Growing the small

The challenges and opportunities faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan are well known by now.

Solutions, simple and complex, are needed. Comprehensive, well-coordinated enablers that address the whole supply chain (the system of organisations, people, activities, information and resources that directly or indirectly contribute to moving a product or service from supplier to customer) will move small companies from being “small” into medium, from ”medium” to large.

And while there is at least one entity that does provide a complete solution in Jordan, the experience must be spread such that it becomes a national standard.

SMEs makes up 99.6 per cent of all businesses in Jordan, but that does not mean that Jordanians are entrepreneurial or that the business environment is conducive to starting and growing a business.

The Jordan Human Development Report (2011) underscored that most small business owners start a business not because they have a burning desire or idea to make something new or innovative, but because they could not find a job.

The report also stressed that the jobs are created in Jordan not by small companies, which tend to remain small, but by medium and large companies, which also export and contribute significantly to the GDP.

Furthermore, small enterprises are not innovative in Jordan, as they tend to produce low-value products, and even when provided the innovation, such as a software solution, they hardly ever have the time to train to use it and integrate it into their solution.

Moreover, the recent Doing Business Report (2014) of the World Bank ranked Jordan as 119 out of 189 countries that were evaluated in terms of their business environment in the world.

Juxtaposed against this bleak SME view, two things remain in Jordan’s advantage: people and successful leading initiatives.

That Jordanians are among the most literate in the Arab world, and are considered a prime human capital by the Gulf countries, is an established fact. Success stories are few, but they are also brilliant.

Consider, for example, an organisation such as Migrate, which was established in Jordan in 2010 as a business knowledge and networking provider of innovative business support to clients in the MENA region and other markets.

By collaborating with a network of partners, it is able to provide a comprehensive solution: office space, office support, corporate office support, corporate representation, transportation, ICT, market intelligence, proposal submission, trade visits, conferencing, job placement, personnel management, HR advisory, job training, accounting and bookkeeping, banking activities, taxation services, management information reporting, project support, marketing and sales, among others.

With such a comprehensive package, brilliant ideas can flourish and grow because the whole supply chain is being uplifted in such a manner as to make it a competitive value chain (a sequence of activities that a firm performs in order to deliver a more valuable product).

Jordan would do well to make this a national model. 

It is the most complete business development strategy currently employed anywhere in Jordan or the region, and it works.

By following this model, the government and aid agencies could do very well for Jordan, particularly startups, microenterprises and SMEs.

In fact, the solution for many distortions could start with such a model. Better still, instead of exporting brains, we will export well-packaged and presented ideas. 

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