Small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) are often defined by several different variables – annual sales, net revenue, size of assets or number of employees and so forth. But no matter how you define them, they dominate the Canadian business landscape.
“Gary,” you say. “Why should I care about small and mid-sized Canadian companies? I neither work for one nor see the difference they can make to our economy.”
I’m going to tell you why.
Canada’s vast SMB segment has the potential to trailblaze and innovate on the world stage. Canada is currently experiencing an innovation gap, and SMBs will be the ones to expand, nuture talent and move swiftly in this glocal economy. There is no greater opportunity for smaller businesses to innovate, establish their footprint and define their future.
What I find so unique about small and mid-sized business owner/operators is their creativity. They are leveraging technology, integrating it into their business strategy, to enable growth. As VP of mid-market and small business for Cisco Canada, I work with growing companies to determine how technology can be the engine that propels their businesses. Through our network-based collaboration solutions we help predominantly local businesses grow, both nationally and internationally.
Growing businesses are often challenged with taking their business to the next level once they have reached an initial level of success. To help address this, we have partnered with the Toronto Star, Rogers and RBC to create the Star Business Club, a community connecting SMB owner/operators with experts, peers and resources.
Each Tuesday until the end of this year, one Ontario business owner will describe a specific business challenge they are facing. A panel of industry experts (me included) then provide their insights on how the business can overcome their obstacle. The Star Business Club is a terrific resource for Canadian small and mid-sized business owners looking to gain insights and perspectives on how they can grow their organization. Collectively, we hope to come up with solutions that will work towards positively impacting companies’ workers, stakeholders and ultimately, their bottom-line.
To learn more about the Star Business Club and to read the case studies visit www.starbusinessclub.ca. Also, be sure to follow @CiscoCanada for the latest news from Cisco across Canada and you can ask me your SMB questions at askgary@external.cisco.com.
Authors
