{"id":2477,"date":"2026-09-08T21:24:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/?p=2477"},"modified":"2026-09-08T21:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T21:26:22","slug":"dans-weekly-insights-no-23-the-top-misconceptions-smes-have-about-entering-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/dans-weekly-insights-no-23-the-top-misconceptions-smes-have-about-entering-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"DANS Weekly Insights No. 23. The Top Misconceptions SMEs Have About Entering Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'><\/div>\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2477\" class=\"elementor elementor-2477\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-8b97bbd elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"8b97bbd\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-996d59c\" data-id=\"996d59c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-835504c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"835504c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Most SMEs don\u2019t fail because they can\u2019t do the work.<\/strong><strong><br \/>They fail because they misunderstand the work.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Here are the three biggest misconceptions:<\/span><\/p><h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>1. \u201cThe OEM will tell us exactly what to do.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">No. Defence OEMs assume suppliers already know the standards.<\/span><\/p><h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>2. \u201cOur technology speaks for itself.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">It doesn\u2019t. Documentation <em>always<\/em> speaks louder.<\/span><\/p><h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>3. \u201cWe can become a supplier in a few months.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Realistic timelines: <strong>6\u201318 months<\/strong> for entry, sometimes longer.<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">And the most dangerous misconception of all:<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">\ud83d\udc49 \u201cWe are too small to matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Some of the most critical parts in Europe\u2019s defence ecosystem come from companies with <strong>fewer than 20 employees<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most SMEs don\u2019t fail because they can\u2019t do the work.They fail because they misunderstand the work. Here are the three biggest misconceptions: 1. \u201cThe OEM will tell us exactly what to do.\u201d No. Defence OEMs assume suppliers already know the standards. 2. \u201cOur technology speaks for itself.\u201d It doesn\u2019t. Documentation always speaks louder. 3. \u201cWe [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2481,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions\/2481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dans.ltd\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}