Last week, Generator’s Business High Growth Specialist Simon Jones was at the CBI Annual Conference in Birmingham.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Go For Growth’ and Simon listened to lots of exciting speakers including John Lewis Chairman Sharon White, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer, and Dragon Deborah Meaden talk about what it takes to grow in tough climates, opportunities for the year ahead, and maximising competitive advantages.
Deborah Meaden talked about how leaders have a responsibility to ‘think green’ as they scale up and in a panel debate, Sharon White talked about how to navigate challenges and prevent them from stifling long-term growth plans.
On Day 2, CBI President, Brian McBride took to the stage saying that firms must ‘step up and adapt’, not ‘hunker down and wait’ for opportunities. He spoke about the importance of businesses becoming more technologically enabled and how embracing new digital and tech skills was critical to the changing economy.
Commenting on the conference, Simon said:
“Growth lifts everyone. Innovation and productivity are the driving forces of growth. To achieve this, we need greater ingenuity, with Government ‘the great unlocker of investment’ via Treasury, and to set new pro-growth rules.”
