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“The threat of more intense competition will force incumbent businesses to become more efficient, reduce prices and invest in developing better products.”
THE STAY-UP AGENDA We need a Stay-up Agenda. Equipping fledgling business owners with the tools to help their businesses survive and, eventually, thrive isn’t just good for the business owners themselves. Workers benefit too, and not just by avoiding temporary bouts of unemployment. There is a strong link between productivity growth and wage growth.33 A recent report by the Resolution Foundation found that productivity is the biggest factor holding backing pay growth in the UK. As previously stated, closing the productivity gap between the top and bottom three quartiles would boost UK productivity by 13%. This would raise GDP by £270bn or £8,330 per worker.34 Better managed workers aren’t just more productive and better paid either, they’re happier too. Research from Bryson, Forth, and Stokes found “a clear, positive, and statistically significant relationship between employees’ subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain”.35 Equipping marginal businesses with the management skills to stay-up will also increase competitive pressures. This will expand consumer choice, and raise productivity even further as new, more efficient stay-ups are able to take market
share from established firms. The threat of more intense competition will force incumbent businesses to become more efficient, reduce prices and invest in developing better products.
33 Clarke, S. and Gregg, P (2018) Count the pennies: Explaining a decade of lost pay growth. The Resolution Foundation. 34 Haldane, A. (2018) The UK’s Productivity Problem: Hub No Spokes. Academy of Social Sciences Annual Lecture. 35 Bryson, A., Forth, J., & Stokes, L. (2017). “Does employees’ subjective well-being affect workplace performance?” Human Relations, 70(8), 1017-1037.
