Companies in the UK are continuing to embrace globalisation but smaller businesses need help from government in order to compete in the global marketplace, says the Institute of Chartered of Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

The appeal comes at the ICAEW’s annual policy summit taking place today which looks at the issue of globalisation.

The ICAEW Enterprise survey revealed that 72 per cent of companies had any global engagement whilst over half had customers outside the UK (56 per cent) or secured services outside the UK (55 per cent).

This figure fell amongst smaller companies with only 41 per cent of micro businesses and 62 per cent of small businesses having global engagement. Less than a third (31 per cent) of micro businesses had customers abroad and 38 per cent of medium companies obtained products and services from abroad.

As well as smaller businesses having less global engagement than their larger counterparts, they were also not as positive about the impact a global marketplace will have.

Thirty-three per cent of micro and 27 per cent of small businesses were positive compared to 43 per cent of large companies. In spite of both the apparent opportunities and possible threats globalisation can bring to businesses only 21 per cent of small and 18 per cent of micro businesses had a strategy for dealing with globalisation going forward.

Michael Izza, chief executive of the ICAEW, said that the pace of global change has accelerated and that UK businesses realise that they must adapt quickly if they are to thrive in an increasingly global marketplace.

“As our survey shows, small businesses want to take up these opportunities but need help to do so. We would like to see the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulation Reform (BERR) ensuring that globalisation is a top priority,” he added.

Of those companies who have customers overseas, 49 per cent are in the EU 15 with 36 per cent in the later EU accession countries. China and India are the fastest growing overseas markets, along with these accession countries.

Businesses in London and the South East are typically most likely to have customers in more of these markets. There are some exceptions, however, with companies in Scotland most likely to say they have clients in the USA, Australia and Canada. Companies in Wales were the least globally engaged (51 per cent) whilst those in Scotland are the most (90 per cent) when compared to the national average of 72 per cent.

Related links

• ICAEW
• BERR

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