The more entrepreneurs, the better.

Small and medium enterprises (also SMEs, small and medium businesses, SMBs, and variations thereof) are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.

The abbreviation SME occurs commonly in the European Union and in international organizations, such as the World Bank, the United Nations and the WTO. The term small and medium-sized businesses or SMBs is predominantly used in the USA.

EU Member States traditionally have their own definition of what constitutes an SME, for example the traditional definition in Germany had a limit of 250 employees, while, for example, in Belgium it could have been 100. But now the EU has started to standardize the concept. Its current definition categorizes companies with fewer than 50 employees as “small”, and those with fewer than 250 as “medium”.[1] By contrast, in the United States, when small business is defined by the number of employees, it often refers to those with fewer than 100 employees, while medium-sized business often refers to those with fewer than 500 employees.

Both the US and the EU generally use the same threshold of fewer than 10 employees for small offices (SOHO).

In most economies, smaller enterprises are much greater in number. In the EU, SMEs comprise approximately 99% of all firms and employ between them about 65 million people. In many sectors, SMEs are also responsible for driving innovation and competition. Globally SMEs account for 99% of business numbers and 40% to 50% of GDP.

In India, the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) sector plays a pivotal role in the overall industrial economy of the country. It is estimated that in terms of value, the sector accounts for about 39% of the manufacturing output and around 33% of the total export of the country. Further, in recent years the MSE sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. The major advantage of the sector is its employment potential at low capital cost. As per available statistics, this sector employs an estimated 31 million persons spread over 12.8 million enterprises and the labour intensity in the MSE sector is estimated to be almost 4 times higher than the large enterprises.[2]

In South Africa the term SMME, for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, is used. Elsewhere in Africa, MSME is used, for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. Size thresholds vary from country to country.

“small is beautiful”

“lean and mean”

“Global paradox: the bigger the world economy, the more powerful its smallest players”
- J Naisbitt

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We are moving in telecommunications to a single worldwide network of information networks, with everything linked to everything else, he remarks. This change has important consequences for democracy worldwide — it can be likened to the shift from sluggish, centralized mainframe computers to interlinked PCs. “As the power and reach of the communications infrastructure expands, the tools needed to harness that capability shrink.”

Consequently, the idea that the central government — “one huge mainframe” — as the most significant part of governance is obsolete, he says. In fact, traditional representative politics is coming to an end for “now citizens who live in representative democracies have the power to radically decentralize and to evolve into direct democracies.”

- J Naisbitt: Global paradox

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Only 7% of U.S. exports are by companies with 500 or more employees, and the Fortune 500 now accounts for only 10% of the U.S. economy, compared with 90% for small and midsize companies.
- J Naisbitt: Global paradox

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Open up the Philippine economy, get more SMEs – domestic and foreign, bust the unproductive and lousy rent-capture practices of the local elites and their groupies.

There’s no reason any of us have to be polarized. We’re actually all part of the same bet — this country. We all have our skin in the game (as they say nowadays)…how about we come up with a rational plan?

Hhmmm.

Who was it who said? Behind every great fortune, there is a crime.

These oligarchs have been called several names: robber barons, land grabbers, etc. Haven’t you noticed, today’s gambling and drug families become tomorrow’s elite.

Well, Godfather III tried but failed. :)