Insularity and groupthink are holding back our institutions

WHY DOES Wales so often accept second best?

- JAN COOPER

It's a question that has been nagging me since I started writing this business column 23 years ago and it has been brought into sharp focus by recent debates over the performance of some of our key institutions where we see the same pattern repeated of delivery that is underwhelming, insular, and far from world class.

Take our university sector. Wales has some extraordinary academics and pockets of excellence, but international league tables show our institutions slipping behind, research income lagging other UK nations and regions and partnerships with business remaining poor. Instead of being outward-looking hubs of global collaboration, too many universities are inward-facing, distracted by endless restructuring by mediocre management, and overly reliant on public funding rather than entrepreneurial energy.

And then there is the Development Bank of Wales. On paper, it should be a game-changer for the Welsh economy as a unique, publicly backed vehicle with the capacity to fill market gaps, support risk-taking entrepreneurs and catalyse private capital. In reality, it has often been cautious, process driven and more focused on recycling the same pools of capital than on transforming the funding landscape.

While some suggest it has done some good work, would anyone argue it sits alongside the best development banks in Europe? That was the ambition when I proposed its creation in 2014, but we have never come close.