PROFESSOR DYLAN JONES-EVANS

At the end of this month, the first stage of the search for the 2020 Wales Fast Growth will be completed with the final list of the fastest growing Welsh firms published in the Autumn.  Whether these amazing businesses will get the opportunity to celebrate their achievements at the annual awards dinner in Cardiff is still in doubt due to social distancing restrictions.  However, this does not take away at all from the importance of this small but special group of companies to the Welsh economy as we emerge from recession. Since the economist David Birch write his seminal paper in the 1970s on the emergence of high growth firms (or gazelles as he called them) as major contributors to employment in the US economy, countless studies have shown that a small proportion of firms that grow quickly create the majority of jobs. As a result, policymakers have shown considerable interest in this group of businesses although they tend to observe high growth through a myopic lens namely th...

Despite the massive challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems that entrepreneurship remains alive and well within the Welsh economy. Take, for example, the Wales Start-Up Awards, which will be announcing its shortlist for 2020 next week.  The annual competition to find the best new firms in Wales had over 540 entries from every part of the nation - the highest in its five year history - with 40 per cent of these submitted by women-owned start-ups.  More importantly, there were some incredible businesses across all industries from traditional sectors such as business to business services, food and drink and construction, to emerging new areas such as cyber, fintech and mobile technologies.  Recognising the achievements of these new businesses is critical as research shows time and time again that it is newer and smaller businesses that create most of the employment as we come out of a recession.  In contrast (and as we have seen over the last few days), it ...

At the end of next week, the search for the 2019 Wales Fast Growth 50 will close with the list being published in a special Western Mail supplement and the achievements of all fifty firms celebrated at the annual awards in Cardiff in November. Since the project was established in association in 1999, the 602 firms that have appeared from 1999 to 2018 are estimated to have created 40,000 jobs and generated an estimated £20 billion of additional turnover, much of which is spent in their local area.  To date, there have been entries from some amazing Welsh businesses based across all sectors and communities in Wales and it looks likely that record average growth rate achieved in 2018 will be surpassed this year. Given the jobs and wealth creating ability of these growth firms at a regional and national level, it is not surprising that there has been considerable interest from both politicians and policymakers in how to maximise their economic impact.  Indeed, the latest report fr...