The Growth Company has joined forces with Red Flag Alert, a pioneering data intelligence platform – to develop a first-of-its-kind, online tool to measure growth potential, designed with policymakers, commissioners, business decision-makers and analysts in mind.
Named ‘Growth Flag’, the online tool was launched at the Convention of The North 2023, hosted at Manchester Central and was the headline sponsor of the convention.
Growth Flag pulls live data from a comprehensive dataset – that is easily analysed by the user – to instantly present clear visuals and downloadable data. This quickly shows where growth potential exists in individual businesses across the UK.
The system is objective and evidence-based, not driven by pre-disposed assumptions as to where growth should take place. You can analyse it by postcode area, town, local or combined authority, sector or type of business. It reveals that growth takes place where you may not expect it.
The Growth Company felt that it was important to have a simple and reliable way to identify growth as it’s essential for people, businesses, and places to thrive, especially during the economic uncertainty we’re experiencing today.
The partnership to deliver Growth Flag consolidates Red Flag Alert’s background in data insights, with The Growth Company’s 30+ years of experience delivering economic and business growth. With more than 55 years of combined experience, and the scope of supporting over 30,000 businesses in the UK through Growth Flag.
Growth Flag is aimed at public sector organisations such as Local and Combined Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships, as well as colleges and universities. These organisations can all use the platform to understand their local economy and use it to support sectors and companies that have the highest growth potential.
It’s also hoped that the online tool will be used to inform policymaking, investment strategies and bids – and in the case of educational establishments – curriculum development and academic research.
Private sector businesses can use Growth Flag to understand emerging markets and target relevant sales and marketing activity and offer tailored solutions based on where clusters of businesses are on their growth journey.
Growth Flag provides a sound basis for your business development strategy whether you are public sector, a college or university, or B2B sales. It enables you to deliver targeted sales and marketing campaigns, so you can reach potential new customers based on where they are on their growth journey with bespoke products and solutions.
Growth Flag takes comprehensive firm-level data sets that are constantly updated to create a Growth Potential Score.
This score is then analysable at different geographic levels and by sector, size and type of business, via a user-friendly, online platform. The analysis can be presented in different formats and individual company data is downloadable for onward use by research and delivery colleagues.
The score is also based on a set of evidenced drivers of growth, not simply whether they have received investment. It provides a broader look across both frontier and foundational sectors of the economy, giving you a comprehensive and deeper understanding of your local geography.
Growth Flag can facilitate improved strategy development and resource allocation based on a comprehensive and objective understanding of businesses’ growth potential. It provides tables, graphs or GIS interface – which can be shared instantly and provides quick exportable key contact data for targeting and delivery.
It reduces the need to look across different business data sources and lists, giving you quick access to potential new clients utilising the very latest cloud technology to integrate with new systems and analytical tools, and allows users to quickly manipulate, export and share the most up-to-date business lists.
Growth Flag has a methodology involving a ten-year time frame, 150 data attributes and bespoke algorithms – using robust principal components and multivariate analysis to provide individual company potential growth scores.
Richard Jeffery, National Director, GC Business at The Growth Company explains,
“We’ve established an incredibly important partnership to create Growth Flag. We’ve brought together Red Flag Alert’s tech-data capabilities with The Growth Company’s deep knowledge and understanding of what the economic community and local and combined authorities need. We’ve created something really unique.
“It will help you unlock huge opportunities in your local area – to find those companies that have got growth potential and be future stars. But it’s not just at the company level that’s going to be interesting. When you start to look at groups of businesses, you start to understand the dynamics of a place and perhaps find growth where you’ve not found or looked for it before. It’s a game changer and something that will absolutely drive change in economic development.”
Richard West, Managing Director of Red Flag Alert says
“I’m driven by a passion for data that makes a difference, and I’ve grown Red Flag Alert from a team of three to a multi-million-pound organisation powered by a hand-picked team of #databosses. I know from experience that the right analytics and insights can create – and change – conversations, while helping to solve some of the key challenges that businesses face day in, and day out.
“Together with The Growth Company, I’m proud to have created an online tool that’s different to other growth analysis tools on the market. Growth Flag isn’t like other business intelligence platforms – it treats data as a treasure which deserves better than being labelled as a boring business need. Many other systems claim to provide real-time data on growth potential, but Growth Flag does so much more than just churn out numbers.
“I’m confident that Growth Flag will be invaluable in helping to make decisions based on rich data and understanding of real economic drivers – effectively helping to target resources and allocate funding in the best possible way using trusted data.”
Caroline Cain Head of Account Management & Client Engagement at The Growth Company’s Business Growth Hub’s Relationships & Place team says,
“Our client engagement teams at The Business Growth Hub in Greater Manchester have been using Growth Flag to target new clients. Unlike other toolkits we have used, Growth Flag predicts the growth event rather than tells us that it has already happened, therefore allowing us to intervene and offer support to maximise the potential for the benefit of the business and the region.
“It’s certainly showing us some surprises about where growth is happening in Greater Manchester – it’s challenging us to engage with new clients and gives us the intelligence to flex our messaging depending on the Growth Score of the business.”
To find out how it can help you, visit the Growth Flag website: https://growthflag.com/
For more information about Red Flag Alert, you can visit their website.
