Finance and technology ‘pivotal’ to business success
Although the world’s gaze will be focused firmly on the UK throughout much of 2012, we’ve found that many businesses are unsure what to expect this year. We talked to 5,000 business leaders from across the country and found that one in two are anxious about how their company will fare over the next 12 months. This is on a par with what our survey found this time last year, suggesting that concerns about the state of the economy haven’t diminished.
And with talk of a double-dip recession in the press, it’s not surprising that a third of businesses are concerned that they don’t have access to the funding they need to succeed in 2012. Some 36 per cent of the people we spoke to said they’d like to see banks lend more money to businesses this year. Improvements to internet access came high up on the wish list too with more than a quarter of the companies we spoke to saying it could dramatically transform their business.
With companies increasingly reliant on bandwidth-hungry web-based services, it’s easy to see why 31 per cent of firms now view fast, reliable and high-capacity internet access as essential. This isn’t just about keeping the lights on though. Businesses have realised that communications technology can be used to drive their business forward – and that’s exactly what they’ll be looking to use it for in 2012.
To see how the views of Britain’s business leaders have changed over the past 12 months, why not take a look at my blog post from January last year.
