The Barclays Business Regional Impact Index which has been launched in conjunction with Kingston University has finally revealed which regions in the UK benefit most from their SME (small and medium sized enterprises) and the role they are playing in the economic recovery of the country.
The key areas seem to be London (not surprisingly perhaps due to the size of its population), the South West and Wales. Both of the latter areas have suffered hugely in the past when traditional industries have closed down and the population has been forced to look to other sources for economic survival. Crucially, the South West is still the recipient of EU funding for business growth and development and is also leading the country on innovation – the Eden project is just one great example of this.
Hot on their heels though are Yorkshire and Humberside, which showed the highest proportion of SME’s who were making a profit. The Midlands and Central England have seen the greatest increase in turnover and job creation.
The research confirms that it is the smaller firms that have the ability to increase local wealth for a region, possibly because they may spend locally and are likely to increase the numbers of jobs available. Research in the United States has confirmed these findings as well indicating is likely that this could be replicated world-wide and in MENA, which is the focus of the Mowgli Foundation efforts.
The Barclays research was based on an in-depth study of 1,000 owner managers, combined with qualitative analysis by Kingston University’s Small Business Research Centre, which sought to rank each region on 13 key indicators including profit last year and expected profit in 2010, outlook on growth, employment generation, investment in training, purchases from local suppliers and innovation.
Of course, this is music to the ears of the Mowgli Foundation team, because we already know that the businesses that are able to drive growth and development are those that are still growing and establishing themselves. This is the key reason why Mowgli focuses on providing mentoring to entrepreneurs in those regions of the world where such an impact can be made quickly.
For more information about the work that the Mowgli Foundation undertake visit the website. You can read the whole report from Barclays at their News Centre too.
