As part of our mandate to help small and medium-sized business leaders increase their productivity, we publish research and studies. This helps us to understand business leaders and what will make their organisations more productive.
research-report
27 Mar 2024
Be the Business Productive Business Index - Edition Seven
Be the Business' seventh edition of the Productive Business Index demonstrates higher levels of confidence and optimism amongst UK SMEs.
research-report
19 Mar 2024
Stronger than yesterday: How to build resilience in challenging times
This toolkit is part of Be the Business’ and American Express’ commitment to provide support for the UK’s small business community..research-report
19 Feb 2024
Small Changes for a Big Impact: Solving the Productivity Puzzle – A Be the Business Manifesto
A new manifesto from Be the Business outlines five policies for the next UK government to improve small business productivity and drive local, regional and national prosperity.research-report
17 Jan 2024
The Secret of Productive Work: How better communication delivers the biggest wins
A new eBook from Slack and Be the Business highlights the importance of greater communication on the journey to improved productivity..research-report
16 Jan 2024
Full Fibre Productivity: The Opportunity for SMEs
Be the Business and Openreach's new report looks at the link between connectivity and productivity..video
18 Dec 2023
Beyond the Hype: Making AI Work for Business Productivity - event overview
Be the Business and The Productivity Institute co-hosted a special event on the link between AI and business productivity..research-report
08 Aug 2023
Be the Business G7 Productive Business Index
Our G7 Productive Business Index (PBI) compares the productivity of SMEs in the G7 countries..research-report
30 Jun 2023
Pandemic to Productivity?: 2020 to 2023 in comparison
Our latest report compares attitudes to productivity amongst small business leaders in 2020 and 2023..research-report
20 Apr 2023
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition Six, Q1 2023
Small and medium-sized businesses report significantly lower capabilities in areas linked to high productivity..research-report
10 Nov 2022
Trust and Productivity: Private sector construction playbook
Trust and Productivity has been developed by the Construction Productivity Taskforce on behalf of the UK construction industry. It builds on the work of the Government Construction Playbook published in December 2020..research-report
18 Apr 2023
Be the Business Annual Report 2022
Be the Business' first-ever Annual Report, covering achievements up to March 2022.research-report
18 Apr 2023
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition five Q3 2022
Business leaders less confident in their capabilities, but fighting to improve productivity levels..research-report
29 Jul 2022
Trigger events and their role in encouraging business leaders to seek business support
Our Trigger Events report is the first time that the moments SMEs are more receptive to seeking advice and support have been explored and thought about in detail..research-report
23 Aug 2022
Be the Business and Meta – Partnership highlights
Helping to drive Be the Business’ productivity mission is the knowledge and support of the world’s highest performing businesses, including Meta..research-report
09 Aug 2022
Ethnic minority-led SMEs
How the business support landscape, policy changes and our own programmes can better support business leaders from an ethnic minority background..research-report
17 May 2022
The Construction Productivity Taskforce is raising performance in the sector
The Construction Productivity Taskforce is aiming to identify and trial new ways of making the sector, which has historically low productivity, more efficient..research-report
25 Aug 2022
Measuring Construction Site Productivity: A seven-step framework for success
The Construction Productivity Taskforce has published a practical seven-step framework to improve construction site productivity..research-report
22 Jun 2022
Be the Business and Lloyds Banking Group – Partnership highlights
We've brought together some of the highlights of our partnership with Lloyds Banking Group, looking at productivity uplifts, marketing spotlights and specific impact case studies..research-report
17 May 2022
Ambitions Beyond Growth: Responding to the diversifying needs of the UK’s SME population
Increased profit is the primary ambition for 42 per cent of SMEs, with another 39 per cent focused on improving productivity and efficiency.research-report
20 Apr 2022
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition four Q1 2022
Latest index report reveals that businesses are continuing to invest in building capabilities in several areas critical for productivity improvement..research-report
29 Mar 2022
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition three Q3 2021
The headline Productive Business Index has increased sharply from 108.77 to 119.0. Rising inflation, wage demands and increased costs of doing business has pushed productivity to the top of business and political agendas..research-report
30 Nov 2021
Be the Business and BAE Systems: Getting SMEs on a path to growth
BAE Systems’ direct support allowed Be the Business to scale the support we could offer rapidly and engage thousands of small business leaders at a crucial time..research-report
23 Aug 2021
Skills for Success: Supporting business leaders with digital adoption – in partnership with The Open University
Be the Business has been working with The Open University on a report to understand the skills that are needed to help support SMEs with successful technology adoption..video
23 Aug 2021
Skills for Success: Supporting business leaders with digital adoption – WEBINAR
New research from The Open University and Be the Business explores the skills necessary to encourage the successful adoption of technology in SMEs..research-report
23 Aug 2021
The Be the Business Tech Adoption Lab – Insights Report
The Tech Adoption Lab helps small and medium-sized business owners overcome some of the biggest frustrations they face when buying technology: how to select and then successfully adopt and implement the right tech solution for their business..research-report
23 Aug 2021
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Edition two Q1 2021
The Be the Business Productive Business Index is comprised of four clearly defined elements: performance of business; expected performance of business; actions taken to drive sustainable growth; and planned actions to drive sustainable growth..research-report
10 Sep 2021
Be the Business Productive Business Index – Outlook for 2021
The first edition of a major new research programme to measure and track changes in UK micro and SME business performance and capabilities..research-report
10 Sep 2021
Why 2020 can be the year that changed our tech trajectory
We worked with McKinsey & Company to undertake the largest ever analysis of the UK SME tech market and find out why it's not working..research-report
10 Sep 2021
Recovery at risk
We examine a wave of coronavirus-driven innovation amongst SMEs – over three years of innovation has taken place in three months..research-report
10 Sep 2021
Segmenting the business impact of coronavirus and where do firms go from here?
This paper sets out a four-part segmentation of where firms are today and four emerging themes for recovery..research-report
10 Sep 2021
Raising UK competitiveness: Inside the mindsets of leaders of firms
How much does the mindset of SME leaders impact productivity? This study gives new insight into the behaviour of SMEs around business operations..research-report
28 Jul 2023