The pandemic and its direct and indirect effects, as well as the recent geopolitical tensions and the potentially upcoming energy and food crises, have exacerbated the challenges faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe. As SMEs represent the vast majority of businesses in the European Union, their resilience in the face of uncertainty is crucial. For this reason, PRAXI Network, a unit of the Foundation for Research & Technology – Hellas, recently designed a practical “mental tool” to help SMEs think explicitly about their capacity to handle change.
The so-called “FutureProofing” mental tool is informed by published academic research in business model stress-testing and best practices in strategic foresight and aims at highlighting functional parts of an SME’s business model that might be challenged by megatrends, trends, uncertainties, weak signals, and wild-card events that appear to be signifying the future as it emerges in the present. The mental tool has been designed to be provided as a physical or virtual service to SMEs by the officers of PRAXI Network, by means of the Enterprise Europe Network, the largest network of contact points providing information and advice to EU companies.
To facilitate the communication of this business model stress-testing service, Dr. George Profitiliotis, a Foresight Expert at PRAXI Network, demonstrated the mental tool and explained its role and function within an overall consulting service to an SME, during the 2nd Meeting of the Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas consortium that was held on 29-30 September 2022 in Patras. Afterwards, Dr. Achilleas Barlas, a Technology Transfer Consultant at PRAXI Network and Coordinator of Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas, presented this tool among other solutions for SMEs that can help shape enterprise resilience strategies, during the Enterprise Europe Network Annual Conference on 25-27 October 2022 in Prague.
It is hoped that the uptake and adoption of this practical business model stress-testing tool will empower SMEs to not only face the challenges the future might hold in a resilient manner but to also utilize potential opportunities as they emerge.
