Advisory report 4: Innovative high growth firms with impact

In November 2018, the Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation and Enterprise (VARIO) delivered its advisory report No. 4 'Innovative High Growth Companies with Impact' to the Flemish Minister of Innovation Philippe Muyters. Stimulating innovative high growth firms is a point of concern according to the RIO Country Report 2016 of Belgium. Innovative high-growth companies play a central role in the economic cycle of value creation and the upscaling of innovations.

Additionally, with this advisory report VARIO wants to create greater societal awareness in Flanders to arrive at an optimal strategic context for innovative high growth companies, in which (a higher number of) ambitious entrepreneurs play a crucial role. The advice was based on thorough analyzes and after extensive consultation with ambitious entrepreneurs and actors from the professional field.

In his advice VARIO proposes a global, integrated strategy to increase the number of successful innovative fast-growing firms in Flanders. The strategy focuses on four closely intertwined policy goals:

1. Increasing the number of ambitious entrepreneurs
2. Developing efficient entrepreneurial ecosystems
3. Creating a general stimulating environmental framework
4. Strengthening monitoring and evaluation instruments

The rollout of the strategy requires an innovative, holistic policy approach, away from silos and based on a fine-grained understanding of the internal workings of 'entrepreneurial' ecosystems, in close collaboration with a variety of stakeholders.