The last day of April is the day when the deadline for the public announcement of financial reports for the previous business year for corporate income tax payers expired this year. This allows for an insight into specific data and derived indicators at multiple levels (individually, collectively, by activities, sizes, regions…) to confirm or dispute certain ideas and recommendations on what and how to do in order for our economy to start moving faster and more strongly towards the standards of developed economies, primarily the European Union, of which we have been a member since July 2013. Observing the results achieved in the last two years, especially in comparison with several previous ‘good’ years, years of growth, has special value. This is because it provides an opportunity to analytically satisfy the logic of the economic cycle in which it is inevitable that, in addition to good periods, there are also pauses and declines. More importantly, in the spirit of the old saying, it shows to what extent it is true that ‘heroes are known in adversity’, how quickly and to what extent we can adapt, change, and improve. From the perspective of strategic management, information about historical business results in such a ‘content-rich’ period is a strong and quality basis for segmenting areas of opportunities and threats, and understanding and respecting them leads to recommendations for differentiation (what to eliminate and/or reduce, and what to increase and/or create), that is, to select resources and competencies with characteristics of competitive advantage that will achieve optimal results through efficient use, avoiding and/or minimizing risks.
On May 1, Labor Day, there were slightly more than 126 thousand financial reports available for 2021, and the ratio of those who operated with a profit (83 thousand) and a loss (43 thousand), 66 – 34, corresponds to the ratio that was previously 60 – 40, which had been almost standard in a longer previous period.
How does this look from one of the key perspectives that define the excellence of a particular economy, activity, or company, exports? Compared to 2020, when the share of exporters (20.7 thousand) in the total number (141.2 thousand) was 14.7%, in 2021, the share of exporters increased by 1.7 percentage points to 16.4% (20.7 to 126 thousand submitted). That exports are associated with excellence, stability, and security of business is confirmed by the fact that the share of profit-makers among exporters is as high as 85.6%, regardless of size. Of the 271 large exporters – profit-makers in 2021, 235 or 86.7% operated with a profit, of 1,028 medium-sized 930 or 90.5%, of 5,205 small 4,787 or even 92.0%, and of 14,221 micro 11,797 or 83.0%.
For small economies and those dominated by small and micro enterprises, which is exactly our case by both criteria, it is of utmost importance to systematically create conditions for revenue growth from exports for economic sectors, several key industries defined as strategic, to lead integration-development processes in which entrepreneurs unite, open new sales and procurement markets, ensure economically reasonable and easily accessible sources of financing, invest in logistics and other supporting infrastructure, and encourage cooperation between science and education with entrepreneurs and organizations from those ‘selected’ activities. It is necessary to take into account that in micro enterprises, the same number of workers is employed as in large and small enterprises, and slightly more than in medium-sized ones. In 2020, in 84 thousand micro enterprises with at least one employee, 250 thousand workers were employed, in 12.7 thousand small 247 thousand, in 1.6 thousand medium-sized 180 thousand, and in 390 large 256 thousand workers. When the share of exporters by each segment by size (79.2% for large, 68.3% for medium-sized, 44.9% for small, and only 18.6% for micro) is linked to the number of employees by sizes, it is seen how important it is to ensure through integration-development processes that micro enterprises increase their share of revenue from exports, either directly or indirectly (through vertical and horizontal networking). Without this, operating only in the domestic market, which is small, and for which a contraction of consumption and investment can be expected in the medium term due to changes in end consumer habits (concern for health, fear of a prolonged crisis, saving, moving away from materialism towards experience,…) and caution from entrepreneurs and creditors, micro entrepreneurs, left to their own devices, may find themselves on slippery ground and significant problems in maintaining business capability and financial health.
