Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On

The report argues that while SMEs and mid-sized companies possess high agility, they lack the resilience of larger firms. It recommends focusing on authentic leadership, talent fit, digital transformation, and a pivot toward circular economy business models to bridge this gap. It also emphasizes the need for systemic policy changes to enable digital trade and better access to finance.

• SMEs and mid-sized companies are critical to the global economy, representing 90% of all companies and contributing approximately 70% of global jobs and GDP.
• There is a distinct difference in adaptive capacity between smaller and larger firms: SMEs and mid-sized companies generally exhibit higher agility but lower resilience than large corporations.
• Survival and expansion are the primary concerns for SME leaders, with 67% identifying this as a top challenge in 2022, followed by talent (48%) and technology and innovation (25%).
• Sustainability is significantly undervalued by SME executives, with only 7% citing it as a challenge, despite the fact that manufacturing SMEs are reported to cause 64% of air pollution.
• Authentic leadership—characterized by vision, values, and self-awareness—is a strong predictor of a company's long-term financial growth, societal impact, and adaptive capacity.
• SMEs can compete for talent against larger firms by emphasizing subjective job quality, such as purpose, flexibility, and closeness to decision-making, rather than relying solely on wages.
• Digital transformation for SMEs should follow a three-stage maturity model: digitization (process innovation), digitalization (product/service innovation), and full digital transformation (business model innovation).
• Adopting circular economy business models can help SMEs reduce the trade-off between economic performance and sustainability by optimizing resource efficiency and creating new revenue streams.
• SMEs face severe credit constraints in trade finance, with 45% of their applications rejected by banks compared to 17% for large firms.
• The digitalization of global trade is extremely low, with only 1% of global trade currently digitalized, which hinders the ability of SMEs to integrate into global value chains.

APA

World Economic Forum (2022). Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Readiness_of_SMEs_and_Mid_Sized_Companies_A_Year_On_2022.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On. 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Readiness_of_SMEs_and_Mid_Sized_Companies_A_Year_On_2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On |date=November 2022 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Readiness_of_SMEs_and_Mid_Sized_Companies_A_Year_On_2022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2022future, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Future Readiness of SMEs and Mid-Sized Companies: A Year On}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Readiness_of_SMEs_and_Mid_Sized_Companies_A_Year_On_2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }