SME Economic Growth: Digitize, Upskill, Reskill & Export

Observe how darkness dominated before the bulb, today how paper-chase-economies slow down real progress before digitization, study how productivity lingers before upskilling and exports slims before reskilling and notice why old mindsets remain unchanged before enlightenments. Better and faster digital solutions provide national global connectivity, but first we must digitize, upskill and reskill all to acquire deeper understanding on how to manage such drastic changes to stand up to global competitiveness. There are no wars as there are only skills wars.

Today, the grassroots prosperity of a nation based on upskilling exporters, so they become smarter product developers, reskilling manufacturers so they acquire the right measurements for quality that creates demand. Today, high quality learning on global-age mastery to open global markets, not available at universities but only acquired via tactical combative interaction and via national mobilization of entrepreneurialism. This is all new thinking based on the new art and science of market positioning necessary to stand up to global competitiveness.

Economy is not a sprint, but marathon; therefore, sprinting and chasing economic development should never be like running in circles of a relay race and passing baton after each election, it is a long term planning, national commitment and critically enforced upskilling and reskilling of the mandated teams to be able to deliver the desired goals. Nations advance by quality and discipline. Deep planning and long-term execution is half the victory.

Economy is common sense: Good economic development is primarily a common sense approach, real value creation not value manipulation. Most importantly, as one advances towards the known, the progress opens new doors and unknowns become more visible and known. Therefore, speedy organization and solid management procedures are essential. Mindsets must match, talents discovered and entrepreneurialism rise.

There is no “SME CRISIS” there is only “SKILL CRISIS”

What needs changing? Today, the economies of the world are the Humpty Dumpty on the wall, where national face-saving now hidden in uplifting the local small medium business economy. For any nation, upskilling 25% to 75% of their local high potential midsize small medium business enterprises on innovative excellence and upskilling platforms to quadruple productivity and exports is a solid strategy. Imagine a 10% to 30% additional growth of such businesses will dramatically create local job growth and exportability will reflect on economic performances of the nation. Quick math will prove the speed of return. Of course, without ‘national mobilization of entrepreneurialism’ on digital platforms of upskilling for innovative excellence and exportability, such tasks and speed are almost impossible.

The four distinct SME features require management skills. Primarily, the founders of existing and new enterprises are the true entrepreneurial risk-takers, job-creators and grassroots prosperity fertilizers. They require an advanced level of skills to improve their existing business models. Secondly, the national trade groups and chambers are the umbrella where such founders gather to improve trade-flows. They need systematic help to organize and digitize their entire membership databases. Thirdly, the national governments collecting taxes from founders are policy makers to improve the trades. They need right feedback and guidance to enhance the field operations and show success. Lastly, for any business model, anywhere in the world, customers are the “buyers” that only prove the validity of the existence of any small medium enterprise. Therefore, without attracting new customers for each SME such mobilizations have little or no value, and this calls for extensive global experience and records of accomplishment on performances. Triangulation all such forces create successful programs. Study deeply on Google how to bring the right focus in-house and create success.

Why is it so important? Once such groups constituting four pillars to manage the largest segments of the economy properly understood, each with special characters, each needing special handling, but definitely not simply bundled as one large group labeled as “SME CRISIS” is a great recovery. Today at SME sectors, nation-by-nation, it is more about “SKILL CRISIS” in need from top to bottom as without finer understanding frontline teams there is little or no progress. Observe the progress during the last decade. Declared as crises and repeatedly brushed under the rug as some sort of an unexplainable series of problems. Therefore, avoid fast track, quick-bandage operations to lump all into one big pot as “economic witchcraft” only creating “voodoo-economics” as it happens across the free world. SME sectors need advanced high quality solutions, and far less the loans and funding, they need better strategies and far less financial access and they need long-term growth patterns and far less tax advice as they have a long way to go before entering into high tax brackets.

SMEs not looking for gala nights: or collecting plastic awards, flag raising ceremony at local city hall; gala-plastic-award-dinner-night or declaring a flag covered SME weeks, none of this will work in post pandemic recovery, outside make feel-good and photo-op value it has not worked in the past. They need entrepreneurial guidance, hassle free and paper less free access to their own trade sections of the government to have high quality discussions and debates on innovative strategies but not the stacks of useless forms and compliance of getting rubber stamped, each with a filing fee attached. Enough is enough

The four new options; Study the future of trade, micro-trade, micro-manufacturing and micro exports and how such economies will save national economies and save restless citizens from populism. Most importantly, why entrepreneurialism is the only clear path towards creating local grassroots prosperity as Future of Work becomes a new global challenge.

Understanding abundance: Sometimes, over abundance of goods and services, very often steal the talents; search for great value creation and desire for exploring hidden ideas only surface when surrounded by scarcity. Necessity is the mother of invention. The entrepreneurial forces and desires to solve and search for new ideas emerge out of curiosity later become the pillars of innovation. Remember, hidden in emptiness, is the overflowing energy of entrepreneurial mobilization is where new rivers of creative forces flow and creative minds dance. However, a very deep understanding of the difference between hard work and smart work is always a good start. Embrace technology and make the global markets your oyster.

First step is to digitize, but under blueprints, second to make such digitization workable and interconnect-able, but once again under a master plan and lastly make all this so presentable to attract international attention in trade and investments. This is a tall order but demanding highest quality, as global age competitiveness is a formidable task.

Digitization is now a new bloodstream for any national economic growth program and global market access is professional expertise while entrepreneurialism is the new fire for that thinking... when all mobilized is a great success story for the nation. How Expothon is tabling Cabinet Level Workshops and new global age strategies to digitize and mobilize SME growth, study more on Google

The rest is easy.