The Institute of Chartered Accountants finds that 77% of all British businesses are engaged in international activities. M Institute co-founder Jyoti Banerjee explores this finding in the light of UK plc's competitiveness in the global marketplace.
The tenth annual Enterprise study from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has found that 77% of all UK businesses are currently engaged in globalisation to some extent. Filtering this finding to companies with less than 1,000 employees, the research indicates that as many as 44% are engaged internationally, either through having customers overseas, outsourcing, or running operations abroad. |Its higher than I would expect
Of the 1100 companies taking part in the study, 42% view globalisation positively, and 18% are concerned about it. Possibly unsurprising is the fact that it is the financial services sector that is most positive about globalisation, and manufacturing the fastest to recognise the risks, reflecting the relative strengths of these industries in the global marketplace. London continues to be a powerful global finance centre, while Britain's manufacturing is sliding away, except in certain specialist sectors such as racing cars, boats, and defence.
