One on One with EY's Liz Bolshaw

Today's global economy is anchored by plenty of massive companies with billion-dollar-plus revenue figures, but when it comes to raw economic growth, the middle market is the reigning champ. In the second year of EY's Growth Barometer report, confidence is higher among middle market companies than it was a year ago. At the same time, priorities are shifting in those companies around everything from diversity to digitization. Consulting sat down with Liz Bolshaw, Lead Analyst for EY, to talk about the report.

Consulting: What were the prime factors behind the optimism you're seeing in the middle market?

Bolshaw: We're already seeing a substantial shift both in optimism and ambition in terms of middle market sentiment. I think there are several factors driving this. A number of economists have noted that in 2018 we have unusual synchronicity in economic growth across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, so three major economic areas all growing at the same time rather than at the expense of each other. But also in terms of the middle market what we're seeing is shifts in business models being driven by digitization in particular creating real opportunities for agile, smaller companies to grab market opportunities and to use what is increasingly a business advantage, agility and speed, to grab those opportunities fast.