Now established as the premier entrepreneurship awards in Wales and the competition which owner-managers aspire to winning, this will be the seventeenth time that we will be recognising and celebrating those entrepreneurs and their businesses that are creating wealth and employment across all parts and sectors of the nation.
The importance of these groups of firms should not be underestimated and last year alone, those companies on the Fast Growth 50 list created over 1500 new jobs between 2011 and 2013 and generated an additional £175 million in turnover at an incredible growth rate of 182 per cent.
In fact, a report in 2014 has shown the importance of supporting these fast growing firms to the UK economy.
The Scale Up Report found that rapidly expanding firms, such as those in the Fast Growth 50, create a significant proportion of the economic growth in the UK. However, it also showed that whilst we do have fast growing firms, the numbers and impact is not on the same scale as other growing economies such as the USA.
And analysis by the bank RBS suggest that closing this gap could generate an additional 11,000 jobs in the Welsh economy over the next three years and £2 billion of additional turnover. However, to do this, the report suggested that there are a number of areas that both the private sector and government in all parts of the UK needs to focus on to support such firms.
As the Fast Growth 50 project has done since 1998, it recommended that regions and cities across the UK should review and report on the extent to which the fastest growing firms in their areas are increasing their turnover and employment and set specific targets to increase the proportion of such firms over the next decade.
Procedures should be put into place to ensure that students at schools, colleges and universities come into contact with the business-leaders of the fastest growing firms based within 20 miles of their establishment. Indeed, there needs to be greater promotion of fast growing companies and their owners so that it is easier for them to act as role models to inspire others to seek growth within their businesses.
In terms of specific support, one of the real challenges for many growing firms is to be able to access the type of support that is relevant to their businesses. Given this, universities and the public sector and larger businesses should work together to ensure effective learning programmes are available for fast growing firms especially in the area of leadership development.
Organisations that promote foreign trade, such as UK Trade and Investment, should ensure that fast growing firms are well represented on international trade missions, whilst central and local government should publicly report on the level of procurement they source from fast growing companies in their areas. Finally, government and the banking sector must ensure that there is further progress in closing the finance gap that fats growing firms face and provide a specific focus on supporting their funding needs with affordable and flexible finance.
During the last seventeen years, it has been a privilege to highlight the success of the 499 firms that have appeared on the Fast Growth 50 lists and to see companies such as Acorn Recruitment, Afonwen Laundry, Smart Solutions and Village Bakery show that they are not only great companies in Wales but are as good as any in their sector across the UK.
To be fair, the Welsh Government is starting to focus on the needs of fast growing firms but given their disproportionate impact on the economy, we need more to be done to maximise their wealth creating potential.
For example, should they have a specific programme that works with those businesses that demonstrate more than 20 per cent growth every year to scale up their operations and thus their impact on the Welsh economy? If we did, I am sure there would be enormous interest by the banks, accountants and legal firms in supporting the growth of such businesses and this end up as a perfect public-private partnership to support the business community.
Certainly, if we can maximise the potential of entrepreneurial businesses in Wales alongside the attraction of high value inward investors, then the outlook for the Welsh economy over the coming decade could be better than expected.