APEC SME Summit 2015: “Resilient, Inclusive, Sustainable Growth”
We at CreditBPO Tech Inc. were honored to be invited to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) SME Summit, the overarching theme of which was the Empowerment of the SME sector.
SMEs’ importance to the economies within ASEAN has been repeatedly emphasized; on average, 97% of registered enterprises are SMEs who hire over 60% of the labor force yet account for only 30% of GDP in these economies. This very large gap in productivity is something many entities in both the private and public sectors recognize and an issue which we at CreditBPO are attempting to rectify by increasing SME competitiveness. President Aquino keynoted the summit by enumerating the Philippine government’s initiatives in supporting the SME sector. This has been an ongoing priority in the national development agenda.
What followed was an impressive line-up of speakers— local and international business personalities who shared their deep and diverse experiences in starting and leading innovative businesses and organizations.
Among them:
Nix Nolledo (Xurpas)
Sheila Marcelo (Care.com)
Eric Rosenthal (Abra)
Dado Banatao (Tallwood Ventures)
Wendy Kopp (Teach for All)
Jonathan Swanson (Thumbtack)
Karen Reddington (Fedex)
David Plouffe (Uber)
Barbara Navarro (Google)
Josette Sheeran (Asia Society)
Scott Anthony (Innosight)
Tony Fernandes (Air Asia)
Ashok Shetty (Bhumiputra Architecture)
Maria Ressa (Rappler)
In trying to fuse the key takeaways from the sharing that transpired, here’s a summary framework:
Successful businesses start with identifying a solution to a need, real or perceived. Think BIG, be BOLD! Whether it’s simplifying the customer experience, providing a solution that upends the familiar, or creating an innovation that will be the foundation of subsequent innovations in an arena where the ultimate customer is yet to be defined. In all cases, constantly nurturing a team’s passion for achieving their collective goals as a company becomes the most important role of the entrepreneur. This goes hand in hand with developing a culture that espouses a relentless and high meticulous focus on the customer the business chooses to serve.
These measures are far from easy. But the rich results of new efficiencies, experiences and markets reward the undeterred.
In citing the Philippines’ initiatives supporting SMEs, the role of governments in emerging economies is crucial. Basically, it is to develop the infrastructure, capital markets, knowledge and capacity that will enable SMEs to flourish. Infrastructure in this case also includes connectivity to the digital world and ecommerce. Poor access to connectivity has and will prove debilitating to SMEs as they are deprived of efficient cloud computing services that will greatly expand their markets, reduce their cost of doing business, improve their access to finance, and strengthen their competitiveness across borders.
Access to finance has also always been a major hurdle to SME growth. The framework of APEC’s discussions highlight this reality. Financing is what SMEs need most but cannot get enough of even with government support. We at CreditBPO took this as a challenge to create a solution: the CreditBPO Rating Report©, an online credit rating platform that generates a strategic analysis of an SME. Here now is a rating standard by which banks, non-banks, corporates and government in emerging economies can objectively pre-clear SME borrowers, vendors or customers in 24-48 hours. SMEs do not need the delay of waiting a month or longer to find out if their business loan application has been approved. Bank officers need more time for cross-selling, marketing and relationship building with clients than doing credit reports. Local governments need a tool for objective assessment of bidders to their projects. Big corporates need to strengthen enterprise credit management as they expand further. And as one ASEAN, SMEs need a standard metric that will be understood by buyers in ecommerce transactions, local and cross-border. All these needs must be met for a country’s SME sector to flourish and in turn catalyze the national economy.
