The world's Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders head into the second half of the 2020s with something that shouldn't be taken for granted: genuine confidence. Despite mounting pressure across technological, economic, and political fronts, leaders remain confident about growing their businesses and making them profitable.
But confidence and capability are two different things. As trade volumes slow, cybersecurity threats intensify, and artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates, the gap between ambition and execution is widening for many SMEs.
Business owners should not just aim to react positively to changes when they happen. They need to build the right operational foundations to convert their optimism into sustained performance.
This article unpacks what the data reveals about how SME leaders are navigating volatility in 2026 and what separates those who are growing from those who are simply surviving.
The pandemic at the start of the decade launched the world into a spiral of uncertainty that was quickly exacerbated by inflation and supply chain issues. This global event offset any advances driven by increased technology adoption.
Unfortunately, this uncertainty persists. In 2026, most businesses are concerned with three areas:
Despite all of this, businesses are still hopeful. According to HLB's Survey of Business Leaders 2026 report, 88% of surveyed leaders are confident in business growth, and 53% believe the rate of economic growth will increase.
In fact, more businesses have seen a moderate (20%) and significant (12%) increase in profits in 2026 compared with 2025. By improving operational efficiency (58%) and adopting new technology (55%), businesses can continue to see growth, even in uncertain times.
SMEs plan around more than one dimension; not just profits or customer growth. Business leaders have to consider cybersecurity issues (74%), economic uncertainty (73%), inflation (70%), trade flow disruption (70%), and geopolitical risk (68%), all while making strategic decisions.
Other prominent international organisations flag similar risks:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified geopolitical tensions and a reevaluation of technology expectations as risks.
The World Bank has cautioned businesses to pay close attention to policy uncertainty, tighter global financial conditions, trade frictions, and rising geopolitical tensions.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) projects trade volume growth dropping from 4.6% in 2025 to 1.9% in 2026, indicating a plausible downside from energy price shocks and transport disruption.
To navigate an operational environment that can change overnight, SME leaders are focusing on leaner business models, with 42% relying on short planning cycles between six and 24 months, while 12% operate with a continuous planning strategy. Only 13% of respondents have planning cycles beyond five years.
In 2026, advantage comes from building a repeatable capability to re-plan quickly with audit-ready and reliable data.
Business leaders are leaning on various methods to meet requirements. Thirty-one percent use scenario planning, while 35% rely on various opinions to inform decisions. Additionally, about a fifth are utilising AI to support forecasting and strategic planning. The relatively even split between methodologies and the adoption of new tools, alongside comparatively short planning cycles, shows a willingness by leaders to be adaptive.
A consistent theme in 2026 is that ambition is abundant, but execution capacity is uneven. Despite more than 50% of those surveyed focusing on improving operational efficiency and investing in technology, over a third recognise a gap in digital and AI capabilities to facilitate this growth.
This can be attributed to three causes:
AI has become the norm, with only 9% of leaders saying they are not using AI tools. Operational use cases are common. For example, document processing and process automation are now at roughly one-third adoption, respectively.
However, research shows that smaller companies are slow in adopting AI technology. Unlike larger organisations, SMEs don’t have the luxury to experiment and find the right fit. Instead, they focus more on applying AI to already well-defined processes with clean data.
This slow adoption may be a blessing in disguise. In 2025, a little over four in ten businesses faced some form of cybersecurity breach. The breach reports are less than the cybersecurity landscape in 2024, but still worth considering when introducing new technologies to organisational workflows.
Attacks have also become harder to identify. Last year, over three-quarters of attacks were malware-free, prioritising social engineering techniques. This is exactly what happened with the Salesforce data breach;attackers impersonated IT support staff to trick employees into installing a malicious app, granting them access to company data.
In short, SMEs need to balance both security and capability. Businesses should use caution with third-party apps, which may lack proper security features, and proprietary tools, which may offer biased insights, thanks to the limited information pool.
Ambition isn’t the problem. Without bandwidth, skills, and operational efficiency, SMEs will struggle to execute their vision. This is where external advisors like HLB can help by converting your requirements checklists into operational improvements.
There are three key areas where we see SMEs turning to advisory services for support:
A robust cybersecurity strategy can help protect your most valuable assets despite the rise in cyberattacks. External support can enable safe expansion by implementing useful controls, supplier-risk visibility, and incident readiness proportional to the requirements of the SME. For example, HLB’s experienced cybersecurity specialists can guide you in creating an actionable cybersecurity strategy. We leverage the latest insights, digital forensics, and technology to maximise protection from external attacks while minimising risk.
Data analytics and business intelligence can help organisations predict future opportunities, uncover trends, and adapt to change faster than their competition. At HLB, we offer custom business intelligence solutions and implement advanced analytics platforms with tailored dashboards to visualise trends and track performance. Additionally, we help convert these insights into actionable strategies that improve operational efficiency.
Transactions fail when there's a poor strategic fit, no clear integration plan, or overlooked issues with earnings quality. Having an experienced team guide the process dramatically improves your odds of a successful outcome. HLB's Transaction Advisory Services team takes a holistic approach to help businesses close deals across borders. Our experts can assist with deal strategy and capital solutions while mitigating risks.
Supporting data
The OECD expects global growth to slow in 2026, pointing to growing economic fragilities alongside persistent risks from trade barriers and policy uncertainty. The IMF echoes this caution, noting that the balance of risks is more towards the negative side due to trade tensions and geopolitical shocks. The WTO projects sharply slower trade growth in 2026, implying more variability for SMEs involved in export and import activities.
In this environment, the edge does not go to those who react fastest, but to those who have built the right foundations and a workforce equipped to adapt. SMEs that invest in and prioritise these two things in 2026 will be better positioned to convert growth ambition into sustainable performance regardless of which macro scenario ultimately materialises.
In 2026, volatility has become a permanent feature of the business landscape. The HLB Survey of Business Leaders finds thatthose best equipped to handle this are willing to respond to immediate disruptions while keeping one eye on longer-term priorities.
But working from both these angles simultaneously only succeeds when an organisation has repeatable processes, reliable data, and defined decision rights. Establishing these guidelines from the start ensures that speed doesn’t degrade performance.
With well over three-quarters expressing belief in business growth and profit margins strengthening, SME leaders are not lacking in ambition or confidence. But leaders looking to outperform their competition should invest in disciplined planning cycles, robust cybersecurity, AI adoption, and reliable data insights that shape strategy.
HLB's global advisory and accounting network has deep expertise across industries and regions to help SMEs execute their vision on a local and international scale. Reach out to us to learn more about our services, or — if you’d like to dive deeper into our SME report and other HLB Survey of Business Leaders findings — talk to our data with the HLB InsightsAl chatbot.
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