“Small business is the backbone of our economy.” President Barack Obama, August 17, 2010
“New businesses are the lifeblood of a healthy… economy.” PM David Cameron, November 20, 2013
These two statements have something in common: they are wrong — or at best, misleading. This may surprise you given the prevalence of our leaders’ public declarations that small, new businesses are the key to economic health. (And one could add “knowledge-based” businesses to this list of exhortation.) Indeed, for over a generation stimulating growth via “SMEs” or “small business” has been at the heart of economic and industrial policy throughout the world, only recently being upstaged by “startups.”
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To read the original article: For a Booming Economy, Bet on High Growth Firms, Not Small Businesses - Daniel Isenberg , and Ross Brown - Harvard Business Review