On 7th October, Be.Partners joined business, investment, engineering, education and public-sector leaders at Silverstone Museum for the Institution of Directors’ The New Geography of Growth: Shaping the Future of Business and Innovation.
Representing Be.Partners were Senior Partners Adrian Pryce DL and Tim Grantham, Associate Partner Zanda Bayfield, and NED Phil Ziedler DL. The event brought together perspectives from across the emerging Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, with discussion centred on a question that is increasingly important for businesses and places alike: where will the next decade of growth come from, and what will it take to turn that potential into reality?
The setting was particularly fitting. Silverstone is no longer simply synonymous with motorsport. The wider ecosystem around the circuit brings together advanced manufacturing, engineering, technology, innovation, investment and skills, offering a practical example of how a place-based concentration of capability can become part of a much wider growth story. The IoD event explored how those strengths can be connected more effectively across the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Across the day, a consistent theme emerged: growth is becoming less about individual organisations acting alone and more about the quality of the place around them.
Toni Allen of the Institution of Engineering and Technology explored how engineering capability is helping to redraw the geography of growth, with emerging technologies, electrification, resilience, artificial intelligence and deep tech increasingly shaping both competitiveness and investment. Other sessions considered the role of innovation, investment, infrastructure and skills, alongside the need for organisations to adapt more quickly as technology and economic conditions continue to change.
Rob Lewis OBE, for example, demonstrated how innovation can come from applying existing knowledge in new ways and creating bridges between disciplines. Discussions around Silverstone’s developing technology and investment ecosystem reinforced a related point: places do not become successful simply because they contain strong businesses or good infrastructure. The opportunity comes from connecting those assets and creating the conditions for collaboration.
That idea sits closely with Adrian Pryce’s contribution to the conversation.
From the geography of growth to the capacity to deliver it
Ahead of the event, Adrian published The New Geography of Growth: Building the Leadership Capacity to Make Ecosystems Work on the IoD’s website.
Originally published by the IoD as part of its Sustainable Business resources, the article examines why the economic geography of the UK is increasingly being shaped by clusters, corridors and ecosystems that extend beyond traditional administrative boundaries. It argues that infrastructure and investment matter, but that their value depends on the relationships connecting business, government, academia, investors and communities.
A central distinction is between proximity and connectivity. Simply placing businesses, universities, infrastructure and investors in the same geographical area does not guarantee innovation or productivity. Effective ecosystems create the connections through which knowledge, skills, capital, expertise and opportunity can move between organisations and institutions.
That also changes what leadership looks like.
Leaders operating within an ecosystem have to think beyond the boundaries of their own organisation. They need to build partnerships they do not necessarily control, understand the wider environment in which their organisation operates, manage risk and opportunity, and create enough shared purpose for different organisations to act together. Adrian’s argument is that leadership capacity should therefore be considered alongside capital, infrastructure and innovation as a fundamental ingredient of regional growth.
For Be.Partners, this is not an abstract idea. It reflects a core part of how we work.
We work across organisations, places and investment, recognising that these are rarely separate questions. Organisations depend on the places and ecosystems around them for talent, infrastructure, markets, capital, skills and relationships. Places, in turn, rely on strong organisations and institutions to generate investment, employment, innovation and long-term prosperity. Investors need both compelling opportunities and the confidence that the surrounding ecosystem can support delivery.
Our role is often to help make those connections clearer and more productive: bringing commercial insight, responsible leadership and place-based thinking together to help turn ambition into lasting impact.
Making places work
The discussions at Silverstone reinforced a simple but important point: the next generation of growth will not be created by strategy documents or investment announcements alone.
It will depend on the capacity of people and organisations to work across boundaries, respond to change, build trust, develop skills, connect investment to opportunity and convert collective ambition into action.
That makes the conversation around the “new geography of growth” as much about leadership and collaboration as it is about economics.
Silverstone provided a compelling backdrop for that discussion. As the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor develops, the challenge is not simply to identify where growth assets already exist, but to understand how those assets can be connected, strengthened and translated into wider economic and social value.
For Be.Partners, that is exactly where our work begins.
The full article by Adrian Pryce, The New Geography of Growth: Building the Leadership Capacity to Make Ecosystems Work, was originally published by the Institution of Directors and can be read on the IoD website here.
