The UK needs a bigger (business) pie!

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The UK needs a bigger (business) pie!

It’s a sobering thought that while the UK busies itself arguing over how to divide up the same old economic pie, it seems the USA is focused on making a bigger one.

This isn’t just about GDP figures or trade deals, it’s about mindset, ambition and a fundamental difference in how we approach growth. Has the UK stopped growing? Is it stuck? Worse still, is it becoming irrelevant on the global stage?

If we’re honest, there are signs that we’ve lost our way. The dynamism that once defined Britain—the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the leader in finance, the driver of global trade—is at risk of being replaced by stagnation, bureaucracy, woke-ism and an unhealthy obsession with simply managing decline rather than driving growth.

It feels like we have become a nation of incrementalists. We tweak policies, adjust taxes, reallocate funding—but it seems we rarely do we see bold, transformative action that genuinely moves the needle. The focus seems to be on redistribution rather than expansion, on fairness rather than ambition. Of course, fairness matters, but fairness without growth leads to shared decline rather than shared prosperity.

Take infrastructure as an example. While other nations pour investment into high-speed rail, next-generation energy, and digital transformation, the UK appears to dither. HS2 for example has been scaled back having run over budget and seemingly lost purpose. Major energy projects take years to approve. And while AI, biotech, and green tech are revolutionising industries globally, the UK is still bogged down in debates about regulation rather than racing ahead to lead in these sectors. In addition, we have such expensive energy, which constrains certain grow and tech. Perhaps we should employ Nico Rosberg to advise?

This constrained thinking isn’t just political, it seems to becoming cultural. Businesses, too, have become more risk-averse. Entrepreneurs find themselves buried in bureaucracy, plagued with rising taxes and investment capital might be considered more cautious than ambitious. Instead of betting big, we hedge. Instead of seizing new markets, we protect old ones. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the American approach couldn’t be more different. The USA appears to have growth-first mentality – remains to be seen how this changes with Trump party leading the way, but suspect it may even be more entrepreneurial.

Rather than ask ‘How do we share what we have?’ I hear they ask ‘How do we create more wealth so that there’s more to share?’ They innovate relentlessly, they scale rapidly, and they aren’t afraid to fail in the pursuit of big wins. It’s not that they don’t care about fairness—it’s that they understand fairness is best served when there’s more to go around in the first place.

To get back to growth, the UK needs to embrace an expansion mindset. We need leaders in government and business who are willing to take calculated risks and are supported so to do. That means funding moonshot projects, scaling start-ups into global players, and actively removing barriers that stifle ambition. The UK should be a powerhouse for AI (which Kier Starmer desperately wants), quantum computing, and sustainable energy—yet we’re lagging. Why? Because we regulate and debate far too much. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be drowning in red tape, they should be set free to tghink and grow big. Tax incentives for high-growth industries, smarter immigration policies to attract the best talent, and a regulatory environment that fosters innovation rather than stifles it are all crucial. If it’s easier to start, scale, and succeed in the UK, we’ll create wealth, jobs and prosperity.

If we want a bigger economy, we need a workforce that can drive it. This is likely to mean serious investment in STEM education, vocational training and lifelong learning. Too much UK talent is locked out of high-growth industries because they don’t have the right skills at the right time. Let’s fix that.

I really believe we need to stop celebrating small wins as if they’re big ones – I see it far too often on my travels. The UK media often glorifies moderate success while ignoring the kind of audacious thinking that creates billion-dollar companies and global industry leaders. We need to shift the conversation from ‘not failing’ to ‘winning big’, and allow people to win big, celebrate this and not penalise them when they do.

Is the UK’s strategy too much about managing decline. Whether it’s industries clinging to outdated models, cities surviving on past glories, or policies designed to slow down failure rather than accelerate success, it feels like we’re often playing not to lose rather than playing to win.

Surely this has to change. The UK has all the ingredients to be a major global force—world class universities, a history of innovation, a strategic global position, and a diverse, talented population with enormous untapped potential. But potential means nothing without focussed action and positive intent. What if we shifted our focus entirely? What if instead of worrying about the size of individual slices, and argued over who gets what and why, we simply committed to making a much bigger pie?

Imagine if the UK led the world in AI development, rather than debating its risks endlessly. What if we became the global hub for green energy, rather than arguing over whether net zero is too ambitious? What if British businesses scaled globally at the speed of Silicon Valley start-ups, rather than navigating a sea of bureaucracy before even getting started?

The UK is at a crossroads. We can choose to keep playing small, dividing up a shrinking pie and fighting over what’s left of our ‘cheese’. Or we can change our mindset, take bold action, and build a future where there’s more for everyone.

But it won’t happen by accident. It will take leaders who are willing to break free from constrained thinking, businesses that prioritise expansion over protection, and a culture that rewards ambition rather than just stability. The pie needs to grow. And if we want to stay relevant, competitive, and prosperous, we need to start baking together at speed.

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Blog rant by PJ Stevens who should never go in to Politics, ever, inspired in part by DOAC Steven Bartlett and guests, and my own frustrations expectations and beliefs.

I am not well versed in Politics, History and Economics – so feel free to shoot holes in this somewhat emotional blog – one thing is for sure, we in the UK need to build better businesses and business for good. Better businesses makes great sense for us all. And for that, we simply must learn to lead change faster, better, more efficiently and effectively, and therefore move faster to value. Value we can all share in.

Ref Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson. If you haven’t read it. Do. its simple, brilliant and a little bit uncomfortable