Why have a special part of this web site devoted to SMEs?

There are several reasons.

• Most of the Profiles which we undertake are, of necessity, done through accessing publicly-available information, digging into relevant news reports and, where possible interviewing ex-executives or other ‘informed’ sources. Such information is typically not available for SMEs.
• SMEs are probably the most interesting organizations to research. SMEs become, in time, and if they are successful. full grown public companies. It is, as our research has shown, the early years that provide the opportunity for the founders or early-on CEOs, to put culture in place; a culture of innovation or not.
• SMEs are often the target of the larger companies. Note the recent acquisitions of the Mittelstand group of companies in Germany by Chinese interests. Acquiring companies wish to not only pick up the existing and latent IP but also to better understand how these companies have build their business and sustained innovation.
• Our consulting services, strategy and innovation profiling, are directed at SMEs.

So we have this special page devoted to subjects which are of interest to (SMEs) small and medium sized organizations. Most of the third-party research on corporate innovation has been done with a focus on large companies since these are the companies which publish more information. Much of what larger companies do is applicable to SMEs but necessarily scaled to meet immediate needs.

A special report on the management of innovation in SMEs compared to much larger companies.

Papers and Comments

Listed below are papers and comments of interest to those who manage or are employed in SMEs.