Family Business Scale-ups: Breaking Barriers to Growth
The challenges to growing and scaling family businesses
Access to talent and leadership capacity
Workforce skills gaps are evident across a range of functions. The most frequently cited shortages relate to AI and cyber skills (41%), research and technical skills (34%), general business skills such as finance (34%), and manufacturing and engineering (32%) . Gaps are also reported in sales, marketing and customer service (26%), leadership and strategic direction (25%), and innovation, product development and creative or design skills (around one in five). This points to a broad-based skills challenge rather than isolated shortages.
Mid-market and scaling family businesses consistently highlight the importance of talent, skills and leadership capacity in enabling further growth. The ScaleUp Survey 15 shows that while these businesses are actively investing in their workforce and leadership capability, they continue to face challenges in accessing the skills, experience and progression pathways needed to support scaling up.
15 Segment analysis of: ScaleUp Institute (2025). ScaleUp Annual Review 2025: Powering Up the ScaleUp Economy. Data collected in Q3/Q4 2025.
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