Granted

When nations establish productivity campaigns and initiatives, one feature is often financial support for companies (snd perhaps  universities and support agencies).

Firms are encouraged to apply for grant funding for additional resources or for specific support (for advice and consultancy, for example).

Some firms are obviously successful – and some are not.

The problem with such an approach is twofold.

Firstly, it encourages firms to become good at applying for grants – rather than being good at their core competencies.  Firms learn how to play this new game.

Secondly, it can help ‘shore up’ poorly performing firms – which does little for longer-term national productivity.

So, my recommendation is – don’t do it .By all means (I would encourage you to) have a productivity campaign – but don’t make grant funding central to it.