What makes firms productive? Lessons learned from across G7 economies

Productivity Puzzles

What makes a business productive? Do businesses have a sense of what they’re good at and where to improve? This episode of Productivity Puzzles looks at the Productive Business Index produced by Be The Business, one of The Productivity Institute’s strategic partners. The index, which has been published since 2020, serves as a barometer on how business leaders think their organisation is faring. The discussion looks at what UK businesses can do to catch up with peers in the G7 and how governments can help them to get there.

Host Professor Bart van Ark is joined by:

• Anthony Impey, CEO at Be the Business
• Hannah Barlow, Managing Director at Dunsters Farm
• Barry Leahey, President at Playdale

For more information on the topic:

• Be the Business, The G7 Productivity Business Index: Putting productivity in context, 2023.
• Be the Business, Productive Business Index, Edition Six, Q1 2023.
• FT, UK lags behind G7 peers on productivity due to ‘complacency’. July 18th, 2023
• FT, Why Productivity is So Weak and UK Companies, July 25th 2023.
• How to become a disruptive leader in a family business, Interview with Barry Leahey, Be the Business website.
• Dunsters Farm: The evolution of a family-run business in unprecedented times, Overview by Be the Business, including regular interviews over 2020/21.
• Do your research before investing in new tech, Interview with Tom Mathew and Hannah Barlow, Dunsters Farm, on how to make big investment decisions, Be the Business.

About Productivity Puzzles:

Productivity Puzzles is brought to you by The Productivity Institute, a research body involving nine academic institutions across the UK, eight Regional Productivity Forums throughout the nation, and a national independent Productivity Commission to advise policy makers at all levels of government. It is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.