Has the term SME (small to mid-sized enterprise) finally become obsolete? It certainly feels like it.
Some would argue it never existed. Over the years, vague definitions based on employee count have varied between 10 and 1000 depending on the product-market being discussed. Using sales revenues as a measure of company size is equally unreliable. After-all, a small investment business with a headcount of 10 can easily earn more than a retail operation of 1000 employees. Then there’s the ‘start-up’, epitomised by a business culture imported from California and so dynamic that a team of ten this year can be a business of one hundred next year. There’s no time to add a label.
The evolution of the SME doesn’t stop there. The persona of the decision-maker has also become blurred. At Foehn, we deal with a generation of ‘small’ business managers who are well versed in IT and fluent in communications tech sufficiently to discuss the key functionality, at least. That’s a big difference from 10 years ago and it’s a measure of the impact of bring-your-own-device policy and consumerisation of technology.
At Foehn, we talk about ‘compact businesses’ – organisations with all the attributes, technology, processes and skills of a large enterprise, just smaller in headcount and resources. These are the businesses that give big companies a hard time, competing and often winning in a competitive clash. Agility, low overhead and a more intensive level of customer service can often out-perform a big-brand counterpart.
One small business trait stands out more than others, though. Collaboration. It comes naturally to a smaller business and it’s the most powerful weapon in the David versus Goliath battle for competitive advantages. A smaller workplace and more personal, close-nit relationships, drive collaboration within smaller companies and, with the wave of digitisation and applications now available, collaboration has been taken to a whole new level.
Of course, the bigger enterprise is embracing collaboration technology too, with unbridled enthusiasm. For many, the traditional organisational structure of hierarchies and silos has been replaced by a flatter, more collaborative environment working in smaller groups or teams, emulating the small business modus operandi. The so-called ‘modern workplace’ of today’s forward-looking, large enterprise now bristles with big-footprint applications and technology installed at great cost but not always with the desired performance. Why so?
The fact is that big organisations learn to collaborate, while small businesses collaborate out of necessity. If one accepts that necessity is the mother of invention, it’s not surprising to learn that smaller businesses are leading the way with innovative collaboration solutions.
At Foehn, we work with small businesses every minute of every day and it’s that experience, learning and knowledge that drives the design and development of our cloud communications. Small businesses are incubators of new solutions and, with over fifteen years of working in this hotbed of innovation, we’ve learnt that collaboration systems must tick three boxes: simple, connected and seamless.
