests that as managers push to improve on these fronts, they move further away from viable competitive positions, and that operational effectiveness, although necessary to superior performance, is not sufficient. In contrast, the essence of strategy is choosing a unique and valuable position rooted in systems of activities that are much more difficult to match. While this article focuses on strategy for for-profit (rather than nonprofit) firms, its premise is interesting and important for microenterprise (and indeed all nonprofit) managers to consider: that the essence of quality, or performance, is rooted not just in operational efficiency, but in its success in creating and implementing an overall position and approach that is unique and valuable. (February 1, 2000, 22 pages, Michael Porter in Harvard Business Review).