Kuala Lumpur, May 11 – The new Future of Business Survey report by Facebook has revealed that learning from one another is key in helping SMEs in Malaysia master the mobilised economy.
With a current focus on learning, supporting, and growing together, the report discusses the importance of businesses to learn and support one another in the current globalized economy – a factor that has been captured well among SMBs in Malaysia with 54% of SMBs surveyed disclosing that learning from one another is a primary source of information and education. This percentage is just slightly behind the top sources like friends and family (58%) and online searches (65%).
Further emphasising the importance of mutual learning is the finding that businesses which connect with one another are more optimistic (54%) about the economy compared to those which do not. Mutual learning has also been found to affect organizational expansion, with over half (66% and 56% respectively) of the businesses which learn from one another having added jobs in the past six months or plan to do so in the next six months.
In contrast, businesses where learning from one another is less pronounced have decreased jobs in the past six months or plan to do so in the next six months (57% and 63% respectively).
Meanwhile on the global scale, the report disclosed that the top challenges faced by SMEs include attracting customers (72%), maintaining profitability (48%), and retaining or recruiting skilled employees (26%).
Developed in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, the Future of Business report is an initiative to deliver timely insights and trends on online SMEs based on an ongoing online survey of more than 60 million SMEs from 33 countries which owns a Facebook Page. The current issue focuses on the importance on business growth through learning from one another.
First launched in February 2016 in 17 countries, the Future of Business Survey is part of Facebook’s commitment to help small and medium businesses (SMBs) capitalize on insights and digital tools to increase growth. As small businesses represent more than 90% of enterprises in all economies on top of constituting majority of the workforce in most countries, Facebook believes that helping SMEs grow is key in spurring economic growth.