Abstract
The Covid-19 crisis revealed that many SMEs were not prepared to deal with such a crisis. The key to resilience will be to understand the main internal characteristics of successful SMEs and also to look at the external success factors associated with the global business environment in order to design and implement public policy aimed at promoting the creation of business development services or public policies in favour of SME development. With this research, the ILO Bureau for Employers' Activities aims to contribute to this reflection.