Vision and leadership key themes at Agents of Growth summit

CLARITY of vision, courage and strong leadership are the key drivers for successful, according to an expert business panel.

At the ‘Agents of Growth’ summit, organised by business advisers Grant Thornton, leaders of some of the region’s most dynamic companies, Matt Moulding from The Hut, Asif Hamid from The Contact Company and Tim Bacon from Living Ventures, debated the current economic landscape.

All agreed that while the economy was been through a difficult period, entrepreneurs see opportunity in adversity, and each had delivered strong growth in the last five years.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Paddy Ashdown was guest speaker at the event, held at the Concorde conference centre at Manchester Airport.

He said some people were born to be leaders, but essential skills could be learned too for business people operating in what he said was a “bespoke age”.

“Yes, some are born to it, but there are some things that everyone can do – and that is about identifying your goals and deciding how to get there. If you don’t know what your goals are, how can you lead?”

He said the “preminent quality” for leadership is courage, which he identified as moral, not physical.

“If you don’t have courage to back your judgement, any other skills will vanish like the morning dew.”

Lord Ashdown said a vital quality of leadership is to “keep on learning”.

Economist Charles Davies from the Centre for Economic and Business Research – which has worked with Grant Thornton – to research the performance and dynamics of mid-sized businesses, said the performance of around 34,000 firms in the mid-tier during the last five years has been “really encouraging”.

“I believe we are seeing a sustained pick-up in the economy and that’s clearly good news , and we may well be on course to exceed trend growth next year.”

He said mid-size companies in the North West employ more than 436,000 people, and had proved to be resilient and had built up good reserves of cash.

“The question is should they be more aggressive in their expansion plans? More willing to look at overseas markets?”

The panel of entrepreneurs agreed that confidence, a willingness to take a risk, or alter course quickly when an initiative was not working, are essential.

Tim Bacon of Living Ventures said that in his sector he had seen some rival operators “freeze in the headlights”  during the recession: “Becoming inert is the worst thing you can be. You have to be able to change a bad decision, doing nothing can be fatal.”

Ali Sharifi, head of Grant Thornton’s corporate finance team in the North West, said the hallmarks of the best performers during the downturn was their “complete focus” and readiness to take tough decisions. “The market leaders don’t take any prisoners.  If something is not working, they change it.”

During the event, guests took part in a live poll, which underlined the themes of confidence. 42% of those surveyed were very confident of growing their business this year, a further 51% were confident.

In terms of workforce growth, 40% predicted increasing their staff number by 10% in the next year, while 38% expect to grow by up to 5%.

The top three issues impacting on growth were, the audience said: a competitive business tax rate; skilled workforce and research and development grants.