Is this pure fantasy or a call to action?

At the beginning of 2005 there were about 4.3 million SMEs in the UK (DTI figures), representing a turnover of £1,226 million and 58.7% of all employment. Not so small when viewed in those terms and a huge opportunity for SMEs to punch above their weight through collaboration.

Inventors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses created much of the everyday stuff we take for granted. Bicycles, biros, telephones, fax machines, soap, light bulbs, electricity, computers, television, printing, and many more are products of individuals and small businesses.

Even corporations start small. Heinz owes its existence to Henry John Heinz, born in Pittsburgh in 1844, the son of German immigrants who began selling produce from the family garden at the age of 12. Or closer to home is Boots, started by John Boot, a farm laborer and his wife Mary, in 1849, to provide herbal remedies to those in need. We’ve all heard of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who started their business in the now-famous California garage in 1939, making an electronic testing machine that they first sold to Disney. But what about Joseph Cyril Bamford, who started out in a garage in the Midlands making a war surplus trailer with a 50 shilling welder? Does JCB sound familiar to you?

Will history keep repeating itself? What has changed? Deep down, we all know that our lifestyles and business practices are unsustainable; the problem is that we don’t know what to do about it. Without realizing it, most of us are trapped in the mechanistic mindset that has created our economic model and reinforces our sense of separation between ourselves and the living systems of which we are a part. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them.” We have to evolve our consciousness beyond the machine mind that created the modern world.

As small businesses, we can expect a trickle down of new practices from big corporations or be told what to do by legislation, or we can take the lead and create our own success in line with our long and rich tradition of growth and innovation. The first step is to adopt a new way of thinking; a mindset shift that allows us to see the big picture and helps us connect with a higher purpose will provide us with solutions that we cannot even imagine today.

Far from idealistic thinking, this ‘new consciousness’ recognizes the challenges of the real world and business climate and shows us how to go beyond its limitations. For small businesses, it’s less about competing with big corporations and more about building strengths, creativity, collaboration, and effective use of new technologies. As Don Tapscott says in his book Wikinomics, “Billions of connected people can now actively participate in innovation, wealth creation, and social development in ways we once only dreamed of. And when these masses of people collaborate, they can collectively promote the arts, culture, science, education, government, and the economy in surprising but ultimately profitable ways.Companies that interact with these exploding web-enabled communities are already discovering the true dividends of the ability to and collective genius”.

We already live in the world of MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, but we have yet to realize the creative potential of these communities in the context of small business and right now it all seems a bit ‘pie in the sky’. Closer to home, do we recognize our own creative potential or that of our employees? This is the place to start because we cannot see in others what we do not see in ourselves. Creativity and the ability to find sustainable solutions to drive tomorrow’s successful businesses will not be found in profit and loss accounts or business processes ‘the mechanics of business’. It only exists when people are asked to achieve a higher human purpose.

We can see climate change, financial turmoil and globalization as a threat to our existence or we can see them as an opportunity for transformation. Will small business transformation save the world? Who knows? But a happier and more successful business is not something worth working for. Where would you like your business to be in five years?