Business Growth Initiative (BGI)
"...all economic growth takes place at the level of the productive enterprise" Arnold C. Harberger, Economist
The overall mission of BGI is to provide a Center of Excellence to promote best practices in enterprise development. We seek to identify and promote approaches and interventions that create the best opportunities for business growth and economic development. Dozens of factors dynamically interact to stimulate or restrict business expansion. Opportunities to intervene are many; yet finding the best intervention for a given environment is a complex and uncertain task. BGI seeks to reduce the uncertainty of implementing policies and activities by businesses, governments, donors and others.
Enterprise development occurs when three factors are present. Each of these factors, considered in their entirety, must be positive for businesses to grow. They are:
- Demand exists for a product or potential product;
- The business environment, both at the macroeconomic and microeconomic levels, allows incentives to be identified and captured by businesses and other participants; and
- Businesses have the skills, resources, and information to respond to the demand market signals and to increase and/or improve delivery of products and services.
These factors are fundamental because they govern the main incentives for individuals and enterprises to work, specialize, innovate, and adopt technology and other actions that lead to growth. There is no single path to mobilize enterprise growth, no magic recipe for mixing the factors effectively.
BGI seeks to make our discoveries available to professionals and staff of USAID, other donors, and to practitioners in easy-to-use tools and reports. We think the information presented on this website will guide you to more effective project designs and evaluations. Project implementers and USAID personnel will find alternative activities and potential solutions, interventions that worked, and examples when project results fell short of expectations, and why. Use of the information generated by BGI will lead to more effective project implementation by USAID Missions and Bureaus and more satisfactory results.
