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Business blog
Mumbai's 8/11 prompts West to co-ordinate security
Mumbai's 8/11 is emblematic of a lack of security co-ordination across city, national and private sector organisations. M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee examines the lessons that the West can learn from Mumbai's 8/11.
Understanding M
Mid-size enterprises are the powerhouse of the UK economy.
Despite their sterling performance, mid-size enterprises are nearly invisible.
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Medium business is very different from small or large business
Medium business is different from both small and large businesses in a number of key areas. These differences mean that the challenges they face in the market are different from each other. In many ways, medium business is rather more like large business in its behaviour and characteristics, which makes it even more incongruous that medium business is compartmentalised with small business via the SME definition. The following tables summarises the key differences observed in the Empowering Medium Enterprise report.
| Small business | Medium business | Large business |
|---|---|---|
| Owner-managed | Owners plus professionals in key leadership roles | Professional management |
| Micro-management of employees | Empowerment of employees | Freedom to act within corporate guidelines |
| Informal processes | Formal processes | Formal structures and processes |
| Short-term planning horizon | Longer-term planning horizon | Short-term results / long-term planning horizon |
| Low external input | External input from professionals | Governance structure separate from management |
| Equity held by founder / family | Wider equity base | Diversified equity base |
| Small customer base | Diversified customer base | Diversified markets with diversified customers |
| Limited personnel development opportunities | Culture enables employee / management development | Multiple career development paths |
| Low borrowing requirement – government support possible | Borrowing needed long-term / funding available shorter term | Wide pool of funding sources |
Behavioural differences between small, medium and large organisations, M Institute, 2006
