---
title: "Five things the businesses growing right now have in common."
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/five-things-the-businesses-growing-right-now-have-in-common
date: 2026-05-20
author: Sam Page
type: Post or article
categories: [Emerging tech and AI]
reading_time: 2 min
summary: "Notes from a talk I gave to a room of business leaders this week."
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7462791383058219008
---

# Five things the businesses growing right now have in common.

Notes from a talk I gave to a room of business leaders this week.

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/five-things-the-businesses-growing-right-now-have-in-common-li1.webp)

The topic: how creativity and technology should sit together inside an organisation right now.

The conversation with Founders, MDs, university, college and public sector leaders, pulled out something I've been seeing across all business I am working with.

The businesses still growing through this period share five patterns.

1. They think customer-first, operationally.  
2. They use creativity to be innovative,  
3. They use emerging tech to create advantage.  
4. They think big, act entrepreneurially.  
5. They enable their staff to thrive.

Underneath all five is the Confidence Gap. The space between intent and action. It's getting wider in 2026, and the businesses closing it are the ones growing.

One stat from the conversation that's worth sitting with: 41% of B2B buyers now start their research inside an AI rather than Google.

If your business isn't visible, credible and well-described where AI is learning about your category, you're being filtered out of conversations before a human ever sees you.

Written it up properly, with the data and client stories behind each.

Link in comments.

Big thanks to Kingston Chamber of Commerce for hosting, and to everyone in the room who shaped the conversation.

Forbes Low, Sean Gillen, Sandra Porter (FCIPD), Martin Booth, Mark Attwater, Claire Darby, Amanda Baker, Simon Cuckow, Lee Orchard, Les Pick, Rick B., Rebecca Dalton