The Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED)’s peer-network-based support for SGBs

Key findings

CEED have contributed to supported SMEs developing strong leadership, professional management practices, and technical skills, through a combination of CEED programming, experienced CEED staff with subject and local context expertise, and the community CEED exposes its entrepreneurs to:
- CEED programming helps entrepreneurs put structures and processes in place that support autonomous operations and independence from the founder.
- Entrepreneurs valued access to a trusted, like-minded community, from which they were able to develop business collaborations, overcome similar challenges to those experienced by peers, and know they are not alone in addressing challenges faced. The business life cycle diagnosis approach allowed them to liaise and work with entrepreneurs at similar levels of growth and that are working through similar challenges.
- CEED centre staff have both extensive experience and knowledge of the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem in their host countries, enabling staff to help entrepreneurs address challenges and make the necessary connections to grow their businesses.
There is evidence of CEED contributing to improved performance and business impact:
- Entrepreneurs referred to support to introduce new products to the market, access new selling channels, or export goods which all contribute towards revenue growth, although a proportion of 61% of entrepreneurs observing increased revenues in 2019 suggests room for further impact.
- While only 33% of CEED members applied for finance in 2019 (predominantly debt), 85% secured finance, indicating that CEED centres imparted the necessary knowledge needed to understand when to apply, and how to position the business to take advantage of existing financing avenues.
- The contribution picture is more complex with job creation, but 44% entrepreneurs increased employee headcount in 2019, and 44% remained steady.
- Many entrepreneurs described how they have been able to give back to their communities both within and beyond the CEED network.
Areas identified with room for improvement identified include:
- The matching and structuring of the mentoring component.
- Market positioning and setting entrepreneurs’ expectations.