The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is passionate about finding better ways to build small business success. In today’s business environment, it is essential to our region’s future that we have conversations about how to best achieve job creation, improved wages and stronger business growth. Small business success is at the heart of this conversation.
Small business represents more than 98 percent of all employers in Illinois and accounts for nearly half of our private sector labor force. We have more than 1.2 million small businesses here in Illinois, employing more than 2.4 million workers. What would our local economy look like if our small businesses were equipped with the full range of IT tools and Internet connectivity?
An independent study performed in 2013 by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) surveyed small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in five of the world’s largest and most diverse economies—the U.S., Germany, China, India and Brazil—to examine the impact of technology on revenue and hiring. BCG concluded that SMEs which leverage the latest technology outperform others in innovation and job growth, and increase revenues 15 percentage points faster while adding, on average, twice the number of jobs.
The Chamber is working with our civic partners, including policymakers and large technology firms such as Microsoft, on behalf of our small businesses to help them become more tech-savvy through programs, educational seminars, networking events and access to thought leaders and tools. We will continue to use findings such as these from BCG to cultivate our SMEs as we work to make Chicagoland the most business-friendly region in America.
The Chicagoland Chamber was chosen by Microsoft as the first organization to present the BCG study at The Exchange 2014 Keynote on April 2, which I encourage all of you to attend. You can
learn more and register for the event here. Theresa E. Mintle
President & CEO
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce