How Can Private Companies Leap Forward During Uncertainty?
Private companies are a key part of the world’s middle market, where the world’s fastest-growing engines for growth are to be found. While the latest World Bank Forecast estimates the global economy will grow by 2.7 percent this year, more than one in five private companies are on track to grow between 11 percent and 25 percent. With this growth comes new jobs, new wealth to support investment and dynamic approaches to innovation.
“Private companies have greater freedom to experiment, to offer patient investment in innovation and yet to respond quickly to new opportunities,” says Randall Tavierne, EY Global Assurance Private Client Services Leader. “Private company chief executives do not have to cope with the pressures of quarterly reporting cycles and can often make quick decisions that give them agility and first mover advantage.” EY is YPO’s Strategic Learning Advisor.
Does independence have an impact on how private companies plan their growth, build competitive advantage and navigate challenges and risks? Is it a measurable disadvantage not to have the easy access to global capital markets enjoyed by their public company competitors?
These questions and more come from a new EY longitudinal global survey of middle-market companies that as a whole represent some 99 percent of all enterprises and contribute almost half of global GDP. Private companies, as a key part of the middle market, drive economic success, high-impact entrepreneurship and innovation.
The EY Growth Barometer explores middle-market leaders’ growth ambitions, strategies and challenges, as well as their attitudes to global risks and uncertainties. The survey covers 2,340 C-suite executives globally with revenues of USD1 million to USD3 billion and startups that are less than five years old. Privately held companies comprise 78 percent of that global total.
