Why Paddington Bear is great for British business

The Paddington movie is a great Christmas treat for families.  From a business perspective, the film is also a brilliant advert for #London and sends a powerful message for businesses who wish to engage across the world.

But how many small and medium size businesses are ready to trade globally?

At a recent event we asked a group of entrepreneurs “How many of you are ambitious?”  Everyone put up their hand.

We then asked the same group of entrepreneurs “How many of you have global ambitions?”  Only 2 hands went up out of group of 20 established businesses.

The UK has a predicted growth rate of 2.5% in 2015. Admittedly the UK growth rate is better than that predicted for the Euro area (1.5%) but compared to regions such as Asia – which has a predicted growth of 6.8%, the UK is only a small part of the global market for goods and services.

With these predicted rates of growth in foreign markets, it seems like a good idea that British businesses capitalise upon the value of “Great Britain” – (including #Paddington! – which was partly filmed at Elstree Studios in #Hertfordshire) to maybe even sell marmalade to darkest Peru!