This CMO Roundtable was too good not to share, we made it public

SMEs are the backbone of a thriving economy. In Malaysia itself, SMEs account for 98.5% of business establishments.

Unfortunately, when the waves economic disparity crashes onto global businesses, SMEs are one of the first to be swept by its tide. Without sufficient capital for resilience, many SMEs do not have the buoyancy needed to keep afloat. Many are forced to downsize, enforce pay cuts or retrench staff in order to survive.

It’s been a little over 2 months since the MCO was implemented and by now we all know someone who has had to take a pay-cut, lose their job or shut down their business entirely.

This is an issue that is increasingly hitting closer to home for us.

However, now that the CMCO has reactivated most sectors of the economy, a majority of SMEs can once again open their doors for business and maybe even do so more effectively than big corporations.

The answer to how this could be achieved lies within the very same double-edged sword that makes SMEs vulnerable to strong economic downturns in the first place. Where big businesses are heavy, rigid in structure and therefore suSCeptible to inertia in regaining business momentum, the fairly lightweight SMEs can leverage on their agility in quickly responding towards the changing business environment.

With the right leadership and tools, SMEs can rapidly restrategize their marketing priorities and mobilize resources to respond to the changing landscape.

This precisely is what yesterday’s session addressed. We brought together the perfect pair to speak on the topic of yesterday’s CMO Roundtable, ‘the survival guide for SMEs post MCO-lockdown’.

In a one hour session, to share the knowledge required to build a “business-recovery playbook” that is specially catered for SMEs, were the Founder & Group Publisher of Business Media International, Dato’ William Ng and the Chief Marketing Officer of MDEC, Raymond Siva.

Both speakers shared their insights on building a holistic framework for an SME’s business life cycle, how to use data as a business’s lifeline, and also discussed what it means for a business to reinforce, refocus and even retreat if necessary.

During the rapid fire Q&A session, participants had a long list of business specific questions, seeking advice on strategies to move forward and the right resources to support them.

The CMO Roundtable turned out even more successful than we had hoped for, as personalised business issues were addressed with a variety of perspectives from both speakers. We realise that SME recovery is vital for our country’s economy as a whole, so we’ve decided to make this paid webinar public. Share the recording below with your family and friends so they can pick up some valuable insights to support their recovery process.