Today in Global Small Business: The World Has Lost a Legend

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney photo.  Pin courtesy Bob Marovich.  All rights reserved.

What's affecting me, my clients, my colleagues and other global small business owners:

• How to build an anti-racist company (requires a free trial).
• Walt Disney recently named company veteran Jill Estorino president and managing director of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products International, effective immediately.
• Quote of the week:  "When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something." – John Lewis
• Register for the Women Presidents' Organization Digital Conference July 22-23, 2020.
• This is what chief economists (a WEF offering) think about the global economy right now.
• The world has lost a legend:  Rep. John Lewis, a force in the civil rights movement, dead at 80. 

Go Global

iStock/Thinkstock

Last week while in Boston attending the Women Presidents' Organization annual conference, I had the great pleasure to sit-in on a talk given by Ms. Sung-Joo Kim (pictured), Chairperson & CEO, Sungjoo Group/MCM Group, on the topic of "Women's Strengths: 21st Century Competitiveness."

Her global business success is largely attributed to her ability to innovate as a designer, as a businesswoman, and as the re-inventor of world-renowned brands including Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Sonia Rykiel and Marks & Spencer.

She shared tips for success -- one of them naturally is going global so I could not help but take a picture of the slide -- on how to think and innovate in the midst of our ever-changing and highly competitive global marketplace.

She is an inspiration to us all. Visit her companies here:

MCM Worldwide
Global Sung Joo Group
Kim Sung Joo

Global Small Business is BIG Business

iStock/Thinkstock

Very powerful video.

A hat tip to the Women Presidents' Organization for turning us on to this clip.

A stat not mentioned in the video clip is that global small businesses play a HUGE role in global trade. They typically generate 29 percent of the U.S. export sales in a given year, and in 2005, they accounted for nearly $300 billion of the $906 billion generated by all U.S. exporters.

Here's our mantra for next year ... Get it straight in '08: Go Global!

SME Toolkit: International Business Section

iStock/Thinkstock

The SME Toolkit is a project of the International Finance Corporation. Since its inception in 2002, the SME Toolkit program has deployed more than 25 regional and sector-specific Web sites in collaboration with strategic partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. SME Toolkit content has been translated into 12 languages. The program has seen dramatic growth in recent months and SME Toolkit sites now collectively receive more than 2.4 million visits per year from users around the world. The Toolkit aims to address the three main impediments that SMEs face in utilizing technology for their business: access, lack of awareness/skills, and lack of locally applicable business applications/information.

IBM has dedicated more than $1.6 million to transform the Toolkit and rebuild it on an innovative open source platform using top talent in IBM research. The Toolkit now includes new Web 2.0 features such as live chat, online forums, business directories and survey capabilities to create a community where small and medium sized business can collaborate - anywhere around the world. For example, a group of small businesses could gather in an online forum to devise a strategy to bid on a large supply contract rather than as separate bids. The community tools also create an opportunity for peer learning.

The SME Toolkit is a free program. It's an amazing resource.

I was honored to be a part of this project by partnering with the Women Presidents' Organization (where I serve as a facilitator for WPO in the Chicago market) and providing global small business content. Check out the International Business Overview here. You can also jump to it on the home page under Go Global: Begin Exporting Now.

Press Release Headline: IBM and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, launch a small business toolkit to create jobs and fuel growth in the underserved and emerging markets.