‘Resilience is not an economic strategy’
Today’s newsletter title was spoken at an event I attended this week that saw the launch of the 2026 Global Entrepreneurship Index by Opinium (Insights with impact). It shows the UK sitting at position 24 in the rankings of best countries in which to start and grow a business. Sharing here comments I made at the event on how we get back into the top 20 list which is where we ranked a decade ago.
First, a look at The Global Entrepreneurship Index which is described by the Authors:
‘The Index assesses the conditions that help businesses and entrepreneurs start, operate and grow across 137 countries, looking beyond entrepreneurial activity itself to factors such as access to finance, human capital, infrastructure, governance and market opportunity.
The 2026 edition builds on changes since 2016, not only where countries rank today, but how their competitive position has changed over time.’
Helpful links
As per the title of the newsletter, the point being made was we cannot simply rely on the resilience of founders to get the UK climbing up the ranks. My brief comments at the event were:
1.) Small businesses and entrepreneurs want three things:
- Access to opportunity: in the form of contracts, capital, talent and business space.
- Less friction: to embrace the above opportunities with limited admin and burden. Many owners tell me they have much more ‘stuff’ to deal with compared with a decade ago.
- To be recognised and celebrated: for the risks taken and commitment required to start and grow a business that hires staff, creates new products, exports, makes consumers lives better.
2) Government recognises this and is acting:
- On access to opportunity: via SME Procurement plans to buy more from small firms and encouraging government’s major suppliers to do the same, distributing capital to all regions via the British Business Bank, and international trade deals that include SME opportunities.
- On reducing friction: via our own work on addressing non-productive hours spent chasing debt by dealing with late payment, and the Regulatory Taskforce that is looking at individual burdens getting in the way of business growth.
This work is being overseen by a Small Business Minister who does not only celebrate small firms but was an entrepreneur himself, in the form of The Lord Leong CBE.
3) Now it’s time to accelerate
With a Small Business Plan in place, and a team with entrepreneurial experience delivering, we now need to quicken the pace of delivery – and a competitive league table should be our motivation to do this.
The UK has sound fundamentals in place with an enterprising population, rule of law, supportive business environment. We need to dial up ‘access to opportunity’, dial down ‘friction’, continue to ‘celebrate entrepreneurs’, and get climbing up that ranking!
Emma