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Our story

We’ve been helping small business leaders boost their productivity since 2017.

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This is a chance we can’t miss: for every business to raise its game and transform our competitiveness as a nation. We’re building a productivity movement, and it's a privilege to play a part in it

Anthony Impey, Be the Business CEO

The story so far


  • 2015 – Prime Minister David Cameron asks Sir Charlie Mayfield and Sir Richard Lambert to review the UK’s productivity challenges. They create the Productivity Leadership Group and start a 12-month, UK-wide review.

  • 2017 – Based on the review’s findings, Be the Business is founded to help small business leaders improve performance through productivity.

  • 2018 – Our first fully-funded programme, Productivity through People, launches in collaboration with UK universities.  

  • 2019 – We onboard the first small businesses to our Boards Programme and host our first Be the Business Festival. We took our Be the Business bus down to Cornwall.

A group of people sit around a long white table in a white room. Anthony Impey sits at the top of the table, gesturing with one hand towards someone unseen at the other end of the table.
  • 2020 – We launch Rebuild to help small businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthony Impey MBE becomes our CEO.

  • 2021 – We publish our first Productive Business Index with Oxford Economics, tracking changes in UK small business performance and capabilities. Our partnership with Mastercard for the Strive programme began.

  • 2022 – The second Be the Business Festival brings 200+ small business leaders to Leeds for expert-led discussions and networking. The Construction Productivity Taskforce is founded with top UK construction companies. 

  • 2023 – We publish our G7 Productive Business Index to compare small business performance, and pilot our Productivity Programme. 

  • 2024 – Our programme participants increase productivity by over £500m. We launch our Be the Business Manifesto at the Houses of Parliament.

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Our partners


Working with big & small businesses

A list of logo's from the following companies: Accenture, Amazon, Bae Systems, Cisco, KPMG, Lloyds, and McKinsey & Company.

Boost your business


Leaders, walk this way

Our Productivity Programme gives you a personal advisory board, 1-to-1 expert mentoring and peer-learning sessions for six months.

We’ve worked with over 16,000 small business leaders since 2017, and 80% have made key changes with our help.

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Partner with us

We work with organisations that put small business productivity first.

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Be part of it

We’re looking for industry leaders and business experts to support our mission.

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