About the session
The speaker claims that his company (PA Consulting) could not find a single report or work on generating sustainable growth that provided direct evidence from employer testimonials. Manufacturing and technology proliferation is often cited as vital for the UK’s economic recovery, yet there is no consensus on the appropriate level of intervention required by government, nor the appropriate roles of industry, academia, banks and venture finance in promoting growth. The speaker's consultancy, which differentiates itself from the competition in its devotion to technology, mobilised more than 100 business leaders in six fields to attend parliamentary roundtables to draw out the grass-roots needs for growth. The sectors are: (1) advanced manufacturing; (2) life sciences and healthcare; (3) consumer products; (4) ICT and electronics; (5) small and medium-sized enterprises; and (6) agri-science, which was also a sector of fast growth in the 1990s. The outcome of these roundtable debates, published in a book called ‘How to Unlock Sustainable Growth in the UK’, were seven key recommendations for government.
