Twenty experts from around the world gathered at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Thursday to discuss the global impact of high-growth small- and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs.
The all-day workshop, sponsored by the foundation and the U.S. Department of Commerce, brought together members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international organization of 30 countries committed to representative democracy and free markets.
“High-impact SMEs often use new ideas and concepts in their process of growth and can change the face of civilization rather rapidly,” Kauffman Foundation President and Chief Executive Carl Schramm said in a written statement.
The theme of the workshop was that high-growth SMEs play a crucial role in bringing about radical innovations, which are essential for economic and employment growth.
High-growth SMEs, “as catalysts of innovation and ‘social transformers,’ are important assets for economies to adapt quickly and effectively to the challenges of globalization and to reap its benefits,” a statement put out by the workshop said.
The workshop included panels on the importance of high-impact business formation in countries’ economies, the policies that research institutions and universities should adopt to encourage commercialization of their discoveries, and the factors that distinguish high-growth firms from less successful businesses.
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