Growing out of the pandemic: Robust processes can help UK businesses ride the tailwinds of coming growth

The covid-19 pandemic plunged the UK into a deep recession, with national economic output falling by 10% in 2020, according to the IMF. Growth is now returning, aided by a rapid vaccination programme. The IMF projects the UK economy will bounce back to 4.5% growth in 2021 and 5% in 2022, although the pandemic will cast a long shadow in the form of lost lives, damaged livelihoods and ongoing economic disruption.

To identify key sentiments and trends in the approaches of executives tasked with navigating their organisations through the pandemic, SAP Concur commissioned a survey of 550 senior executives in 11 countries (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, the UK and the US), conducted in December 2020 and January 2021. Respondents were drawn from the senior leadership ranks of the finance, IT/ technology, management/strategy, and operations and risk functions at companies with at least 1,000 employees. (E) BrandConnect, a commercial arm of The Economist Group, fielded the survey.

This report provides an analysis of trends identified by UK respondents and outlines how investing in better business processes, specifically travel, expense and invoice (TE&I) management capabilities, can help organisations move towards growth in an evolving economic landscape.