The need for higher productivity, more productive investments and stronger competitiveness was at the center of today’s meeting of the SEV General Council, in which the Vice President of the Government, Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis, participated.
As the relevant announcement states, in the first part, the new Guide for Measuring Productivity in Businesses was presented, developed by IOBE in cooperation with SEV. It is a practical tool that helps businesses, and especially small and medium-sized ones, to systematically measure their productivity, compare their performance with businesses in the same sector in Greece and the European Union, and identify opportunities for improvement.
Measuring productivity is important as it allows businesses to:
- Better understand the sources of value creation, the trends in their operational efficiency and their evolution over time.
- Monitor the effectiveness of investments.
- Better link performance and remuneration.
- The ability to benchmark performance both over time and against competitors or reference businesses.
- Timely recognition of operational weaknesses and identification of specific areas with room for improvement.
- More effective allocation of resources and making investment decisions based on objective data.
The Guide is based mainly on data that businesses already have in their financial statements and information systems and organizes measurement around key figures, such as Added Value, employment, payroll and fixed assets.
At the same time, it is accompanied by a calculation tool through which the business can enter its data and automatically calculate added value and productivity per employee, as well as its difference from the corresponding sector in Greece and the EU-27.
It is addressed to business administrations, finance departments, human resources executives, business consultants, investors and anyone interested in understanding and improving a business’s productivity.
The Guide is a continuation of the SEV-IOBE study “Productivity: National Goal, Collective Responsibility”, which was presented in May 2026, and is part of SEV’s productivity initiatives, with a dual aim: on the one hand, to highlight its importance as a decisive factor for the competitiveness of businesses and the economy overall and, on the other hand, to provide businesses with practical tools for measuring, benchmarking and improving their productive performance.
The Chairman of SEV’s Board of Directors, Mr. Spiros Theodoropoulos, stressed that increasing productivity is directly linked to accelerating productive investments and strengthening the competitiveness of the Greek economy.
As he noted, the steps taken in recent years are significant; however, the next phase requires more ambitious interventions for productive investments, technological transformation and addressing energy costs.
He also stressed that improving productivity is not only a matter of investments and policies, but also of business culture: systematic measurement, evaluation of results and the continuous search for ways to better utilize people, technology and capital.
He characteristically stated: “What is now required is not simply to continue on the same path. What is required is to move to the next phase. To turn the progress of recent years into steadily higher productivity, more productive investments, stronger international competitiveness, greater export momentum and, ultimately, better wages and greater social prosperity”.
On behalf of IOBE, the Foundation’s General Director, Professor Mr. Nikos Vettas stated: “Productivity lies at the core of every successful business and constitutes an indicator of the effectiveness of resource utilization.
Its measurement at the business level is a key pillar for understanding competitiveness, the proper allocation of resources, resilience and the assessment of the ability to efficiently transform available resources into high-value products and services”.
In the second part of the General Council, a wide-ranging discussion followed with the Vice President of the Government, Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis, on current economic developments and the government’s priorities for the next period.
Among other things, the discussion raised issues concerning the strengthening of productive investments, energy costs and the competitiveness of industry, the removal of obstacles to the implementation of investments, as well as European priorities in view of the negotiations for the new Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034.
During his remarks, Mr. Hatzidakis stressed: “Now that we have left the crisis behind us and restored the country’s credibility, our great wager now is a major development leap for the Greek Economy, centered on improving productivity and competitiveness.
This means an environment more friendly to entrepreneurship and investments, faster penetration of Artificial Intelligence in all sectors and strong incentives for the digital transformation of businesses, completion of spatial planning, greater access of businesses to private capital, and upgrading the skills of the workforce.
Especially for industry, after a cycle of interventions in previous years, such as tax reduction, simplification of the licensing framework and completion of the new Special Spatial Planning Framework, our plan for the new four-year period includes measures to improve the framework for industrial parks and the organized installation of industrial activities with the aim of ensuring sufficient and suitable land, promoting the interconnection of industrial areas with transport networks and infrastructure, further simplifying and accelerating licensing, and broadening access to capital for productive investments.
At the same time, it is critical, in view of the new Multiannual Financial Framework 2028-2034, to ensure that Greece will have substantial participation in the new European tools for strengthening competitiveness. In this direction, the timely mobilization of businesses, universities and research centers for the submission of competitive proposals is crucial.
This is an important opportunity for our country to be in the fast lane of the EU in development, productivity and extroversion, and all of us, the State and the domestic productive and business base, must make the most of it.”
SEV will continue to contribute to the dialogue with the State with documented proposals for strengthening investments, productivity and competitiveness, while at the same time developing tools that support businesses in the systematic measurement and improvement of their productive performance.
* See the guide in the Accompanying Material column.