What have you missed most of being in lockdown for the last fifteen months? On a professional level, I’ve longed for the opportunity to go and talk face-to-face with businesses across Wales. There was a month or so when I managed to get to see a few of the Fast Growth 50 winners in November to give them their trophies but then we went back into lockdown again for several months. Just having the chance to talk and share ideas with others is increasingly seen as important to the competitiveness of businesses. More importantly, there is growing evidence to show that greater collaboration between businesses leads to increased performance in terms of growth, profitability and productivity. Yet it would seem that many businesses are reluctant to invest in good practices such as increased networking to improve their competitiveness. Indeed, it would seem that Welsh businesses are not fully engaging with this agenda outside the usual “speaker with a chicken dinner” gatherings. For e...
Entrepreneurship, innovation and the economy