Some meetings stay with you long after the room has emptied. Organizing the ICSB-GW Day at the U.S. Congress was one of those moments for me.
For more than 70 years, the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) has championed a simple but powerful idea: small businesses are not a side story in the global economy. They are the story.
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises represent approximately 90 percent of businesses worldwide and more than half of global employment. Yet, too often, when policies that shape their future are being discussed and written, the voices of entrepreneurs and small business owners remain among the quietest in the room.
That is why bringing the ICSB community to Capitol Hill mattered.
Together with the George Washington University School of Business, we convened researchers, entrepreneurs, educators, business leaders, and policymakers around a fundamental question: What do small businesses actually need to thrive?
The answers were not abstract.
They need access to capital designed around the realities of how small firms operate. They need technology, including artificial intelligence, that is accessible to a family business and not reserved for the largest corporations. They need policies and regulations written with the entrepreneur, the startup, and the corner shop in mind.
What struck me most was the genuine desire for dialogue on both sides.
Policymakers and their staff need credible research, evidence, and experiences from the field. Entrepreneurs want the opportunity to be heard before decisions are made, not after. Universities like the George Washington University sit at the intersection of these worlds, connecting research, education, practice, and public policy. That is exactly where I believe universities belong.
For me, this is what a human-centered approach to policymaking looks like.
Not policy for MSMEs.
Policy with them.
Nearly a decade ago, I had the privilege of co-founding the United Nations Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day to help give small businesses a permanent seat at the global table. Days like the ICSB-GW Day at the U.S. Congress continue that mission by bringing the voices, experiences, and ideas of entrepreneurs directly into the places where decisions are made.
From the United Nations to Capitol Hill, the mission remains the same: ensuring that the people who build businesses, create jobs, strengthen communities, and drive economies are part of shaping their own future.
There will be more.
My sincere thanks to everyone in Congress who helped us organize and make this important day possible, and to all those who joined us in advancing the global conversation on the future of entrepreneurship and MSMEs.