Take a glance across the business pages of many of the national newspapers and coverage will frequently be dominated by the kind of corporate titans with which even casual readers may be familiar.
One reason why is that a number of such large commercial organisations touch the lives of millions of people, either in terms of products or services which they offer or the employment which they provide.
Their respective sales figures are also hard to ignore. According to statistics published in September, some 42,785 companies in the UK will turnover more than £1 billion during the course of this year.
However, such behemoths do not tell the whole story of UK business.
Data compiled and issued by the House of Commons’ Library only weeks ago showed that 99 per cent of the country’s private sector firms have fewer than 50 employees.
These small and medium sized enterprises (or SMEs, for short) are, to some degree, the unsung heroes of business.
That is despite the fact that, collectively, they give work to 13 million people and generate almost £2 trillion in sales each year.
For all their industry and initiative, there is a costly consequence to operating without recognition.
In some respects, they are left to fend for themselves and are not afforded the kind of specialist guidance which is aimed at their much larger commercial counterparts.
They are still subject, of course, to the same challenges – and, some commentators argue with justification, are even more critically affected by such pressures.
The results of the latest Government cyber security survey from April this year, for instance, showed that, perhaps unsurprisingly, smaller firms generally have less robust defences against the sort of threats posed by digital criminals and so become a regular target.
Within insurance broking, there are even some who regard the work entailed in helping protect SMEs bolster their risk management capabilities as not being an efficient use of their resources.
Their logic is that the risk profile of SMEs is less diverse than that of bigger businesses and, therefore, might not be as valuable in terms of Gross Written Premiums (GWPs).
As a result, SMEs are sometimes only corresponded with when it is time for their annual policy renewal. Even then, there is little – if any – discussion about any change in their circumstances or whether the cover in place remains relevant.
In my opinion, that is a something which does both the insurance industry and its SME clients a disservice.
It is also why Broadway has decided once more to change things for the better by establishing a team dedicated to working closely with the SME community.
After building a career with one of the world’s largest brokers, I have decided to join Broadway to lead those efforts.
Broadway has invested significant time and resources understanding the needs of its corporate, private and healthcare clients since it launched four years ago.
That concierge service has paid dividends because a growing number of businesses and individuals appreciate working with a broker which has the experience and expertise to help them navigate the difficulties presented by new and emerging risks.
Whilst our specialist unit is new, we have had SME clients since the very beginning, assisting them since as they have overcome a pandemic and an economic downturn.
The importance of what we do is acknowledged elsewhere. Authorities such as the Harvard Business Review have described risk management “in an increasingly volatile world”{ as “never [having] been so important” to SMEs.
It is also something to which the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) referred earlier this year in its 2024 manifesto.
Broadway knows the difference which the kind of pro-active advice that we provide can make to businesses – ensuring policies which reflect client companies’ needs more closely and avoiding unnecessary outlay on premiums.
As a successful start-up ourselves, it is our intention to allow other SMEs to realise how effective risk management can not only be a form of protection but boost performance.
Written by Sam Gallimore, Client Executive, Commercial Clients