In Europe and Asia, the War created massive devastation as well as a demand for national and international reconstruction. To help with this enormous challenge, European and Asian societies created and supported a wide range of organizations dedicated to rebuilding viable small businesses. In nations like the US, the challenge was of a different order. Here the issue was ensuring that small firms received their share of the many huge and varied defense contracts.
What is so interesting is the recognition that developing stronger small business communities was central to achieving both social and economic goals, like income distribution coupled with job creation and community development.
Although the US created the Small Business Administration in 1952, it was an agency that continued the work of previous agencies that focused on financing and supporting smaller firms in securing their share of defence contracts, either as original suppliers or as sub-contractors.
Advocacy organizations often took the form of government agencies that had economic and political clout. In the US, for example, the head of the SBA is a cabinet-level appointment. In nations like Germany and Japan, where there is a close relationship between government and business, advocacy organizations were established overnight when all small firms were required by law to pay a membership fee. The advocacy organization became an instrument for implementing government policy.
The National Federation of Independent Business was created in 1943 by a salesman for the United States Chamber of Commerce, Bill Harder. He brought with him a sales colleague named Wilson Johnson, who played a big part in the history of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Similar voluntary advocacy membership organizations were created after the war in Sweden, Finland and Holland – all organizations that partnered with CFIB over the years. The cooperation of the state in developing these organizations encouraged their drive for membership. In these countries, the Chamber only really existed in the large cities and the small business advocacy organizations covered municipal issues in all the smaller communities.
Institutions that advocate for small firms, both in influencing public policy and public opinion, create organizations that reflect their culture and their history. But even though the Canadian Federation of Independent Business reflects the free enterprise scar-tissue culture of Canada, enormous lessons can be learned by studying the way different societies build small-scale enterprises. You never really understand yourself until you understand others.