Can you attract resources before you’ve proved your worth? Yes, you can! Start-ups and young businesses aiming for growth need resources - funding, staff, material, customers and so on. But why would anyone provide resources to a small business that has nothing concrete to show for it yet? How can you convince others if you haven’t yet proved your worth? A study by Professor Sophie Manigart and her colleagues show that what are known as ‘soft signals’ can be very useful in this situation. Read more
Young Belgian growth companies should pay more attention to their governing bodies A company’s Advisory Board and Board of Directors can have significant impacts on its performance. However, not so many young Belgian companies with growth potential have such governing bodies. Only 8% have Advisory Boards, and one in five have Boards of Directors. Although the compositions of the Boards of Directors are relatively diverse and complementary, only one in five has independent directors. Moreover, only 16% have a female presence; compared to the US (37%) or the UK (47%), women are under-represented on Belgian Boards of Directors. On the positive side, the Boards of Directors meet much more frequently than is generally recommended, which means that these young growth companies fully exploit their expertise. These are the main conclusions of the fourth edition of the Rising Star Monitor Read more