EuroEconomica, Vol 25, No 2 (2010)

Abstract

The world is changing, so SMEs needs to adapt and the entrepreneurs must be kept focused on the challenges of 2020s stage: globalisation, demographic change, climate change and scarcity of energy supply. The transformation to an economy based on knowledge and services is supposed to be as fundamental as the preceding change from agriculture to industry. In order to address the challenges that lie ahead, Europe should not react to the current economic crisis by cutting back on its investment in skills and innovation and SMEs must avoid the error of tightening their budgets for activities whose results are hard to quantify and take time to pay off and should concentrate their efforts to modernise and innovate their activity. This paper intends to provide a clear demonstration of the importance of creativity and innovation of human resources, at all levels in the organisation, as they represent a key factor for a healthy and prosperous Europe. Human resources are the one who ensure the existence, growth and the competitive success of enterprises, so, making people more dynamic, confident and creative in order to exchange experience and best practices and to develop new
opportunities is the main concern of European Union agenda.