High-growth SMEs are important for employment, innovation and economic growth

High-growth firms and scale-ups need specific support, dedicated policies and a dynamic ecosystem that is efficient for fostering the innovation.

First of all, we would like to thank Mr. Giovanni Zazzerini, Secretary General of the International Network for Small and Medium Enterprises (INSME) for agreeing to respond to our questions.

1) According to your website, INSME’s mission is “to bring together at the international level, policy makers, intermediaries, practitioners, researchers and their networks working in the fields of innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship”. Please tell our readers about INSME and its journey since establishment in 2000.

The first OECD Ministerial Conference which focused on SMEs was held in Bologna back in 2000. The Conference laid the foundation for setup of the International Network for SMEs (INSME) as an effective interlocutor for governments committed to implementing policies in support of SMEs. Later on, in 2004, the Network became an independent legal entity with founding organization members from Egypt, Italy, Mexico, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The same year, during the second OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs convened in Istanbul, the importance of INSME in identifying “best practices” on the implementation of SME policies was recalled and INSME was granted the status to work under the auspices of the OECD. This designation enables the Network to be among the stakeholders discussing policies and potential measures addressing SMEs at the OECD. As such, in 2018, INSME became among the international actors that actively participated in the third OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs and Entrepreneurship held in Mexico.

2) On March 31 and April 1, INSME will host the 16th Annual Meeting which will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the OECD “Bologna Charter on SME policies”. Please tell us about the importance of the OECD “Bologna Charter on SME policies”?

The “Bologna Charter on SME policies” is the document adopted by almost fifty OECD member and non-member economies during the above-mentioned OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs, which was held in Bologna in 2000. It became the first major international SME policy document that recognized the fact that the SMEs are a driving force for employment and wealth creation, and that a better international dialogue on small businesses was needed. This is why the Bologna Charter is such an important milestone and since it gave the start to INSME, we are willing to celebrate its anniversary with the conference on “High-Growth SMEs and Sustainability”, which will take place right at the OECD on the 1st of April 2020.

3) The theme of your Annual Meeting will be the “High-Growth SMEs and Sustainability”. Please tell us a bit more about the theme and why INSME decided to focus on high-growth SMEs?

High-growth SMEs are firms that grow rapidly over a short period of time in terms of the number of employees, profitability or market share and, even though they represent a small share of total businesses worldwide, they can have a significant impact on employment creation, innovation and economic growth.

High-growth firms and scale-ups need specific support, dedicated policies and a dynamic ecosystem that is efficient for fostering the innovation. The Annual Meeting also aims to evaluate the aspects of growth, which go beyond the economic performance and concern sustainability, social and environmental impact and contribution of SMEs to green innovation.

4) Please tell our readers about your future plans. What’s next for the INSME?

Beside the Annual Meeting, INSME will also contribute to the Eu-African SME Summit, which will be hosted in Rome on the 30th and 31st of March by our members: CONFAPI – The Italian Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises, BVMW- The German Association for SMEs and the CEA-PME – The European Confederation of Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. The Summit aims to explore the opportunities for investment and trade among SMEs in the two neighboring continents. In addition, the Summit intends to highlight the chances for entrepreneurs and define together with decision makers and experts a roadmap towards successful economic cooperation of dynamic and future-oriented companies in Africa and Europe.

Moreover, as part of the XPRESS Project co-funded by the EU, we will host two workshops on green innovation, including one in Cambridge and one in Rome. These workshops are being coordinated by APRE (Agency for the Promotion of European Research) under the scientific direction of Prof. Paola Zerilli from the University of York.

5) What would be your personal advice for young entrepreneurs and SMEs?

Since we talked about growth of SMEs, a good advice for any business to scale up is to lay the foundation for growing from the very beginning. In particular, I would recommend them to:

complete the offering in terms of services and product characteristics to better address the needs of the mass market;
develop proper online and traditional distribution channels;
set a clear strategic direction and to design an organizational structure that support the growth with processes, delegation mechanisms and function specialists;
build the financial capabilities needed to grow exponentially.

As you can see, growing a business comes with a lot of challenges requiring to reinvent the leadership, the product and the organization during the growth journey.

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