Emotional Intelligence as a Key Factor for Competitiveness at SMEs

At the present time, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are circumscribed to analyze, grasp, exploit, and take advantage of the endless opportunities resulting from the local market and the competition increase as a consequence of the globalization process' commercial opening. In this context, the challenge is to provide the SMEs, through Productive Articulation Centers (Centros de Articulacion Productiva CAPs, a propositional private entity belonging to the SMEs Fund Fondo Pyme of the Secretary of Economy for Competitiveness in Mexico) with concrete actions promoting the emotional intelligence management. The objective of this effort is to lead these enterprises to consolidate an innovating culture aimed to achieve competitive advantages along the whole value chain through the harmonization of four factors: human resource, training, logistics and creativity. Such initiative is performed following the interpretative-exploratory research method and taking the history of learning as consultative element. The CAPs' great challenge is to guide the SMEs to take the initiative to promote a new entrepreneurial leadership culture focused on technological transference and appropriation. The macro concept initiative-insufficience- promotion-incentive-introspection-integration-impact sets the key ingredient for competitiveness, starting from emotional intentionality to innovation in processes and products through the mentioned stages. Insufficiencies, promotion and incentives mean the three basic actions for competition-motivation management. Introspection and integration work as commitments to guarantee the vision of the enterprise's local market support in a global competition context.