Riding the rapids: How MSMEs innovate in an era of constant change
MSMEs are proving their power in a world of constant upheaval. With platforms like the SIAL Start-up Village, they gain vital exposure to scale bold ideas and transform the future of food.
Every year on 27 June, the United Nations marks World Micro-, Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) Day—an occasion to spotlight the essential role these businesses play in economies around the globe. According to the 2025 Global Report published by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), MSMEs represent over 90% of all companies worldwide and account for around 70% of total employment. Yet beyond their economic footprint, MSMEs are innovation powerhouses—small in size, but big in impact.
The ICSB’s 2025 report focuses on what it calls “Permanent White Water”, a term coined by organisational theorist Peter Vaill to describe a world of constant, unpredictable change. In conditions marked by climate events, geopolitical tension, digital disruption, and rapidly evolving consumer preferences, MSMEs must do more than react. They must continuously adapt, often with limited resources and under immense pressure. What makes them stand out is precisely their ability to do so. While large corporations can rely on scale and capital to stay afloat, MSMEs thrive by staying close to their customers, pivoting quickly, and remaining grounded in purpose.
Adapting with purpose and creativity
These businesses are not just surviving in the white water, they are learning to navigate it with skill. Despite structural challenges including limited access to capital, talent shortages, rising operational costs and exposure to trade volatility, MSMEs possess unique strengths that position them at the cutting edge of innovation. These include human-centred leadership, where businesses focus on the well-being of their teams; frugal innovation, where creativity flourishes under constraint; and the growing adoption of circular economy models, which align profit with sustainability. These strengths are often most visible not in boardrooms, but in trade show aisles—at places like SIAL Paris, where new products and ideas can spark global conversations.
Where food innovation finds its voice: The SIAL Start-up Village
As one of the world’s most influential food trade shows, SIAL Paris has long understood the importance of supporting MSMEs. The dedicated Start-up Village gives new micro, small, and medium-sized food businesses a unique platform to showcase their ideas, pitch products, and grow their networks. For many of these exhibitors, it’s a first step toward international visibility—a chance to engage directly with buyers, investors, retailers, and partners.
The Start-up Village is also a reflection of broader trends. Many of the companies featured are tackling urgent challenges facing the food industry. They are creating healthier products, reducing environmental impact, rethinking packaging, improving food delivery systems, and innovating in retail. These are precisely the kinds of shifts that the ICSB says MSMEs are best placed to lead. Their smaller size allows them to experiment, their proximity to communities gives them insight into consumer needs, and their founding missions often revolve around solving real-world problems. What’s more, the collaborative setting of SIAL Paris enables these entrepreneurs to form alliances, another of the ICSB’s top trends for 2025, which can help them scale faster and more sustainably.
Small scale, global relevance
In the churning waters of today’s global economy, MSMEs aren’t merely staying afloat, they’re steering change. They may not have the resources of multinationals, but they have something just as powerful: vision, proximity to real-world problems, and the drive to create meaningful solutions. By showcasing them at events like SIAL Paris, the food industry isn’t just celebrating entrepreneurship; it’s investing in its most adaptive and future-ready actors. In a world defined by constant turbulence, MSMEs remain among the most important and resilient navigators, charting new courses where others might stall.
Image credit: Brett Sayles – Pexels
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