ABSTRACT
Even before the bleak economic situation of the late 2000s there has been much discussion about the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to national financial well-being and particularly about their role in generating recovery. Our starting point here is that we believe the development of managers of SMEs falls at or between the margins of government policy; whilst UK SMEs undoubtedly need support in the form of macro-economic measures, we also need to pay close attention to how management and leadership is developed in these firms in order to increase the levels of skills, R&D and innovation which most commentators accept as prerequisites for growth.
