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<\/a><\/div>\nMy family Sure there are other cultures But the And I got “Making the safe decision is the fastest way to become irrelevant.”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Teresa Barreira, Global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Publicis Sapient, argues that growth comes from challenging the status quo:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Fortune favors the brave who are willing to disrupt, challenge, and change things. It applies to everyone and everything, from individuals to companies and brands.”<\/b><\/em> Teresa Barreira on LinkedIn<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Countries No country can Then I The UK where I was But my The USA has It varies from The Dutch employees also work some of the shortest hours in the world: 27 hours a week in the Netherlands versus 36 in the USA It\u2019s hard to However, I \u00a0 The Problem UK productivity, already struggling, has been hit by each So I have And one that is more of a conjecture, based on my personal experience and observations. However, I have provided some good data to support that theory as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lack of My I\u2019m not just talking The numbers Whole-economy investment in the UK was just A three-percentage-point gap against the US doesn\u2019t sound The The answer: <\/span>British workers have 38% less British factory Of Somehow this fact made me come back to Greece again – They were using the state of the art equipment, three thousand years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n And it gets The US invests 6.7% of GDP per year in software, IP, data That gap is hugely The US Then there\u2019s Anecdotally, when I attended a US\u00a0business school<\/span><\/a>, half of the MBA part-time class were funded by their employer<\/span><\/a>, and around a ten percent of the full time.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 80% provide financial support to employees pursuing MBA programs specifically (Georgetown CEW \/ GMAC<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span>In the UK, that would be unthinkable.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n And that, ultimately, is the point: if we invest less in our people, our tools, our skills and our future, we shouldn\u2019t be surprised when productivity flatlines.\u00a0<\/span>One way to look at this problem, is that the countries that out-innovate us are simply out-investing us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The \u2014 and naturally, employers prioritise senior and And that is born out anecdotally by myself. I got a tremendous amount of on-the-job training when I worked in the USA. In the UK, I’ve had virtually zero.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I have had an immense amount of training in the UK – but almost all of it has been self-funded, and self-directed. So my anecdotal story of working in the UK fits the data.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The result is a workforce that doesn\u2019t get developed In the Poor If I\u2019m There\u2019s a They\u2019ve trained interviewers to score firms across 18 management The results The US comes The gap to the US is roughly half a standard deviation <\/i><\/b>\u2014 which sounds UK management practices, he said, are about half a standard deviation But here\u2019s Haldane We have plenty of world-class firms at the Notice in the chart below, how UK productivity growth has plummetted from 1980-2007 (2.2%) to\u00a0 2008-2023 (0.4%). That’s a productivity growth drop of 5.5x.<\/span><\/p>\n If a company exhibited that trend, leadership would be asking some serious questions. It would be what the americans call ‘A come to jesus moment’.<\/span><\/p>\n Why? My The A UK business with ten employees could theoretically add \u00a31.9 million Now think How much of Bloom and Management isn\u2019t a soft factor. When I Lack of Scott Page Page shows that various types of My experience working in both the USA and the Netherlands is that neither country treats conventional wisdom as sacred.<\/span><\/p>\n In America especially, the belief that one person with a better idea can overturn the status quo sits at the heart of the culture.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n I think that used to be the case in the UK. But I’m not so sure anymore in the last fifteen years or so. It seems like UK companies are more risk-averse than they used to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n From the revolution against King George III to Moneyball<\/span><\/a><\/em>, where a young economist transformed baseball by ignoring decades of accepted thinking, Americans have long admired people who challenge established assumptions.<\/span><\/p>\n That culture doesn’t just produce entrepreneurs and innovators. It creates an environment where different viewpoints are encouraged, disagreement is accepted, and new ideas are more likely to emerge.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand I just got back from a week in Greece. It\u2019s a beautiful country with
\nwonderful people. But more importantly, almost all that we have today sprang
\nfrom that vibrant, innovative, intellectually brilliant culture \u2013 Democracy,
\nMathematics, the Sciences, Philosophy, the arts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthat have influenced the word a great deal from the Romans (though they stole a lot of their ideas from Greece too), to ancient India, China, then later the French, Germans, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch and the British.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nGreek culture has had a disproportionate impact on the world we live in today. My
\nAmerican wife, Catherine, often has quite a \u2018new world’ take on issues \u2013 On
\nGreece, she also had a very thought-provoking insight; “it\u2019s amazing that this country was the
\nbirthplace of so much that is exceptional in the modern world. Yet look at it
\ntoday, mired in unemployment, poverty, and with a failing political and economic
\nsystem”.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthinking \u2013 what caused that decline? I came to the conclusion that one powerful factor was
\ndeclining productivity growth. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nneed to keep innovating, taking risks (as in the quote above), challenging the status quo, and improving, to maintain their economic strength.
\nAnd without economic strength, no other can really persist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nafford to rest on its laurels, otherwise they risk going from being the Greece
\nof the ancient world to the Greece of today (still beautiful but certainly no one would claim it is a global powerhouse).<\/span><\/p>\n
\nstarted to think about three countries that I am most intimately acquainted
\nwith \u2013 I have lived and worked extensively in all three countries. The
\nNetherlands, where I was born, and the home of my mother.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nraised for much of my life, and where I went to school, and university. And finally, the
\nUSA, the country I moved to by choice \u2013 first, to study for an MBA, and then
\nraising a family and working there, for ten years.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nexperiences are one part of the story only. I will rely on data to inform me as
\nto my thesis on falling productivity. But there are other, rather wonderful
\nreasons why comparing the UK to the Netherlands, and the USA can provide such
\npowerful insights. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe most free market Economy of the three \u2013 the lowest taxes, the highest inequality (though
\nthe UK is getting closer), and the least protective legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nstate to state though \u2013 Massachusetts, where I lived, is closer to the UK in workers
\nprotection. Whilst States like North Carolina<\/span><\/a>, Florida, or Texas are truly the \u2018wild west\u2019 with
\nvery little in the way of workers rights, paid vacation, or maternity\/paternity leave).<\/span><\/p>\n
\nNetherlands is at the other end of the spectrum politically, and socially. It is very hard to fire
\nsomeone (as in France, or Germany). Workers are far more protected than in the UK.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nand 31 in the UK.\u00a0<\/b> <\/span>https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/country-rankings\/average-work-week-by-country<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 – as you can see one way thay achieve that is by being super-productive.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ntalk about large macro economic issues like productivity, or innovation, without veering into
\npolitics. When you start to talk about solutions to issues like low
\nproductivity growth, it\u2019s almost impossible to do so without talking politics.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nam aiming to, as far as possible, avoid taking a political position. That is one of the reasons why I chose two countries with much differing political outlooks, to compare to the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\u2013 low productivity growth in the UK over the last twenty years, which has been
\nexacerbated by each crisis \u2013 from the 2008 financial crash, to Brexit, to the
\nCovid pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncrisis, and not recovered from them (in the way that the USA, has, for
\nexample). Why is that?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\ntwo theories backed with extensive evidence, why the UK is
\nunderperforming both a more free market economy like the USA, as well as a more
\nplanned economy like the Netherlands?<\/span><\/p>\n
\ninvestment<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nexperience of working in the US and the Netherlands bears out the hard
\nevidence, that business investment in the UK is very low and falling, and that
\nthis is a major factor in our poor productivity growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nabout investment in hardware, software or other work tools. There is very
\nlittle on the job training in the UK, versus in the US, or the Netherlands. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nbehind that observation are stark:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n18.9% of GDP in 2025 \u2014 the lowest in the G7. The US sits at 21.6%. The
\nNetherlands at 19.7%.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nlike much. But sustained year after year for two decades, it compounds into a
\nyawning chasm.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nInstitute for Public Policy Research went further in their April 2026 analysis.
\nThey calculated a \u201ccapital gap\u201d \u2014 how much less capital British workers have to
\nwork with compared to peer countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\ncapital per hour worked than the average of comparable economies. In
\nmanufacturing specifically, the gap rises to 47% \u2014 versus a peer set of the
\nUSA, Germany, France and the Netherlands<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nworkers are working with roughly half the machinery, equipment, robots and IT
\nsystems that their American, German, French and Dutch counterparts have.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\ncourse they produce less per hour. They\u2019re working with one hand tied behind
\ntheir back. (<\/span>IPPR press release,
\nApril 2026<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\nworse on intangibles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nand organisational know-how. The UK invests just 4.2%.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nsignificant because intangibles \u2014 software, design, brand value, training,
\nR&D \u2014 are increasingly what drives productivity in a modern economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nhas been quietly out-investing us in the very things that compound the fastest,
\nand the gap is widening, not closing.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe on-the-job training I mentioned. The hard numbers: British businesses spend
\nroughly half the EU average per worker on training and development.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nChartered Management Institute reports that around 82% of UK training spend is
\nfunded by employers themselves<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nprofessional roles, not the middle managers and frontline workers who actually
\nrun day-to-day operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nbeyond what each individual chooses to invest in themselves.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nStates, every employer I worked for had a real training budget \u2014 actual money
\nset aside to develop me. In the UK, that is rare, or even non-existant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nmanagement<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nhonest, this is the one that surprised me most when I started digging. I\u2019d
\nalways vaguely assumed British management was a bit stuffy but basically fine.
\nIt turns out, it isn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nserious field of academic work measuring management quality across countries,
\ncalled the <\/span>World Management Survey<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s been running since 2002, led
\nby Nick Bloom (Stanford), John Van Reenen (LSE\/MIT), and Raffaella Sadun
\n(Harvard).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\npractices \u2014 things like target-setting, monitoring, talent development, and how
\nfirms deal with poor performers \u2014 using structured interviews with middle
\nmanagers. They\u2019ve now covered around 13,000 firms in 35 countries.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\naren\u2019t kind to us.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nin first. Then Japan, Germany, Sweden and Canada. The Netherlands ranks sixth,
\nat 3.04 out of 5. The UK ranks seventh, at 2.95. The gap to the Netherlands is
\nsmall.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\ntechnical, but Andy Haldane (then chief economist at the Bank of England)
\ntranslated it in a memorable 2018 speech, \u201c<\/span>The UK\u2019s Productivity
\nProblem: Hub No Spokes<\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nlower than comparator countries, and these management skills are statistically
\nsignificant determinants of productivity.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\nwhat really matters: the headline average understates the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nshowed that the UK has TWICE the share of firms with low management scores
\ncompared to the US and Germany.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nfrontier \u2014 but a long, fat tail of badly-managed companies that other countries
\nsimply don\u2019t have to anything like the same extent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
And that tail has been
\ngrowing. Between 1997 and 2023, the number of UK firms below the 25th
\nproductivity percentile nearly doubled, from around 444,500 to 873,000.<\/span><\/p>\n
\ntheory \u2014 and this is where it gets uncomfortable \u2014 is that we\u2019ve created a
\nclass of \u201caccidental managers.\u201d The <\/span>Chartered Management
\nInstitute<\/span><\/a> estimated
\nin 2023 that 82% of UK managers had no formal training before being put in
\ncharge of people. In 2019 the figure was 68%. So it\u2019s getting worse, not
\nbetter.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\ndownstream economic effects are brutal. A UK SME generates roughly \u00a3147,000 of
\noutput per worker per year. A German SME generates \u00a3335,000. That\u2019s more than
\ndouble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\nin annual turnover if it operated at German productivity levels.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nabout how many small British firms are scraping by, when with better management
\nthey\u2019d be thriving.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe international productivity gap does management actually explain?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncolleagues estimated in 2016 that management practices account for roughly a
\nthird of the productivity gap between the US and other countries.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s a major component of why the UK is falling behind.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nworked in the US, most of my managers had been trained \u2014 through MBAs, or
\nrotational programmes, or formal leadership development.The Netherlands has also has built-in formalised training for all employee levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
\ncognitive diversity <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
\n(Michigan, complex systems) published the foundational paper with Lu Hong in
\nPNAS in 2004 showing, with proofs, that a randomly-selected group of diverse
\nproblem-solvers outperforms a group composed of the highest-ability individual
\nsolvers, on sufficiently complex tasks<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\ncognitive diversity \u2014 differences in how people perceive, encode, analyze, and
\norganize the same information and experiences \u2014 are linked to better outcomes.\u00a0https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.0403723101<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n