Michael Moore's Outlook on moving fast and breaking things
‘Move fast and break things’ is a mantra celebrated in certain business circles, enjoying a resonance well beyond its origins as a Facebook motto.
Recently Mr Zuckerberg has made a big effort to show his support for President Trump and his new Administration.
But it’s doubtful he expected him to repay the compliment so spectacularly by channelling the spirit of the slogan in every Executive Order he signs, or in the instructions he issues to new government appointees.
These first few weeks have been breathtaking. In the sense of the discomfort experienced after sprinting a couple of hundred metres for a train, rather than standing to behold a beautiful view.
Spending time in Washington, New York and Boston in February underlined how real the change is. And how orthodoxies are being challenged in every direction.
There was a genuine sense, even amongst those who backed the Republican ticket enthusiastically in November, of surprise about the nature and scale of the initiatives by the President and others close by.
So, it was a fascinating moment to be offering US investors an insight into the investment opportunities available in the UK and the rest of Europe. And across the cities we visited, there were high levels of interest.
Yet again, that interest was founded on important fundamentals: the UK’s trusted regulatory system, its private capital investment ecosytem of global scale and reach, and its regained reputation for policy predictability.
That latter point is best underlined by the cross party support for pension reform. Not least the focus on creating additional pools of capital to invest in the high growth companies which are the lifeblood of the UK’s private capital industry.
The support for this major public policy overhaul by the previous Conservative government and the (still relatively) new Labour government gives it extra credibility and generated more interest than I might have anticipated.
Far from replacing international capital, it is clear that for many overseas investors it would provide cornerstone credibility for UK-managed funds and encourage, rather than discourage them.
Which takes us back to those investment opportunities. It would have been tempting on the investor roadshows to contrast the sharpened uncertainty in north America with the relative calm in the UK.
Except that, until we emerge on the other side of the spring ‘not-a-Budget’ fiscal statement in late March, and see the details of the Industrial Strategy in early summer, a perception of calm is not the same as having policy certainty. All things may be relative, but there is still a need for some policy absolutes along the way.
However, it is undeniable that the UK has a track record that is very attractive to investors, wherever in the world they are based.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the official UK pitch highlights the findings of this year’s survey by PwC which puts Britain at the top of the European league table as an investment destination.
This accolade sits alongside others, such as its status as the fifth most innovative economy globally, the host of the largest tech sector by value in Europe, home to 4 of the world’s top 10 universities, and the G20’s most connected economy. Turns out there’s a reason why the UK government handles over a thousand investment projects a year.
The profile of the investment sectors is perhaps familiar, but the competitiveness of the UK is key to attracting serious capital. And the country’s strengths were well represented amongst the different private equity and venture capital firms who took part in our February roadshow.
Ask a policymaker where the best opportunities lie and the different sectors of the emerging industrial strategy will be top of mind: life sciences (no1 in Europe for government funded health R&D), creative industries (15% of UK service exports), advanced manufacturing (40% of UK exports), defence (out of the shadows as geopolitical calculations shift) and, of course, digital and tech, where the UK’s strengths are well understood.
Spending time in conference rooms along the east coast of America, the risk of death by PowerPoint might have been all too real. (In fairness, for the safety of others, I invested in a timekeeping app to put guardrails around my own enthusiasm for what is on offer)
But what was fascinating, and very encouraging, was the way the macro picture of what the UK offers, was interwoven with the specific investment strategies of UK-based firms.
In other words, the growth agenda of the government will have a real chance of success if the existing strengths of our private capital industry and the wider economy can be turbo-charged by the right investment environment and predictable policy frameworks, sooner rather than later. We should be all set.
Michael Moore
Chief Executive, BVCA
This article was originally published on 6 March 2025 on the Private Equity News website here.
