• SMEs represent 95% of global business and contribute to 40% (on average) of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.
• They are an important growth driver for the world economy with greater employment opportunities and sustainable prosperity.
• Digitalisation is one of the key levers to pull to ensure that SMEs achieve this potential.
• Openbusinesscouncil provides a business and trade directory, digital identity certification, and marketplace for SMEs. Its directory, resources, and marketplace help businesses connect with each other to enhance their respective digital transformations and improve their outreach.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are defined as non-subsidiary, independent firms which employ fewer than a given number of employees. There are approximately 400 million SMEs globally, forming the very backbone of the world economy. They are the main source of job creation, accounting for over 95% of companies and 60-70% of employment across the world.
While their growth and potential are enormous, a vast majority of these businesses face complex and often insurmountable challenges: a lack of business connections, limited awareness of digital tools and best practices, limited staff, lack of timely information, poor funding, and economies of scale.
During the pandemic, the world realised that digital ways of working, contactless interactions, and augmented and autonomous operations enable a high degree of business continuity. Around 90% of the world’s businesses and SMEs do not even have a website or digital profile and lack financial support. And even if they do, they pay for their digital footprint significantly to the service providers, and more importantly, have poor or no social media engagement.
Data from World Bank and OECD states that online platforms are central to the digital transition of the society, and provide important channels for growth. With digital transformation platforms, SMEs can improve their productivity, lower operational costs, access business intelligence services, and generate economies of scale and of scope.
SMEs face challenges when operating on online platforms. Lack of digital skills and non-adaptive business models are frequent barriers. Achieving digital transformation and realising the benefits requires a collective push across the whole society and industries. There is, thus, a global effort to now leverage the potentials that lie at the bedrock of digitalisation- to raise industry productivity, upskill employees, uptake new work practices, and create regional new hubs for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Building a 4IR-ready platform: The openbusinesscouncil Solution
Openbusinesscouncil is a global business digital certification directory and marketplace working with business networks, governments, tech ecosystems, and leading universities and organisations. It allows businesses to grow, find trusted clients and partners, find the necessary digital transformation, and finance international trade.
Openbusinesscouncil allows the businesses to:
• certify themselves in a global leading digital directory,
• list their company, people, products, and website for maximum visibility and trust,
• access, and do business with verified businesses,
• grow their business in a global trade corridor between chambers of commerce and governments,
• access to financial solutions, trade finance, and tools for their business with the likes of Mastercard.
With its recent release, openbusinesscouncil brings forth to its global audience that the platform uses Fourth Industrial Revolution (known as 4IR) technologies, like blockchain, Artificial Intelligence to create an environment of transparency and trust, leveraging businesses to grow and get certified securely and efficiently with the maximum rewards – both short and long term.
Openbusinesscouncil is a platform to grow, empower and digitally transform businesses. Join the revolution where openbusinesscouncil opens doors to a thriving business economy- one that fosters sustainable growth and competitiveness.
Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.