100 Stories of Growth - Insights from Entrepreneurs

Guy Tolhurst, Founder, Intelligent Partnership 13 12 INSIGHTS FROM ENTREPRENEURS INTRODUCTION Understanding the evolving nature of capital in contemporary capitalism has become a hotly debated theme in recent years. As developing and developed economies have rapidly changed during the internet age, so too has the very notion of what capital is. But the big question is just how much businesses, investors, governments – and of course accountants – are up to speed with real-life capital. The classical economic definition of capital tells us that conceptually it’s any form of asset that can enhance our power or ability to do economically useful work. We’ve been taught to consider land or natural resources, labour and capital goods as the key factors of production. And generally, the payment for capital is interest or profit. However, if we consider capital as an input in the production function, are we overlooking new and emerging forms of capital that have wholly different qualities and even personalities? The 100 Stories of Growth – Capital at Work campaign has investigated the notion of what capital means for high-potential scale- up businesses in the UK. Those companies are often described as the lifeblood of the UK economy, creating wealth, jobs and national optimism as credible antidotes to sluggish productivity. They form a hotbed of innovation and invention, brought to life by enthusiastic and highly ambitious individuals who stake a huge amount professionally and personally to make their ideas shine. During 2018 the campaign team has talked in detail to over 250 UK-based growth- focused and scale-up entrepreneurs. Through complementary quantitative and qualitative research studies we have INTRODUCTION Capital at Work: shifting the focus for success