Elly Yates-Roberts |
Simple changes to the way organisations approach talent, technology and future-readiness could boost the UK economy by £48 billion, according to recent research by Microsoft.
The study carried out by Goldsmiths, University of London and Microsoft – titled Creating a Blueprint for UK Competitiveness – found that a failure to fully embrace technology is harming businesses, with 46 per cent of UK organisations classified as “endangered”.
“UK organisations face a unique moment,” said Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK. “Buffeted by the headwinds of pandemic and Brexit, the nation’s collective competitiveness is being put to the test like never before. But can they thrive? Today, we are ringing the alarm bell, as our research reveals that half of organisations will struggle to adapt.
“The tech intensity that was starting to gather pace before the pandemic struck has become turbocharged – to keep up, leaders must act decisively and quickly. Small changes in approach to investment, people and technology can quickly boost the UK’s competitiveness, giving our economy the best chance of success in the post-Covid-19 and post-Brexit era.”
The research recorded the views of 1,713 senior decision makers and 2,470 employees across the UK and identified ways for organisations to plan for sustainable growth. These include addressing the gender pay gap and levels of diversity and migrating more workloads to the cloud to increase agility.
“The UK has a long tail of low-productivity firms, which face challenging times ahead without changing their business model to suit the digital age,” said Roxanne Morison, head of digital policy at the Confederation of British Industry, which contributed to the research. “If we got those companies confident in using cloud, digital marketing systems and data, the positive impact on UK productivity would be significant.”