Weakened competitors have larger SMEs smacking their lips

Friday 2nd October 2009

The most common opportunity to emerge from the economic recession is the chance to knock over a competitor, according to the first KPMG "Mood of the Market" survey of small and medium-sized enterprises, released this morning.

The global accounting, tax and audit adviser has joined the bandwagon of companies producing new, regular measures of economic activity and attitudes. The survey asked a short questionnaire of 189 firms in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch between August 6 and 13.

Asked what opportunities their businesses were likely to take as a result of the economic downturn, 48% nominated "increase in market share due to competitor weakened position", although firms with annual turnovers exceeding $10 million were more likely to cite this than firms around the $1 million turnover mark.

The survey also suggests big shifts in staff attitudes and companies' performance culture were two other positive impacts from the recession. Just on 40% of the firms questioned said their company culture had shifted to a greater focus on outcomes, while a third reported employees had a greater focus on their own performance. Again, this trend was more marked among larger firms.

Views about the year ahead were consistent with other business sentiment surveys, with 51% predicting a "slight increase" in economic activity, while managing cashflow, liquidity, costs and profitability outstripped other possible causes for concern, and three-quarters of those sampled expected to maintain staff at current levels for the next 12 months.

Some 41% of respondents were keen to see the Government introduce new incentives for investment or innovation, and a further 31% thought the most useful thing the Government could do right now would be to cut tax compliance obligations for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Almost one-third of firms surveyed had no formal business plan, but half of those which do were reviewing performance monthly, again with a bias towards more formal planning and regular review among larger SME's.

While 8.5% of firms reported results in the last financial year were "within 20% above forecast", 14.3% reported being "within 20% below forecast".

The survey also found strong support for a common Australasian currency, with 52% of those surveyed in favour, and 46.5% against.

Businesswire.co.nz

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