Webinar | Survivorship Bias: Lessons from Failure and the Paths Beyond

Contemporary discussions around supporting MSMEs and educating them on market risks come from analyses of success stories in the small business realm. What is missing from these conversations is an analysis of why more MSMEs fail than succeed, and what lessons can be imparted from failure to create a culture of strategic planning and prudence for MSMEs to prosper.

This webinar aimed to:

• Explain the concept of survivorship bias and contextualise it in the business world,
• Discuss case studies or stories of failures within MSMEs, or the most common reasons MSMEs fail, and
• Derive strategic lessons from past failures to help MSMEs, both established and new, to create a roadmap that can prevent similar failures and pitfalls.

In this webinar, we learnt:

• The reason why MSMEs tend to fail more than they succeed, and why
• What the 5 essential elements of a functional and successful MSME are – ideas, a strong team, a robust business model, smooth funding access, and good timing
• The role that good timing plays in MSME success, and how MSMEs can take advantage of this during the COVID-19 pandemic by turning a crisis into an opportunity
• Example of now-successful businesses which were launched in a crisis, and what they did right
• A case study on the webinar facilitator’s own MSME failures – what the business idea was, why the idea failed, and the lessons learned from the failure
• A case study on the webinar facilitator’s MSME success story – ow she applied the lessons from her own failures, what she did right, how she structured the business, and where it stands today
• The 11 lessons that the webinar facilitator learned from failure