Growth

As we enter 2012 we might all have made some resolution based around growth of some sort! Whether it’s to ‘grow’ personally or to ‘grow’ our business, our network profile or our wealth the subliminal pressure to ‘grow’ is there and many of us, if we’re honest, will have an economic imperative driving us.


One look at the BIS website confirms the government’s focus on growth: “Growth is the Government’s top priority and every part of Government is focused on it……” (BIS). The inference is clear for all of us – Growth MUST be good for all of us. After all, if economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society (Kendrick, 1961), then it must be what we all want and need? So, how to achieve this blissful state? Well, economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity which lowers the inputs (labour, capital, material, energy, etc.) for a given amount of output. Aaahh. Efficiency. Economies of scale, technological improvements, innovation. By who though? The government have pinned their hopes on ‘the private sector’. Entrepreneurs and businesses. Back to the BIS website: “The CBI estimates that an additional £50bn could be added to GDP growth within ten years if this potential [of mid sized businesses ] were unlocked”.

That’s a start but ultimately it all ends with us. More pressure, a faster treadmill to run in order to achieve it all.

I wonder why all this emphasis on growth? When the coalition took power, David Cameron launched a happiness survey and eight months of intensive work by civil servants and statisticians identified a ‘top three’ of subjects that matter most to people: health, family and relationships. Not much there about economic growth then – or is that they are all interrelated? I think not. Perhaps we need to be a little more sophisticated in our attitude. Byrnes and Stone (1989) differentiate the connections between economic growth and development:

“economic growth is occurs when more goods may be produced; economic development entails improvements in the quality of life , in the quality of goods available or in the ways production is organised” (Byrnes and Stone. 1989)

Perhaps less emphasis on ‘economic growth’ and a bit more on ‘economic development’ would be a wiser approach for 2012?

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Dr Izzy Warren-Smith is a visiting Research Fellow at MMUBS and lectures in Agricultural Economics and Entrepreneurship at Harper Adams University College. She founded Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) which was instrumental to Harper Adams University College receiving the Queens Award in 2006 and for which she received an OBE in 2005.