Consent

This site uses third party services that need your consent. Learn more

Skip to content
A man in chef's whites and a blue apron slices meat in a silver meat slicer.

Our story

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

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 programmes launch: Productivity through People in collaboration with UK universities, and Mentoring for Growth in collaboration with several regional growth hubs.

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

A double decker bus parked near the sea.
  • 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 consolidate everything we’ve learned from delivering programmes into The Productivity Programme. 

  • 2024 – Evaluation reports confirm that our programmes have increased UK productivity by over £500m. We launch our Be the Business Manifesto at the Houses of Parliament

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

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.

Three women and a man gathered around a tall wooden bench testing different gin flavours.

Partner with us

We work with organisations that put small business productivity first.

Find out more

Be part of it

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

Find out more