Ana Botin, CEO of Santander, makes a case for why banks, the government and cities must do more to encourage and support the growth of SMEs.
She cites the tendency for companies to move overseas to take advantage of initiatives and schemes unavailable to those in the UK, and points to the general reluctance to export currently exhibited across a variety of industries.
“The challenge is to help overcome this reluctance. All too often, we think governments alone can and should provide that help… But they alone do not have all the answers. Banks, accountants, law firms and other institutions – we all can play our part,” she says.
Source: Financial Times
We Say: Small and Medium Enterprises can still be great – as a Danish Prince once put it, enterprises of great pith and moment. And we agree wholeheartedly that accountants have a role to play in making sure that these enterprises do not unjustly, as Hamlet continued, lose the name of action.
We’re glad, as we’ve intimated once or twice before, that Ms Botin is in a position to talk such sense. But then it is entirely fitting that she is. Santander took its name from the Spanish port of Santander; Santander the port is thought to have been named after St Andrew; St Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen; most fishermen have been in a boat (at least) once; IN A BOAT ONCE is an anagram of ANA BOTIN, CEO. As an American King once said, some things are meant to be.
