Why are mid-sized businesses so invisible, asks Jyoti Banerjee? Its because they get grouped with small and start-up organisations that they are absolutely different from.
Mid-size enterprises are the powerhouse of the UK economy.
Although only 6% of UK companies are in the £10-£250 million revenue bracket, these businesses employ 30% of the British work force, and generate 20% of all corporate profits. Their annualised growth rate is at 8%, which is well above the national growth rate.
Despite this sterling performance, mid-size enterprises are nearly invisible. They have no profile in the market, government does not pay them any attention, and they are usually lumped together with small and micro enterprises via the SME label, although they are significantly different from those companies in almost all respects.
Mid-size businesses are in a different ballpark from small businesses
Mid-size businesses are categorised in most UK analytics as part of the SME grouping. This is certainly tautological in terms of size as SME seems to cover any companies that are not large, but it does not provide any analytical insight on the behaviour of such companies as they are different from small and micro enterprises in a number of significant ways.
