A team of business experts from Grant Thornton in Leicester have uncovered what is holding back local businesses from realising their full growth potential, at an event hosted by the firm as part of this year’s Leicester Business Festival.
The ‘Business Growth Forum’ was a series of one-to-one sessions, at which owners from East Midlands-based haulage, building products, retail, food and drink, marketing services, and leisure sector companies, explored and examined how they use Capital, Innovation, Leadership and Talent to support and maximise growth and revenue.
The event revealed the biggest concern for all the businesses taking part is how to effectively engage staff, and educate and involve them in the long-term, future vision for the business.
“The sessions confirmed that talent and staff engagement are top concerns for local businesses,” explains Grant Thornton’s Tom Moore, a Director in the firm’s Leicester-based Tax team. “Engaging employees with a purpose and aligned vision is fundamental to building a lasting, strong business, and all the business owners we spoke to wholeheartedly agree with this.
“The business owners said that finding and keeping fresh, new talent is doubtless highly beneficial for future sustainability, but also imperative for the business to successfully innovate with new ideas. Building and nurturing a diverse workforce is a critical additional support strategy, but the Forum revealed that businesses fear this can bring additional challenges.
“Building a culture of innovation at all levels and with all staff in the business is also important, irrespective of a business’ size or industry. Nowadays it is vital to innovate for efficiency as well as to stay ahead of the curve, whether by introducing new products, processes or markets.”
Funding is also part of a growth strategy, but this varies from business to business, as Tom explains: “Local businesses utilise a range of funding options, from private equity and grants, to bank funding, but according to the Forum’s findings, Brexit could well impact private equity funding in the future, and it is this uncertainty, rather than Brexit itself, that is most concerning businesses.”
Business owners said they recognise the importance of taking a ‘high level’ role to deliver sustainability for the business: “Business leaders have to work hard at not getting bogged-down in the detail and day-to-day management and operation of the business,” Tom says, “and to remain focussed on looking ahead to where to take the business in the future. This is however a particularly big challenge for family-run businesses and those growing operations on a global scale and with a high number of stakeholders to consider and keep happy.”
The event was facilitated by experts from Grant Thornton and co-host Peritus Learning, chosen specifically for their track record of unlocking the potential of businesses in a diversity of markets and industries.
“The Forum was a unique event, providing businesses with one-to-one assistance in addressing barriers to their aspirations for growth,” said Tom. “Our experts worked one-to-one with each business, guiding them towards identifying the actual barriers to their growth, and supporting them in effectively planning how to solve them.
“Businesses are all individual, but in aiming to prosper and grow in a competitive world, they can face similar challenges and it is a positive step for business leaders to confront the specific challenges they face, in a step to break free of the shackles inhibiting their ambition.”
Steve Walker, Managing Director of Peritus Learning, adds: “We are delighted to have worked alongside Grant Thornton to provide this innovative event, and for our team to deliver advice and guidance as part of discussions around talent management and development, to offer an insight into how to ensure talent is retained within an organisation, engaged with and most importantly developed, to ensure there is a clear succession plan in place to support sustainable growth.”
Peritus Learning is an all-encompassing consultancy, learning and qualification provider delivering both bespoke and accredited development solutions for directors through to all levels of employee.
Grant Thornton is one of the world’s leading organisations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. It has its East Midlands office in Leicester, where it has approximately 160 staff providing business and financial advice across Corporate and Personal Tax, audit and assurance, employer solutions, corporate finance, and sustainability, to organisations across the East Midlands.
