100 Stories of Growth - Insights from Entrepreneurs

"Capital investment in talented and engaged people is the one true currency we use to expand our business across our global footprint.” — ADAM RUBINS, CEO, WAY TO BLUE We identified three distinct groups of entrepreneurs in our research. We’re comparing companies that are: backed by at least one round of commercial equity funding those that have raised a minimum of £20,000 of debt finance the entire cohort of founder and business leader respondents 1 2 3 43 42 INSIGHTS FROM ENTREPRENEURS HUMAN CAPITAL The chart on the previous page shows how these three groups compare when it comes to their level of agreement about the top three scale-up drivers for their business. While 70% of equity-backed companies agree that “finding the right talent with the right skills” has had a positive impact on their growth journey, only 61% of debt-backed and 65% of all respondents agree with this assertion. We believe that all groups across the board need to focus on increasing their positive perceptions about talent as key scale-up drivers. While the quantitative research findings are encouraging, they fall a little short of what founders and business leaders have told us in detailed qualitative interviews. These detailed interviews formed the basis of their stories in the 100 Stories element of the campaign. While we highlight room for improvement in the search for and acquisition of skilled talent, we believe that many companies may be undervaluing other members of their teams even more so – namely their senior management teams. The chart on page 40 also illustrates that the majority of each group agree or agree strongly that “building the bench strength of my senior leadership team” is a key scale-up driver. But with agreement levels at 56% for equity-backed, 55% for all respondents and just 52% for debt-backed companies, this leaves an uncomfortably large proportion of respondents in each group that do not single out senior management as crucial to their success. The other top-three scale-up driver across all three groups is “driving export sales” (see chart on page 40). There is much more consensus about export sales: 67% of equity-backed respondents cite it while 64% of both debt-backed and all respondents opt for this driver. We understand that investment in export sales and senior management are logically very closely connected, but would like to see a more balanced approach between the two. In order to grow their exports, the single most popular export driver across the board is “developing local market, non-UK, relationships”. And capitalised companies are much more likely to acknowledge such human interactions than all companies in the general research cohort. Just under half (49%) of equity-backed respondents and 43% of debt-supported agree while just 28% of all respondents agree. Again, there is considerable room for improvement when it comes to nurturing international business relationships. To add valuable context to these positive growth drivers, we also asked each group whether they found that a lack of access People make companies scale Top three most positive scale-up drivers for company founders EQUITY-BACKED DEBT-FINANCED ALL RESPONDENTS Building the bench strength of my senior leadership team Finding the right talent with the right skills Driving export sales 56% 70% 67% 52% 61% 64% 55% 65% 64% EQUITY-BACKED DEBT-FINANCED ALL RESPONDENTS Source: 100 Stories of Growth - Capital at Work