Family Business Scale-ups: Breaking Barriers to Growth
Executive summary
• Mid-market and scaling family businesses place a strong emphasis on developing their people, leadership and governance as they grow . Later in this document we will go into details of family businesses demonstrating best practice in this area, such as Macphie and Bettys & Taylors. • Six in ten family firms already operate formal governance structures, with a further three in ten planning to introduce such a structure, whereas eight in ten firms are focused on developing the skills of their senior leadership teams. In doing so, these businesses are increasingly complementing family leadership with external experience, including non- executive directors (NEDs) and fractional executives, and are adopting more professionalised approaches to support scaling up.
ACCESS TO TALENT Access to talent and skills is one of the most frequently cited barriers to further expansion for mid-market and scaling family businesses. • Four in ten report shortages in AI and cyber skills , while one in three cite gaps in research and technical skills, manufacturing and engineering, and core business functions such as finance. • While more than half employ staff from overseas , three in ten say that difficulties accessing international talent, including visa costs, processing times and system complexity, are constraining their ability to grow at pace. • Four in ten offer apprenticeships, internships and/or work placements , and many see scope to expand this provision. There is a desire for greater flexibility in provision, with access to flexi-apprenticeships, a Flexible Talent Fund and upskilling and reskilling programmes to enable workers to move into their sector all sought-after. • Strengthening links with universities, local institutions and peer networks is seen as critical to building leadership capability and sustaining growth. This is an area reinforced in Family Business UK’s (FBUK) Policy Agenda, 3 where family businesses highlighted their desire for specific leadership programmes with universities or business schools to enable succession planning.
3 https://familybusinessuk.org/family-first-approach-in-new-fbuk-policy-agenda/
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