On March 22, 2021, Sasin Professor Takamasa Fujioka, Ph.D., gave a keynote speech, “Roles of SME entrepreneurs as a leader in the post COVID-19 era: making turbulence a good friend”, at the 6th Post COVID-19 Strategy Formation Conference of the National Conference of the Association of Small Business Entrepreneurs, the oldest and largest SME association in Japan with 47,000 SME members. With COVID-19 having such a massive effect on local economies, societies have been changing. Professor Fujioka discussed how SMEs view those changes and how they are able to cope with them.