100 Stories of Growth - Insights from Entrepreneurs

HUMAN CAPITAL Your people will drive your success High-growth business leaders across diverse sectors agree that without the right people supporting them that their company wouldn’t succeed. But building those relationships and effectively managing a myriad of human interactions every day takes a huge amount of skill, focus and of course emotional tenacity. What we have found in our quantitative and qualitative research is companies that seek and raise external capital are generally – but not exclusively – more able to fund key hires thanks to increased investment power than those that rely on their cashflow to fund hires. Our research shows that nearly three- quarters (73%) of companies that are equity-backed have grown their headcount by more than 20% over the last 12 months, compared with 61% of all respondents. More than four in five (81%) of equity-backed companies are confident that they “will grow our UK headcount by 20% or more over the next 12 months”, compared with 67% of all respondents. There is clear evidence of growth and scale-up companies’ varying abilities to create valuable employment opportunities irrespective of their financial capital position. However, we believe that there needs to be improvements across the board in terms of how some groups of people actually figure in their growth plans. Bernhard Niesner, Founder, busuu 41 40 INSIGHTS FROM ENTREPRENEURS HUMAN CAPITAL of companies that are equity-backed have grown their headcount by more than 20% over the last 12 months 73% Photography: Andrew Urwin