The New Geography of Growth  Building the Leadership Capacity to Make Ecosystems Work

The economic map is changing. Growth is increasingly being generated through clusters, corridors and ecosystems that cut across traditional administrative boundaries. Their advantage lies not simply in what exists in a place, but in how effectively business, government, academia, investors and communities connect their assets and capabilities.

The Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor illustrates the opportunity: world-class universities, science and technology clusters, innovative businesses and major infrastructure investment. Yet infrastructure alone does not create an ecosystem. Roads and railways connect places; productive ecosystems connect people, knowledge, capital, skills and ideas.

Beyond the Triple Helix 

The Triple Helix model describes the interaction between universities, business and government as a driver of innovation and economic development. Today, successful ecosystems need to reach further – to entrepreneurs, investors, civic institutions and communities.

That matters to directors. Companies depend on the places around them for infrastructure, skills, finance, supply chains, knowledge and markets. In turn, successful businesses create jobs, nurture talent and stimulate innovation. Regional growth is therefore not simply a matter for government or economic development agencies. Business has both a stake and a role in shaping it.

From proximity to productivity 

Proximity is not connectivity. Simply locating businesses, universities and infrastructure near one another does not guarantee innovation. The strongest ecosystems enable knowledge to move between academia and companies, entrepreneurs to access finance and expertise, businesses to find skills and premises, and institutions to develop sufficient shared purpose to act collectively.

Connectivity facilitates collaboration. Collaboration catalyses innovation. Innovation drives productivity.

Silverstone demonstrates the potential. Known internationally for motorsport, the wider area now contains a significant concentration of high-performance technology and engineering, advanced manufacturing and innovation. The opportunity is to connect those assets more effectively into the wider Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.

Ecosystems need capable leaders 

This brings us to a less discussed ingredient of regional growth: leadership capacity. We can invest in infrastructure, innovation districts and ambitious strategies, but directors and other leaders must ultimately allocate capital, manage risk, build partnerships and turn opportunity into action.

Leading in an ecosystem also demands more than managing one organisation well. Directors must think beyond organisational and geographic boundaries, engage different stakeholders, collaborate without always having control, and balance opportunity with governance, risk and long-term value creation.

IoD professional development 

This is where the IoD has an important role. Its professional development – from the Certificate in Company Direction through to Chartered Director – develops capabilities in governance, strategy, leadership and finance. Particularly relevant is the emphasis on strategic influence, stakeholder engagement, partnerships and external networks: precisely the capabilities needed when leadership extends beyond the boundaries of a single organisation.

Perhaps, then, we should think about regional growth in terms of capacity as well as capital. Infrastructure provides connectivity. Investment provides resources. Innovation provides opportunity. Leadership capacity helps turn them into productive collaboration.

For directors, that raises practical questions: Where does our organisation sit within its wider ecosystem? Which relationships matter most to our future competitiveness? Where are the missing connections between skills, innovation, finance and infrastructure? And what might become possible if organisations that normally operate separately began addressing those opportunities together?

These are not simply questions of regional economic policy. They are questions of strategy and leadership.

Join the conversation at Silverstone 

These questions are at the heart of the IoD’s The New Geography of Growth: Shaping the Future of Business and Innovation at Silverstone Museum on 7 October 2026. The event also launches the IoD’s new South Central region, chaired by Dipa Mistry Kandola.

Toni Allen, Chief Engagement & Growth Officer at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, will bring an international perspective on advanced technology and innovation. The discussion will then turn to the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor and the Silverstone ecosystem, bringing together business, education, government, investors and innovation leaders to examine the ingredients of future growth – including skills, leadership, training and executive development.

The next chapter of regional growth will not be written by institutions acting independently. It will be written where they meet – in the relationships they forge, the partnerships they build and the ecosystems they create.

Building those ecosystems will require investment in places. But it will also require investment in the people who lead them.