Shruti Tripathi: Making Britain an entrepreneurial superpower

“What do we really need to do to make the UK an economic powerhouse?” asks our editor

I’m bored of doom-and-gloomers berating the UK economy. ‘Grim’, ‘downbeat’ and ‘sombre’ are adjectives that are incongruous with Britain. We should instead be congratulating each other for all that we’ve achieved together in the past year.

One look at economic statistics proves my point. Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the British economy grew at its fastest pace for nine years in 2014. In fact, according to the International Monetary Fund, Britain grew faster than any other G7 country in 2014.

Britain’s 5.2 million businesses are the champions behind our economic growth. Together they have created over 1.85 million jobs in the last year, and have a combined turnover of £3.5 trillion. In total, they employ an incredible 25.2 million people. In 2014, Britain overtook France as the world’s fifth biggest economy, according to a study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

But the crucial question is – how can Britain do better? What can we do to make Britain an entrepreneurial superpower?

That’s why we threw down the gauntlet to 17 of Britain’s business heavyweights to come up with one infallible idea each to inspire ambition, boost business growth, and help create a resilient economy. These powerful ideas have formed Securing Britain’s Ambition, the fifth publication in LondonLovesBusiness.com’s Securing Britain series.

Securing Britain’s Ambition tackles four themes that are crucial to our economic growth. They are, ‘enterprise & supporting start-ups’, ‘exporting & international opportunity’, ‘technology & innovation’ and ‘education & theworkforce of tomorrow’.

I am grateful to the likes of WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell and Ryman chairman Theo Paphitis who among other business champions took out time to put forth brilliant ideas for Securing Britain’s Ambition. Hopefully, these will spark debate among readers of LondonLovesBusiness.com and help us come up with concrete measures to fortify Britain’s economic prowess.

I would like to say a massive thank you to our partner HSBC for supporting Securing Britain’s Ambition and providing great insights into how over 8,000 mid-market enterprises are generating a staggering $1 trillion in turnover.

Britain’s aspirations for the future are indeed ambitious, be it creating 250,000 apprenticeships by 2016 or increasing our exports to £1 trillion by 2020. To achieve this, British businesses – big and small – need to fight their corners to implement policies, increase productivity, change attitudes and inspire ambition that will help boost our economic growth.

Through Securing Britain’s Ambition, we’ve tried to draw up a masterplan to boost enterprise and accelerate growth in Britain. Hopefully, this will be a starting point of achieving the bigger goal of making Britain an entrepreneurial superpower.

What do we really need to do to make the UK an economic powerhouse? Tweet me your ideas @shrutitripathi6 or email me at [email protected].

Now read:

SECURING BRITAIN’S AMBITION

Click the cover below to read online now, or click here.