Welcome!

 

This is a space to inform you everything about CONNECTING SMEs project in Mexico City.

 

 

 

 

What is Connecting SMEs?

 

CONNECTING SMEs is under Business Entrepreneurship & Corporate Social Responsibility iniciatives and has the ambition to develop the potential of small and medium - sized enterprises (SME’s) and give them the opportunity to be competitive, socially responsible and sustainable through the implementation and development of Information & Communications Technology (ICTs).

 

Problematic:

Nowadays, SMEs require business software applications that allows them to generate solutions and ease the involvement in the value chain of their stackholders in order to become competitive in an increasingly globalized market.

 

Objetives:

 

  Empower SMEs through Information and Communications Technologies.

  Enable business solutions tailored to their needs and budget.

  Promote competitiveness in SMEs companies.

  Meet interests and benefits of ICTs companies and SMEs.

  Integrate value chains of ICTs companies and SMEs.

  Improve productivity and maximize profits in both companies.

  Impact in companies, members and students in order to become agents of positive change.

 

Why SME’s?

 

Quick facts:

  Mexico has 2,844,000 companies. SMEs represent 99.7% of these companies.

  SMEs generate 42% of the Gross Domestic Product.

  SMEs generate 64% of Mexico’s employment.

  Only 5,000 SMEs use business software applications.

  Innovation and capacity to upgrade are important tools for survival.

  SMEs become engaged through pressure exerted by large customers and buyers in software within supply chains as a recent requirement and growing trend.

  ICTs and SMEs (as suppliers and customers) are working separately, but benefits are even greater if they work together as a stakeholder group as they are.

 

Why CSR?

• Integrate ICTs and SMEs because of their interdependence of business as stakeholders in the supply chain for mutual benefits.
• Focus on integrated CSR activities connected to ICTs core business operations and strategies that can make an impact and strengthen long-term competitiveness of ICTs and SMEs.
• Implement Strategic CSR

	Generic Social Impacts	Value Chain Social Impacts	Social Dimensions of Competitive Context
	Good citizenship	Mitigate harm from value chain activities	Strategic philanthropy that leverages capabilities to improve salient areas of competitive context.
	Responsive CSR	Transform value chain activities to benefit society while reinforcing strategy.	Strategic CSR

 

• Gain shared value through innovation in operating practices (value chain social impacts) and improve the environment that impacts the drivers of both companies’ competitiveness (social dimensions of competitive context).
• Opportunity of ICTs companies to apply its resources and expertise to problems that they understand and in which they have a stake in order to have greater impact on economic and social good.
• Improve SMEs actual position.
• Approach to contribute to a prosperous economy and social development.
• Self-sustaining solutions led by the created shared value.
• Impact in social good as a result of ICTs efforts responding to a specific stakeholder group and corporate pressure point.
• Need of successful companies when it comes to creating jobs, wealth and innovation that improves standards of living and social conditions over time.

 

 

Why Business Entrepreneurship?

The project aims Business Development by working with ICTs companies towards the development of SME’s to improve or expand its existing processes, in areas such as Production, Marketing, Sales, Finance, HR through Information and Communications Technologies by business software applications, where big companies and SMEs will both attain value from their participation.

The project involves:

ü      Innovation.

ü      Creation of economic and social value and wealth.

ü      Gathering human, financial and other resources.

ü      Being market-driven.

 

 

Benefits of Connecting SME’s:

 

ü      SMEs & ICTs companies:

Win – Win situation:

Benefits	SME’s	ICTs
ü      Reduce constraints on a company’s value chain activities.	ü	ü
ü      Strengthen distribution networks.	ü	ü
ü      Favour relationships with their suppliers / customers.	ü	ü
ü      Attain competitive advantage.	ü	ü
ü      Enhace their competitiveness.	ü	ü
ü      Increase profitability.	ü	ü
ü      Contribute to social and economic development.	ü	ü
ü      Become Sustainable.	ü	ü
ü      Learn and innovate in new ways to work, develop skills, manage risks, seize opportunities and solve problems.	ü
ü      Attain greater efficiency and better management.	ü
ü      Enhance ability in purchase and sales focusing on business proposals and reducing time in the operational aspects.	ü
ü      Gain high performance workplaces improving the work-life balance.	ü
ü      Reduce operational costs.	ü
ü
ü      Serve better a particular set of customer needs.		ü
ü      Pioneering in corporate social responsibility practices.		ü
ü      Enhace their reputation and positive image of the company.		ü

 

ü      Students:

ü      BE and MAKE a change in Mexico’s SME’s.

ü      Cooperate with Mexico’s economic engine.

 

ü      AIESEC members

ü      Empower youth to take responsibility for their present and their future, with ultimate goal of enabling the development of talented, competitive, globally minded, socially responsible future leaders for our countries.

ü      Play a role in the economic and social development.

ü      Increase companies’ and countries’ competitiveness.

ü      Self-discovery and learning by doing around the topics of BE and CSR.

ü      Add more value to themselves and their communities.