Sapience attends ScaleUp Week 2021

Published: May 25th, 2021

Updated: Jan 04th, 2024

Last week, Sapience enjoyed attending the ScaleUp Week virtual event run by BGF. The agenda was packed full of engaging talks with industry leaders discussing how the UK can foster an environment that supports business growth, with themes including capital fundraising, sustainability, and innovation.

The UK is now several weeks into the roadmap out of lockdown, and companies are getting used to new initiatives that they may have implemented to encourage post-pandemic growth. Smaller businesses have had an incredibly tough year, and it will be crucial for them to seize any opportunities to help them accelerate this expansion.

Our team tuned in to some of the conversations to get up to speed with how we can support the scale up of companies who are looking towards post-COVID recovery. So, what did we learn?

Developing talent

In the talk ‘Focusing on skills: equipping today’s workforce for tomorrow’s challenges’, an interesting point was raised regarding the changing nature of career development. These days, people are used to changing jobs many times over the course of their career – but it’s still important that they keep learning new skills.

The speakers discussed how businesses will benefit from training employees even if they quickly move on to pastures new. They will make a name for themselves as a company who nurture talent, and therefore build a strong recruitment pool. This is very important considering that only 42% of graduates feel prepared for the world of work, which drops to 33% among humanities students.

Encouraging new thinking

The discussion ‘Unlocking ingenuity: how to create fertile conditions for innovation’ touched on the need to support the accelerating pace of innovation with strong funding, even at the early stage of university environments.

The speakers considered how new bodies such as the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) Bill will provide agile new ways of making sure that funding reaches individuals and groups who are taking great strides of innovative thinking.

Increasing diversity

The panel at the talk ‘No more glass ceilings: removing barriers to a diverse entrepreneur community’ spoke very powerfully about the need to provide funding, networking opportunities and role models for entrepreneurs from a diverse variety of backgrounds.

Very interesting points were raised about how businesses should look outside of their own channels, and ensure that information and opportunities are made accessible to all entrepreneurs rather than relying on them to reach out.

It was great to hear some of the speakers emphasise the optimism and energy that they have noted from young people of all backgrounds, who see a ‘democratic openness’ around running their own businesses.

Building back

At Sapience we know how important it is to have your finger on the pulse of business innovation and growth opportunities. Our team very much enjoyed attending Scale Up Week and we are looking forward to putting our new insights to good use for our clients both new and old.

Do you have the skills to help businesses reach their full potential through corporate comms? For more information on career opportunities at Sapience, visit our LinkedIn.

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