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CEO Statement
May 05, 2003
Small businesses embody the "American Dream" more than any other business entity in the United States. The freedom of expression that makes this country a land of vision and progress runs generously in the veins of the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs that every day put their bodies and souls into making their own businesses grow and succeed. They represent the backbone of the U.S. economy, not just in terms of spirit, but also in terms of numbers: they produce and consume more than any other business segment, and they fuel the growth of most of our economy, accounting today for over half of the private workforce and over half of the nation's private gross domestic product. They are the keystones of today's American prosperity.
Launching and managing a small business is a difficult and often overwhelming task. Many businesses each year fail, and the majority of them do it either because of lack of knowledge in some key functional areas, or for lack of skilled resources.
Information technology is redefining how business across America is being conducted. For small businesses understanding and adopting information technology is essential to improve their efficiency, visibility, and ultimately to enable them to become more competitive. Yet, incorporating technology in a small business is not a trivial task.
Today the availability of a wide range of information technologies can potentially increase in a substantial way the number of small businesses that succeed by simplifying and accelerating some of the most complex and time-consuming tasks that are part of their daily operations. From email to ecommerce, from database marketing to digital printing, from point of sale equipment to electronic bookkeeping, human resources administration or inventory management. Information technologies can open new business and distribution channels, streamline procurement and drastically reduce costs.
So, why only a small part of small businesses that yet account for over 50% of the US GDP (outside manufacturing) make any use of information technologies?
Small business managers rarely have time to develop competent knowledge of what is available on the information technology front and how it could benefit their operations. If they do have this type of technical understanding, they often are too tied up by running the core aspects of their businesses that have no time to research, comprehend and adopt the right technologies that could ultimately make the difference between success and failure. Small business managers also tend to be very knowledgeable in their core business competency, but not real experts in areas like finance or technology, where unique knowledge is required. This makes them uncomfortable. Small businesses tend to operate with limited funds and have limited access to capital to invest in technologies. Small businesses are often reactive operations and rarely work on the planning of their growth and their evolution. These are some good - but not justifiable - reasons why small businesses are falling behind in the technology adoption cycle.
A recent survey found out that while 100% of Fortune 500 companies make extensive use of information technologies, only less than 30% of small businesses make some use of information technologies. There is a gap to fill. A gap that will widen if the small business markets don't react and take the technology bull by the horns.
To be competitive and have a realistic possibility to succeed in our times, small businesses must overcome the divide that separates technology-savvy from non technology-savvy organizations. This is a multi-faceted divide with financial components, psychological components and knowledge components, all of which need to be addressed to successfully give both the new generation of small businesses and the existing ones, the best chances to succeed in an economy with ever changing rules, where adaptability and evolution are key attributes for survival.
To help small businesses understand and adopt information technologies we have created the Small Business Technology Institute. This new non profit corporation is being built to provide small businesses with complimentary or low-cost high-quality technology awareness, education, counseling and support services to help them improve their operations and increase their chances to succeed.
Sincerely,
Andrea Peiro
President and CEO
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