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Success in scaling-up is not only good for the companies themselves, but also delivers many benefits for the wider economy, including the people who they employ as well as the community in which they operate.
At a multi-stakeholder conference organised in Brussels by ACCA, Barclays, ecoDa and SMEunited, EU experts discussed the role of corporate governance, measures to address Europe’s equity financing gap, alongside the need to remove regulatory and legal barriers to successfully help business start-ups to scale-up.
Regarding corporate governance - and more precisely the role of leadership to steer a small company that wants to grow and develop systems and processes for robust growth - experts agreed that building leadership skills capacity as the company grows is important, as well as providing the right support for start-ups and scale-ups in this process.
Discussions confirmed the importance to ensure the right access to finance. Scale-ups also need to be able to access and keep talented people in order to sustain growth. In the same vein, there can’t be any growth without the right infrastructure and the right ecosystem, including legislation.
The main challenge for remains the access to capital markets. Panellists called for more venture capital for European entrepreneurs at all levels. While the situation has improved, the EU is still lagging behind, so addressing this issues is especially important if start-ups and scale-ups are to remain and flourish in Europe.