--- title: "What an Economic Growth Advisor Does | Robert Nikic" description: "A short interview with Robert Nikic about what his work on innovation and economic growth involves, who it's for and what it isn't." canonical: "https://robertnikic.com/blog/what-an-economic-growth-advisor-does" author: "Robert Nikic" type: "Article" published: "2026-10-26T11:00:00.000Z" updated: "2026-10-26T13:03:46.549000" --- # What an Advisor on Innovation and Economic Growth Does A short interview with Robert Nikic about what his work on innovation and economic growth involves, who it's for and what it isn't. **In short:** A short interview with Robert Nikic about what his work on innovation and economic growth involves, who it's for and what it isn't. We asked Robert the questions people ask him most often about his work on innovation and economic growth. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. **Let's start simple. What does an advisor on innovation and economic growth actually do?** Honestly, it comes down to one thing. Find out what's stopping a good small business from growing, and get it in front of the people who can fix it. That sounds simple. It isn't. There are a lot of people in the room when economic policy gets made: economists, officials, big companies, banks, development agencies. The voice that's usually missing is the founder of the 12-person company. That's the voice I try to bring. **What's your role, specifically?** I'm an advisor on innovation and economic growth with an international council working on United Nations SDG 8 & 9. SDG 8 is decent work and economic growth. SDG 9 is industry, innovation and infrastructure. I'm not a UN employee and I don't speak for the UN. [Here's exactly what the role is](/blog/un-sdg-8-and-9). **Where does the work start?** With founders. Always. They tell me where they got stuck. A bank that wouldn't lend against a big order because the company had no collateral beyond the order itself. A customs form that took a week to clear. A government contract they couldn't bid on because the paperwork cost more than the job was worth. A payment from a customer overseas that sat in limbo for a month. The interesting thing is that I hear the same handful of problems from founders in completely different countries and industries. A software founder and a food producer on different continents will describe almost the same wall. That repetition is the signal. One story is an anecdote. The same story from fifty founders is a pattern. **Stories move people. Policy runs on data. How do you bridge that?** Right. A story moves a room, but a pattern changes a rule. So the next step is checking whether what founders tell me shows up in the numbers: lending data, trade costs, how long it takes to get paid, how many small firms have a loan or a line of credit. The UN actually tracks a lot of this. There's an official indicator for the share of small industries with a loan or line of credit. There's one for informal employment. When the stories and the numbers point the same way, that's worth pushing on. When they don't, I want to know why before I say anything. **How do you get officials and institutions to listen to a founder?** Speak their language. That's what makes SDG 8 and 9 so useful. Every UN member state signed on to these goals. Target 8.3 calls for policies that support entrepreneurship and the growth of small businesses, including through access to financial services ([UN, Goal 8](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal8)). Target 9.3 is about small firms getting affordable credit and getting into value chains and markets ([UN, Goal 9](https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9)). So when a founder's problem lines up with a target a government already committed to, it's no longer just a complaint. It's a gap between what was promised and what's happening. That's a lot harder to ignore. **Is this lobbying?** No. Lobbying is pushing for a specific company or industry to get something. I'm not pushing for one company, mine or anyone else's. The things I work on, credit for small businesses, fair access to markets, decent jobs, reliable infrastructure, help every small business at once. Nobody gets a special deal. **Why does a business owner belong in these conversations at all?** Because a lot of economic policy is written by people who have never made payroll. I don't say that as a criticism. Economists and officials know things I don't. But I know what a 60-day payment delay does to a 12-person company. I know what it feels like when a bank tells you you're too small to matter. I know the difference between a rule that sounds good on paper and one a founder can actually use on a Tuesday morning. The best policy needs both. The data and the reality behind it. **What's the biggest misconception about small businesses in these conversations?** That they're just small versions of big companies. They're not. A big company has a finance department, a legal team, a compliance team. A small company has the founder, at midnight, trying to figure out a form. A rule that costs a big company a few hours of staff time can cost a small company a week. When you design for big companies and assume small ones will adapt, you shut out exactly the businesses that create most new jobs. **What does progress look like?** Small and specific. A lender that starts accepting purchase orders as part of a credit decision. A border process that goes online. A payment system that settles in a day instead of a week. A procurement process that lets a small firm bid without hiring a consultant. None of those make headlines. All of them change whether a company survives. And there's a lot of room for progress. The UN's 2026 report found only 36% of assessable SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress ([SDG Report 2026 press release](https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/files/report/2026/SDG_Report_2026_Press_Release_EN.pdf)). That's not a reason to give up. It's a reason to focus. **Who are you ultimately doing this for?** The founder without a lobbyist. The family company that wants to sell overseas and doesn't know where to start. The young founder with real orders and no credit history. The newcomer who's brilliant at the work and doesn't know the rules yet. The woman running a business in a market where she can't get a loan in her own name. If the system works for them, it works for almost everyone. **Last one. Why you?** Because I've been on the other side of the closed door. I came here as a refugee. My first companies failed. I built the next one without outside money, so I know what it's like to need every customer, every payment and every fair rule to go your way. I'm not the smartest person in those rooms. But I might be the one who's been closest to the problem. ### Related reading - [Robert Nikic's biography](/blog/biography) Robert Nikic is an entrepreneur, TEDx speaker and advisor on innovation and economic growth. He writes about what he has seen build and break companies, and about the rules that decide whether small businesses get a fair shot. Read his writing on [Medium](https://medium.com/@robertnikic), the Open Doors newsletter on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertnikic) and daily posts on [X](https://x.com/robertnikic).