The January issue of Management Today presents its seventh annual survey of Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs. The MT Top 100 are ranked using the following criteria: 1) asset wealth, which is identified from their holdings in private or public companies, share sales, dividends and salaries; 2) Percentage growth in turnover over the past five years (or less if figures do not go back that far); 3) Percentage growth in jobs created in the past five years. This is designed to highlight the important role of the Top 100 entrepreneurs as the leading job creators in the private sector. Finally, MT add up the figures for the entrepreneurs' ranking in, respectively, the wealth, turnover and employment columns.
Looking at two of the key measures of performance - growth in turnover and employment - it is heartening to report that the MT100 turnover has grown from £11.2bn to £24.9bn, a healthy 122% rise, which naturally means more economic activity spreading round the UK. More importantly perhaps, their total headcount has risen in five years by over 48,000 to 137,914. This represents a 53% rise and shows that in the crucial area of productivity, the entrepreneurs making the list are right on top of their game. They are getting more work out of their staff, with turnover growing at more than twice the rate of employment growth.
This years ranking sees another decline in the female headcount with just eight women included this year. It was nine in 2009 and a record 29 in 2008. But the women nclude are of outstanding quality - Natalie Massenet, for example, who founded online clothing boutique Net-a-porter.com in 2000 makes it to number three, the highest recorded position for a female entrepreneur since the Top 100 began. One other aspect worthy of note is that 2010 is the year of grey power, with a whopping 58 of our entrepreneurs aged 60 or above, and no fewer than 11 aged 70 or over. Commentators who claim that the recession has hit the younger generation hardest may have a point.
Click here to see the full list
Interested in reading more? Management today is available online to current London Business School staff, students and faculty from Business Source complete and Factiva (check Article finder for date ranges) . The library also holds the hardcopy version going back to 1966.
Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: mrgarris0n
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