Small businesses capitalise
The myth that big business gobbles the global market away from smaller competitors has been busted by a new study
If you have a good product idea, quality manufacturing and can market your business well, then there are no hindrances to your small business becoming a global success, according to a new study from CEUS, Storstroem Business and Technical College.
The study undermines the notion that big business is all but ready to smother the traditional independent manufacturers.
'Our study shows that traditional industry manufacturers flourish and establish themselves solidly here,' Søren Voxted, a lector at CEUS, told business news source idag.dk.
'The smaller companies in the wood, iron and metal branches, for example, compete fine with those from Eastern Europe and China.'
Voxted said the study indicates that the very qualities unique to smaller businesses are their advantages.
'In these companies, an increasing workforce and a more professionally founded division of labour will dilute the existing competitors' advantages. A larger organisation experiences amongst other things increased costs due to employees that have to take care of the organisation's activities,' said Voxted.
One of the businesses CEUS included in its study was ALO Skive. The company produces metal parts for farm equipment and has succeeded in doubling its turnover without increasing its workforce.
ALO Skive's financial manager, Nikolaj Petersen, said that the positive results are due to the company's technology and networking, its flexibility and readiness to adjust its production, and finally its smaller size, which allows proximity and clarity.
Voxted said that the study should prompt politicians to focus on smaller business's competitive power, instead of writing them off as a part of the Danish business structure under development.
'The study shows the relationship to be just the opposite,' said Voxted.