SMEs generate growth and jobs more so than conglomerates

Sunday, November 08, 2009 1:35 AM

Business

SMEs generate growth and jobs more so than conglomerates - Marks

By Julian Richardson

Friday, February 13, 2009

It is the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and not the conglomerates, that create the majority of jobs and generate the most significant share of economic growth.

So said the CEO of popular bill payment company Audrey Marks. She was the special guest speaker at yesterday's launch of the Pioneers of Prosperity Awards Programme, held at the University of Technology (UTech), in Kingston.

OTF managing director Kenneth Hynes (left) makes a point in discussion with Audrey Marks (centre), CEO of Paymaster Limited, and Professor Rosalea Hamilton, vice president, Development Chair, Entrepreneurship and Development of the University of Technology. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

She stressed the importance of expanding this segment of business, and used the occasion to laud the initiative of the awards programme.

"I enthusiastically support the Pioneers of Prosperity programme, which seeks to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs in emerging economies...," said the PayMaster boss. "I am partiularly pleased by the fact that, unlike so many awards programme, Pioneers of Prosperity remains active after the distribution of awards by maintaining a communications programme which showcases success."

Caribbean small and medium enterprises (SMEs) now have an opportunity to win up to US$100,000 to invest in their businesses and have their companies promoted extensively throughout the region.

International competitiveness consulting firm OTF Group, through its global awards programme dubbed "Pioneers of Prosperity", is seeking to identify successful SMEs among seven countries in the Caribbean - Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago - via a regional competition. Funded by the Inter-American Bank (IDB) and the John Templeton Foundation, the awards programme will be giving out a total of US$600,000 in cash prizes to recognise companies, with the overall winner receiving a grand prize of US$100,000.

The programme is being marketed as unique on the basis that it continues after the awards ceremony via a global networking programme for winning firms. The organisers promise that, "Winners of the Pioneers of Prosperity award are connected to networks of technical expertise, potential investors, and other cutting-edge entrepreneurs on the local, regional, and global level".

At the regional launch at the University of Technology in Kingston yesterday, OTF managing director Kenneth Hynes said that research highlights that a key constraint to economic growth in the region is a low level of entrepreneurship and support for businesses. He said that the aim of the programme is to promote entrepreneurship through the SMEs, the largest business segment but most overlooked as well.

"There are great companies doing great things locally but they are often neglected," said Hynes. "Let's identify them and tell their stories with the goal of actually creating more companies like them.

"We want to make role models out of these entrepreneurs," he continued. "We want to tell their stories through the media and connect these firms to global networks of technical expertise, like-minded entrepreneurs and other sources of capital."

Entrepreneurs can log on to www.pioneersofprosperity.org to enter their respective companies in the competition. Companies must have annual sales of between US$100,000 to US$500,000 to enter. According to the organisers, winners will be chosen based on their ability to:

.Create unique value for customers through innovative products and/ or services;

.Generate a sustainable profit for owners/shareholders commensurate with the risks taken by investing in them;

.Invest in their employees through training, safe working conditions, and high and rising salaries; and

.Protect the future by strengthening local and global environments and communities

The awards programme is having in its inaugural staging in the Caribbean but it has been staged in Africa since 2007. In that year, the grand prize winner was a horticultural company based in Nairobi, Kenya called AAA Growers.

The application deadline for this year's Caribbean competition is March 9th, 2009. Only applications received by this date will be considered as entries into the competition. Pioneers of Prosperity will launch in Central America in June.

If you were to grade Derick Latibeaudiere's performance over his 13 years as Bank of Jamaica governor, what grade would he get?
	A
	B
	C
	D
	E
	F

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password: