Emma Jones CBE
The Convener
The room, the network and the deal, brings the right people together.
Emma Jones CBE is a British entrepreneur, government-appointed commissioner and small-business advocate. She is the UK's Small Business Commissioner (appointed 2024, two-year term), an arm's-length government role focused on reducing late-payment friction in the economy.
“I always have to be careful because when running Enterprise Nation I had the great privilege of working across the small business agenda. We talk about exports, we talk about finance. This job is very focused on payment. So I ’ m always getting told off for talking about other things. I should just be talking about this.”
“And actually when you speak to individual business owners at the moment and you say to them “ How ’ s business? ” , every single one of them will say: “ Business is good. It ’ s challenging and it ’ s hard, but it ’ s good. ” So at an individual level, their heads are down, they ’ re working on okay, where are the opportunities?”
“You know, now Small Business Commissioner, but Startup Britain, Arthur Andersen, setting and selling your own business up. Each role is going to have taught you more and more about business. You ’ re presumably now a mentor. What has it taught you?”
“And again, back to this point about championing — at the time the media was filled with stories of people raising money, starting dotcom companies, and I was really inspired by that. And so what I was doing at Arthur Andersen was attracting inward investment into the UK.”
Late payment, SME growth and The Next Agenda
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