SME Pulse 2018: Strategies for sustainable growth
Building on our work with American Express on 2017 'SME Strategies For Success' report, Oxford Economics surveyed 3,000 senior executives across 12 countries and 16 industries, to explore how the current outlook of the world's SMEs differs to 12 months ago. We are seeing significantly higher confidence levels and SMEs are evolving their strategies, applying their strong attributes of agility, innovation and strong customer relationships, while working hard to attract talent and effectively use technology, to drive competitive advantage and sustainable growth.
The 2018 Pulse report found that SMEs are:
- Significantly more confident than last year about the overall economic outlook and their business prospects over the next three years, expecting strong revenue growth averaging 7%.
- Pursuing exciting opportunities that are ideally suited for SMEs’ focus on customer relationships and shorter, more agile supply chains—particularly ethically, sustainably, transparently and locally sourced products.
- Balancing revenue growth with efficiency improvements. The 24% of SMEs that already export are seeing solid returns and planning further expansion, despite ongoing threats to international trading relationships.
- Amplifying their traditional strengths by investing in leading-edge techniques. In particular, they are extending their agility throughout their operations to react quicker to changes in customer needs.
- Aiming to secure talent by becoming even more attractive places to work and develop long-term careers.
