The real job creators are not startups, incubators and accelerators, but owners and founders of small and midsize businesses.
Currently, some 200 nations are trying to face post-pandemic recovery, some 10,000 cites trying to re-open. There are some 100 national elections already scheduled across the world within the next 500 days. Globally, needed urgently are authoritative narratives already missing from media, academia and local political leadership.
Observe how our entire world suddenly surrendered to one grand calamity; global populace left in prolonged agony, economies stranded and big searchlights out now searching new solutions. Something like this never ever before occurred in the history of humankind and the side effects of such complexity juxtaposed with technological access can bring sweeping changes to our assumed complacency. Henceforth, traditional problem solving and thinking processes are now considered dangerous to our economic growth and social balances.
Challenges of midsize business economies: Provided in various nations and regions across Africa there are vertical trade clusters where there are from 1,000 or 10,000 small medium enterprises each currently doing a minimum of $2 million to $20 million in annual turnover. Such founders and owners are ready to quadruple their performance, productivity and profitability, display their goods and services on the global stage than there are solid deployment ready solutions. When in each such region, there are also local trade groups, chambers and associations in agreement to upskill and reskill for exportability, now such challenges are not funding dependent, rather execution and mobilization starved.
Quadruple innovative excellence and exportability over 1-2 years. Each national trade sector has unlimited untapped potential while technology now allows faster pace options. The great opportunities hidden on two-front, upskill and reskill on global-age quality production and exportability and equally enlarge the mental horizons and clarity of vision to become larger and organized businesses for a digitized future.
Cold facts and warm realities:  Most nations are already flooded with massive innovations, but lacking massive commercialization. There are over certifications and degrees but seriously lacking business directions. There are empty incubators and exhausted accelerators like real estate projects. There are economical development programs but without mega punch. The world can easily absorb unlimited exportable ideas in unlimited vertical markets. The well-designed innovative ideas are worthy of such quadrupled volumes. The entrepreneurial and dormant talents of a nation are capable of such tasks. The new global age skills, knowledge and execution are now the only missing links.
Re-create new thinking on grassroots economy: Startups are great but are not job creators, they are primarily Unicorn chasers looking for accidental fortunes in hands of scalp-hunter venture capitalist, such roulette games across the world always created sizzle but without fuzz. With less than 1% success factor, incubators and accelerators are great as real estate projects but not as economic drivers.
Re-think small medium business economies: Abandoned, nation-by-nation are still the hardcore drivers of small midsize business economies, the real and the largest job creators ever are now the owners, founders of small and midsize businesses. Rejected for being too small to create photo-ops but big enough for slow torture in areas where big business gets free passes, in heavily cumbersome paperwork and unnecessary taxes. Many governments across the world have already created big and small SME programs while managed by sluggish bureaucracies such accidental ideas critically lack hardcore components of entrepreneurialism. Enterprise founders have no patience for such cumbersome and unrealistic assistance.
Re-think entrepreneurial centrality, bureaucracies alone simply cannot lay that golden egg: The double edge sword strikes, when achieving higher global standards, out of fear old thinking kills bold open collaborative approaches resulting in lingering mediocrity. Study the SME programs of some top few dozen nations, the graveyards of failed and lingering piece-meal projects. On global age performances and upskilling, if survival of the fittest is in order, the time to call it has arrived. Economic development is not a PR sloganeering exercise; it is a tactical battlefield in search of warriors.
Re-think digitization is the chain link to the future economy;Â digitization of any midsize business base is not only critical but lack of understanding of such programs is tragic. This is an outside advance issue over and above website design and social media options. Of course, front line economic development teams need special upskilling to achieve virtualized economies as such tasks demand intense experience and special skills and no room for novices.
Re-think education models: Economic prosperity is largely the mobilization of entrepreneurialism.  Entrepreneurialism is neither academia-born nor academic-centric. The grassroots prosperity is only a byproduct of entrepreneurial philosophy based real value creation productivity models and not confused with solely money-making-schemes economic models of value-manipulation. Universities and colleges best for academics are simply not qualified to transform entrepreneurialism on a large scale. Observe why it is always the entrepreneurial leadership that builds an enterprise, therefore, not having entrepreneurial representation at major economic decisions is a serious mistake.
Professor Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, PhD, is the First Female and 6thPresident of the Republic of Mauritius. She served from from 2015 to 2018. She is a biodiversity scientist, entrepreneur, author and a public speaker, now appointed President of Expothon Africa, a division of Expothon Worldwide, a Canadian think tank.
Across 200 nations, there are some 200 Ministries of Commerce; boldly explore any current programs on national mobilization of entrepreneurialism. Study local/global economic indices juxtaposed to all the natural resources and capabilities of that nation. Such are the facts, such are the issues, ask your top economic leadership to reflect and isolate real enterprise building culture in pursuit of economic growth based on ‘real-value-creation’ and common good. It is worth a try.
Now measure such performances against tidal waves of billions displaced, replaced and misplaced workers around the world. Nations without their front line economic development teams upskilled enough to articulate such affairs boldly with customized clarity to upscale their growth to face fierce global competitiveness may miss out on success options. Unfortunately, trade groups, associations and chambers of the world somehow still fearful of such major digitization shifts neglected proper deployments on entrepreneurial models and served the real needs of SME founders.
Needed urgently are in-depth advance level reviews, testing and upskilling programs to decipher the Midsize Economy + Digitization + SME + National + Mobilization + Exportability + Synthesizim.
Study, National Mobilization of Entrepreneurialism on digital platforms of upskilling for exportability and what role it can play in selected nations of the world.  National and regional leadership ready to showcase entrepreneurialism plus business women and dynamism of enterprise and production can also add major trade groups and associations to join the umbrella programs.  In addition, study how pandemic recovery is affecting the population-rich vs. knowledge-rich nations and how all this applies to other continents. Today, economic future is all about digitization of small & midsize businesses Explore also how Expothon Africa is taking a lead role, engaging selected nations, and offering powerful blueprints and check out on Google.
Selected nations are keenly exploring digitalization to bring about entrepreneurial mobilization of midsize economies as a going forward strategy; best determine how such revolutionary ideas work in your regions.
The rest is easy.Â
(Naseem Javed is a corporate philosopher, Chairman of Expothon Worldwide; a Think tank on Image Supremacy of Innovative Excellence & Entrepreneurial Leadership. He is leading charge on entrepreneurial leadership transformation and a recognized authority on global digital trends, image complexities how they impact business performances and create global age skill shifts. His recent work on Expothon Strategy is getting global attention. His latest new book; Alpha Dreamers; the five billions connected who will change the world. www.expothon.com. He can be connected via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naseemjaved.)