Growing British Business Foreword Steve Box Head of Trade and Receivables Finance, UK HSBC Commercial Banking Despite the current climate, and noise aplenty about With 38% of businesses planning to increase their the ongoing doom and gloom we face ahead, there’s exports over the next five years, and fluctuations in a new undercurrent in British business that fosters exchange rates, unreliable currencies and fears over hope. Forward-looking and thinking business leaders non payment rating highly in business’ concerns when across the UK - many of them our clients - have a fresh it comes to international trade, getting the right financial determination to drive the nation back into economic mechanisms in place to support export is critical to prosperity by taking matters into their own hands. success. Inspired by their determination, we commissioned this That’s why HSBC recently increased its support of report to explore what these business leaders are doing businesses with international trade ambitions through and why. To investigate strategies that others can learn our International SME fund by providing an extra from and drivers that we can all help to nurture to drive £1 billion of funding, having reached our initial £4 billion Contents growth. target in the first nine months of 2012. The fund offers lending to businesses with a turnover of up to Introduction 4 The report reveals that 60% of business leaders expect £25 million that trade, or aspire to trade, internationally. their company to grow in the next two years by their 01 Beacons of Hope 6 actions, rather than chance. These ‘Growth Pioneers’ as In fact, HSBC’s trade finance lending to underpin exports the report terms them, have specific plans in place to rose 87% last year alone, demonstrating that not only 02 Recession Positives 10 achieve their goals and are well on the way to entering is the aspiration there but that many British businesses 03 Strategies for Growth 12 new markets, investing in staff or diversifying their offer. are now becoming truly global as they embark on their These plans for growth are created by businesses that mission to get our economy moving. 04 Regional Powerhouses 24 have become more flexible and more innovative. And underpinning these new operating models is a forward- The UK business landscape is constantly evolving and 05 Super-cities of the Future 28 thinking approach to how businesses finance their as 2012 draws to a close, we are working with our growth. clients to help them formulate plans which will see them 06 Conclusion 34 thrive and prosper in the year ahead. Each business we These businesses are thinking ahead and putting the work with is unique, and each faces a different set of 07 Appendix 36 right finance tools in place, such as trade and receivables challenges and opportunities, however as our Growth finance, to ensure they have the flexibility they need to Pioneers tell us there is a world of opportunity out there Glossary 40 make the most of opportunities to grow – both at home for British business. and overseas. Consultant Experts 40 2 Growing British Business Growing British Business 3 Introduction Introduction Key findings An inspiring and yet largely unreported success story But Edwards – whose business importing and selling To inform this report, Future Poll, the research Visionary business leaders are investing in growth is taking place in factories and offices across Britain. Chinese-made electric motors has grown from scratch department of The Future Laboratory, conducted an The report reveals that 95% of businesses predicting Behind the doom and gloom of the economic headlines, to a £10 million-a-year turnover in the midst of the online survey of 500 business leaders between 17 and growth in the next two years have specific expansion visionary business leaders are leading the way back to ferocious economic downturn – is one of a growing band 25 August 2012. Statistics contained within this report, plans, with innovation, investment in talent and exporting growth – and challenging others to follow. of British business innovators who are, as he puts it, unless stated otherwise, are from this survey. to emerging economies being key priorities. ‘pulling up our boot-straps and getting on with it.’ This report, commissioned by HSBC and carried out The quantitative research is supported by extensive desk Businesses using smart ways to access finance by The Future Laboratory, explores the attitudes and He resisted the temptation to downsize his workforce research, and further informed by qualitative interviews are more confident about their success aspirations of these forward thinking UK business and consolidate his existing order book. ‘My gut instinct with a broad range of leading experts and business The research shows that 78% of companies that use leaders. told me not to follow the accepted wisdom for trading leaders. Conducted to understand the context of the trade and invoice finance expect to grow over the next in a recession,’ Edwards says. ‘Instead we expanded quantitative data and the overall conditions facing UK two years compared to 60% of businesses that do not ‘This recession is a golden opportunity for business, not to allow us to keep our skilled staff and maintain our firms, experts include Martin Beck, Chief Economist, use smart finance products. In addition, businesses a time to batten down the hatches,’ says Scott Edwards, capacity so that we can hit the ground running when the Capital Economics, Graham Clark, Academic Director using smart finance are significantly more confident managing director of TEC Electric. ‘Think sharp, think upturn arrives.’ of the full time MBA at Cranfield University, and Tony about growing their exports and are much less likely to clever, and foster some of that legendary British grit and Greenham, Head of Finance and Business at the New have reduced their business’ headcount since the onset spirit. You won’t just survive – you’ll grow and prosper.’ In fact, Edwards is one of a growing number of Growth Economics Foundation. of the recession in 2008. Pioneers – business leaders that are facing up to the This up-beat assessment of the growth prospects for downturn by adopting clever growth strategies that How businesses will grow varies from company to A new wave of business leaders are spearheading UK PLC runs counter to the mood music of our times. explore new domestic markets, diversifying product company. An export-led recovery is one of the Prime UK growth Indeed, UK business leaders could be forgiven for feeling offerings, incorporating exports to new emerging Minister’s key growth strategies. As he said recently: The report unveils three new groups of business leaders differently. economies, and using smart finance tools to turn their ‘If we could increase the number SMEs in the UK that adopting innovative business practices to steer their order books into a source of instant liquidity. sell overseas from around a fifth to just over a quarter, we company, and the overall economy towards growth. Headlines are dominated by financial bad news. UK could add £30 billion to the UK economy, create 100,000 GDP, battered by the continuing Eurozone debt crisis jobs and pretty much wipe out our trade deficit.’ 1 It also shows the emergence of key city hubs across the and government’s austerity program, fell by 0.5% in UK which are providing the infrastructures and economic the second quarter of 2012, confirming a double dip The survey suggests that David Cameron’s ambitions ecosystems that ambitious business leaders need to recession, according to the Office for National Statistics. could be realised with 38% of companies saying they succeed. will export more over the next five years, and 55% The British Chambers of Commerce called for an urgent saying their exports will stay steady. This report explores rebalancing of the UK economy focused on exports as how businesses expect to achieve these figures and the country’s trade deficit widened from £2.7 billion to their strategies for growth. £4.4 billion in June 2012. 1 David Cameron, 26 July 2012 4 Growing British Business Growing British Business 5 Beacons of Hope s2ECESSIONARYPRESSURESENCOURAGINGNEW business attitudes s.EWWAVEOFVISIONARYBUSINESSLEADERS steering the country towards growth s'ROWTH0IONEERSHAVECLEARPLANSTOMEET their targets Recessionary pressures, far from crushing UK business leaders, are encouraging forward-thinking companies 01 to re-shape and re-think their business culture and attitudes to take advantage of domestic opportunities for expansion and new export market opportunities. ‘The recession was a huge shock and it would have been easy to just throw my hands in the air and give up,’ says Lash Saranna, Managing Director of luxury car exporters Autobahn International Ltd. ‘But like lots of British Beacons business leaders– I’m not made that way.’ Instead, Saranna employed a key technique of successful Growth Pioneers. He took stock of his company’s positive assets and went back to the drawing board to find new and profitable ways to deploy them. ‘We were essentially a domestic car sales company with a very small export division,’ he says. ‘After pondering of Hope our position I realised that exports were our future. ‘So, I threw out my old business model, turned a domestic car sales company into an international business targeting the emerging markets in Asia, and found a way back to growth and profit.’ 66 GrowingGrowing BritishBritish BusinessBusiness Growing British Business 7 Beacons of Hope (cont.) It’s this kind of positive thinking by innovative business leaders that expert analysts such as Mark Gregory, Chief Economist at Ernst and Young, believe could lead the UK into a new phase of growth and development. ‘I think the UK is at a fork in the road.