I engage with a number of business decision-makers and business leaders in my role on the commercial team here at Passle on a weekly basis and so when I stumbled upon a report by accountancy firm Price Bailey titled 'Inside the minds of business leaders' I thought it would definitely be worth a read.

400 lead decision-makers were interviewed at owner-managed firms with 42% having recorded a turnover in excess of £10million in the last year.  The foreword by Martin Clapson really sets the scene and is really positive with the general consensus being that family-owned businesses are growing, innovating, and employing more people.  The downside being that they are, of course, having to pay more tax!

Technology is highlighted as having one of the deepest impacts whether it be a negative one for companies gripped with inertia or a positive one for some of the more agile newcomers.  Martin stresses the point that there is no use investing in technology if your people can't adopt or adapt to it and as a result, employees are often underrated as an element of the overarching technological change taking place.  This is something that really resonates in terms of how we work with our clients with adoption being a key driver to achieving success.

Interestingly, the research shows that business leaders who are more open to new ideas, who listen to their employees and have a strict set of values instead of focusing on turnover and profit, are the most successful.  Not rocket science but sometimes easier said than done when keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.

The research is structured around the below 7 key areas and can be downloaded here

1/ Levers & Barriers

2/ Finance

3/ Technology

4/ Talent

5/ Planning

6/ Exports

7/ Profitability & Pricing