PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

As this column has suggested time and time again over the last three months of lockdown, entrepreneurs should be at the heart of any post Covid-19 economic recovery plan developed by both the Welsh and UK Governments. Research has consistently shown that firms less than five years old create all net jobs within an economy, especially at a time of recession when larger firms are shedding tens of thousands of their employees.   They are agile, innovative and will drive the creativity and energy needed to transform an economy that will be struggling to find its way after the Covid-19 pandemic. They are also the glue that keep communities together and, as we have seen during the last twelve weeks, have been able to pivot their businesses to continue to support their customers locally. So what should be done to ensure that our economic recovery is being driven by those talented individuals who take the risk and spot the opportunity to start their new business? More importantly, how...

It was great to recently welcome Alison Rose - the new CEO of NatWest Bank – to the Startup Stiwdio incubator at the University of South Wales as part of International Women’s Day celebrations.  Apart from being one of the most influential female leaders in the UK, Alison was the author of the highly influential Rose Review which was published last year. This report shed light on the barriers faced by women starting and growing businesses and identified ways of unlocking this untapped talent. As a result, the UK Government announced that it would seek to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030, equivalent to nearly 600,000 additional female entrepreneurs. However, as we discussed yesterday in a room full of some of Wales’ leading female entrepreneurs, this task is not going to be easy. Indeed,  according to the authoritative Global Entrepreneurship Study there are far fewer women than men likely to know someone who has started a business in the last two yea...

This week, I have had the honour and privilege to chair the judging panel for the 2019 Wales Start-Up Awards which celebrates the achievements of those Welsh entrepreneurs with businesses that are less than three years old. All those interviewed demonstrated, yet again, the talent, drive and ambition that we have amongst our enterprise community in Wales but it was also noteworthy that half of the finalists were either run by women (or had women as part of the founding team) in sectors as diverse as creative, digital, financial and professional services, manufacturing and retail. Some may find it strange that I am highlighting this fact but research actually shows that instead of parity, only one in three of entrepreneurs in the UK are female and that fewer women in the UK choose to become entrepreneurs as compared to similar economies e.g. only 6% of UK women run their businesses as compared to 15% in Canada.  Worst still, this situation seems unlikely to improve with only 8.6% of...

Back in 2013, I began a two-year assignment for the Welsh Government to examine the key challenges for Welsh SMEs in accessing finance, an exercise which eventually led to the creation of a new Development Bank of Wales. Since the task and finish group made its recommendations back in 2015, the environment for business has changed considerably and there has been a growing appreciation of the role that SMEs can play in growing the economy.  Understanding the environment in which SMEs operate, especially in terms of accessing finance, remains important to policymakers and that is why the recent publication of the Small Business Finance Markets report from the British Business Bank makes for some fascinating reading.  First of all, it is clear that there is an increasing flow of finance from providers to SMEs, not only in traditional debt lending but also in other forms of funding such as equity or asset finance.  But whilst there is more money available in the system, it wo...