Most have small

There are businessmen and entrepreneurs. Some call themselves entrepreneurs but they aren't but senior executives of large corporations. For example the great leaders of savings banks. They are not owners of capital, they do not risk their money, they are not actual entrepreneurs often it may seem that they act as such and even speak on their behalf. There are employers without enterprise, entrepreneurs that once created and developed a company which later by ups and downs of life and the economy, may be closed; or perhaps he sold or simply retired but remains businessman and he will die as such. There are large employers that have big business. And tiny businesses that have large companies. But the majority, the vast majority, are rather small.

In fact, of the 3.3 million of companies recorded by the National Institute of statistics in 2010, only 5,000 have over 200 employees (0.15%) while 3,13 million (95%) have fewer than 10. This is the Spanish business. A huge barn of enterprises of small dimension, micro-enterprises and individual entrepreneurs.

And this is good or bad? In itself it is not good nor bad. There are many more companies, are the size they are, much better. The entrepreneurial spirit is a sign of vitality of the most dynamic societies. The companies all are creating wealth and generating employment. But, more refined analysis, it is obvious that we have a problem of size in Spain. We lack of great dimension, understanding as such more than 250 workers or enterprises with a turnover exceeding EUR 50 million. And that, in a global marketplace, puts us at a disadvantage in relation to our major competitors including the new emerging markets countries.

It is possible that the root of this situation can be attributed to historical and cultural factors including an unrestrained propensity to individualism which is most evident in some communities and less in others. It is known that in the Basque country and Navarra the half of the companies dimension is greater than, for example, in Catalonia. But everywhere, the preference to be head of mouse rather than Lion's tail is widespread. And this has negative consequences in terms of competitiveness in increasingly complex and global markets requiring a greater critical mass to benefit us, as they are doing other, economies of scale. The process of concentration that is living the Spanish financial sector, he has done in this regard of the need for virtue, is not happening in other areas of the economy. And that is especially acute in the industry, always suffering a problem of lack of dimension to compete on a global scale, and it is also the primary sectors.

This could be a good time to start fusion processes. But, although it may seem strange, mergers among small and medium-sized enterprises are more difficult and more unusual than among the great. It is understandable. In SMEs the human factor has a specific weight much more smaller is the size of the company. Therefore it is often more feasible absorption to the merger. In any case, if this crisis just emerging industrial tissue less atomized we will have taken something positive from it.

But the problem of size not confined only to the business world. It applies to many other areas, from cultural associations to non-governmental organizations. There is one, however, that find me particularly troubling, both or more as the size of our companies, and is the size of the municipalities. In Spain there are more than 8,100 municipalities, of which more than 7,300 have a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants and even more than a thousand do not reach even 100. All of them with their mayors and Councillors and their competences in the field of urban planning, basic supplies, transport and security, among many others. Do you think this efficient? Do you think sustainable? I promise you elaborate on this in a future article.

For the moment we can do little. It is better that we take it with irony and let us retrieve bellows. As it is well known, if there is momentum and consistency, the size usually not a problem.