Summary

By listening to hundreds of MSMEs throughout the country, we understand better why there is often a gap between what public policies intend to achieve and what the actual outcome is. Listening is more powerful than hearing and talking, because it forces us to give our undivided attention to whatever commented by MSMEs we intend to help, and allows us to capture their mental bandwidth and the ecosystem they are in. We tend to overlook the inadequacies in our knowledge-base regarding the nature and sources of the prevailing social capital, and the institutional mechanisms for defusing tensions and diverse perceptions among MSMEs and other stakeholders. Yet, they are the stumbling blocks for narrowing the gap between intention and action.