There is much to be hopeful about.....

There have been many stories and messages around this week setting out how bad things are, highlighting low productivity and the lack of investment. I have heard commentators highlighting that the country isn't achieving its potential and that it is falling behind our peer countries. Tim Harford's excellent column in the Financial Times is a great example. Many of those stories and indicators at a headline level are based on some hard hitting, and hard to read, data...but what it masks is the underlying growth potential that still exists across all parts of the UK. Tim himself notes that the UK has many strengths. Indeed there are so many firms with genuine growth potential across all our cities, towns and rural areas. It is these companies that are going to drive our future growth, solve our pressing challenges and create opportunities for our local communities.

The past decade has undoubtedly been tough for the UK but throughout those years I have had the absolute pleasure of working with so many growth businesses. Even in the depths of the recession after the financial crash there were firms starting, growing and scaling. Firms who saw opportunity. Individual leaders who could cut through the negative to achieve the clear vision that they had set out for their business. Despite all the challenges they faced so many of them have gone on to create products, solutions and services that have been adopted across multiple markets. No matter what the circumstances there are always entrepreneurs that will give us hope.

What I have also learnt over the past decade is that with a bit of support, encouragement and use of the right tools many of these companies can go on to achieve even greater impact. Sometimes it is getting the right finance at the right time. For other companies it is about understanding how a new market operates and how you get into it. For some it is about access to peers who can help support that journey. No one knows everything. Leaning-in to learn from others and get an external view of your business helps companies in so many ways. That might be to find new opportunities or partners, tools to help build in a way that creates long term growth, bringing in new digital tools or adopting approaches that create the right conditions for teams to achieve their potential.

The challenge is finding those companies, connecting with them and linking them into the right support at the right time. It is often the hardest part of building and delivering an business support ecosystem.

After years of building solutions that got great feedback from businesses I was delighted to launch Growth Flag this week with our partners Red Flag Alert. It was great to see Prolific North covering the Growth Flag launch story today - Game changing online platform to identify market growth potential - there is indeed a lot to be hopeful about.

The tool identifies those companies with growth potential across all parts of the UK. Those positive growth stories tend to get hidden at times like this but I can assure you that those companies are out there. It is so important to celebrate the very existence of these companies and build a positive growth culture. We need to get behind these leaders that are bucking the trend, celebrate their achievements and ensure they get the support they need.

Contact me at hello@growthflag.com to have a chat about what this new platform can do for you.