Although the prime minister has chosen not to use the phrase that starts every Mission Impossible movie, he could do. Because growth is hard – there are no simple solutions and making it happen will require lots of action on multiple fronts. However, what is certain is that it will depend on the success of the small and midsize businesses who play such a major role in the economy. The question is, what do we need to do as leaders of these businesses?
The first problem is that not everyone wants to grow their business
We know that a third of businesses are not interested in increasing their sales (although I suspect the proportion is higher because there is so much pressure to talk about growth). But growth isn’t all about selling more or hiring more people – it’s just as much about becoming more efficient, working fewer hours, and quite simply becoming more productive. And nine out of ten business leaders want this, they just don’t recognise it as growth.
The good news is that we’re confident about our ability to grow
Some research we published last year, found that leaders of small and midsize firms in the UK were just as confident as their peers overseas. This is superb – after all, confidence is an excellent foundation to build on. But where we fall behind is how we put this confidence into action – for example, leaders in the UK are far more likely to say that they’re good at using technology but not then make any investment in it. Closing this confidence gap will go a long way to unlocking growth.
And there’s no shortage of support for those looking to grow
I was talking the other week to a successful business leader from Lithuania, who was amazed by the amount of support available to businesses in the UK. It’s true that there’s tons of information and resources available, although it’s not always easy to work out what’s good and what’s not. But this creates lots of noise, and for the time-poor leaders of small and midsize businesses this is overwhelming. We don’t need more support; we need to create the opportunities for business leaders to have the headspace to identify what to do using the best-in-class resources.
It’s going to take a collective effort to get growth to happen
First and foremost, this needs to happen locally – business leaders from small and big firms need to learn from one another. Having completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme, I know how valuable it is to have a trusted network to call upon to talk about your business. I’ve also seen the huge value in small and big businesses collaborating, with leaders from big organisations learning just as much as (if not more) than those from small firms.
These are exciting times. We have a new government with a bold vision for the economy. And while no one is anticipating that it’s going to be easy, it can be accomplished, especially if the government engages with leaders of small and midsize businesses in their quest for growth. As we know, no matter how seemingly impossible a mission is, Ethan Hunt always succeeds.
