GC Insight is a social enterprise providing advisory, research and evaluation services that offer expertise and insight on the factors that shape economic performance.

We are trusted by the public and private sector to deliver robust and informative analysis that helps them set strategic priorities, secure investment, understand impact and evaluate their performance.

Backed by 30 years of experience, our dedicated team works closely with each client to understand their needs and provide advise on how their organisation can make a bigger positive impact

How we work

GC Insight is wedded to a core set of guiding principles that shape how we work with clients and our staff:

Expert

We will only undertake work where we believe we have clear value to offer and strong methodological or subject matter insights that allow us to offer a well-informed and fair professional assessment, whether from our in-house team or with expert associates onboard.

Respectful

We recognise the impact we have on people and the planet as we do our work. We take steps to minimise the harm we may cause and take steps to leave a positive legacy behind us.

Commercial

We will help our clients solve the challenges they face on time and to a high quality.

Secure

We work in ways which protect the reputation of our clients as well as the well-being and safety of our staff as they go about their work.

With Purpose

We will only work with clients whose values and purpose align with ours, and on studies where we believe positive impacts for people, place and planet can be secured.

Flexible

We respond to the specific needs of our clients as they reveal themselves and we provide our staff with the space to do their jobs in the best way that matches their personal circumstances with the needs of our clients.

Agile

We will continue to evolve and adapt to changing market conditions and be ready to make swift decisions particularly where that means learning from our mistakes.

Human

We are a team of people delivering a service to other people and we will treat everyone we work with respectfully, supportively and with our individual characters on display.

Simple

We will keep our methods, processes and language clear, accessible and proportionate so that we continue to be nimble and retain our relevance and efficiency.

Collaborative

We are one team operating from four offices, with staff working right across the UK and will offer clients our best team regardless of location and we will join forces with other teams to strengthen our offer to clients.

Deliberate

We will grow our offer by building on our solid foundations into clearly defined target work areas where we believe we can add real value.

Innovative

We aim to keep ahead of our competitors and provide clients with the latest insights and always look to build on our skills and experience to deliver enhanced products and services over time.

Profit for purpose

We are a social enterprise that operates commercially, 
which means we reinvest the money that we make into 
developing higher quality services that help our clients 
make better-informed decisions with a bigger positive 
impact.

Journey

J 1
1989

The Growth Company (GC) was founded in 
Manchester as a training and enterprise agency.
Over the years, GC expanded into an award-winning social enterprise, generating hundreds 
of millions of pounds in investment, upskilling 
and placing hundreds of thousands into work, 
and supporting tens of thousands of businesses 
to start, grow, internationalise, and improve 
sustainability.

1995

Winning Moves, a leadership and management 
consultancy, was established.

2002

ekosgen, an economic and social research, 
analysis and consultancy service was created.

2016

Winning Moves bought Databuild, a respected 
research and evaluation consultancy.

J 2
2022

The Growth Company acquired ekosgen to 
strengthen their ability to deliver strategic 
insights and data-driven solutions. 
ekosgen had grown into a company that 
specialised in building robust business cases, 
appraising public funding schemes and 
developing comprehensive socio-economic 
bases. Their work also encompassed evaluating 
project and programme effectiveness, 
assessing social and economic impacts and 
providing detailed evidence to support planning 
applications.

2023

A year later, GC expanded further by acquiring 
Winning Moves. This strategic move brought 
two distinct services into their portfolio, aligning 
with GC’s vision of a national consultancy and 
complementing the expertise of ekosgen.
Winning Moves’ research and evaluation team 
helped clients understand, measure and 
demonstrate the economic, environmental and 
societal impact of their work, using a broad 
range of methodologies across sectors. Winning 
Moves also brought a suite of established 
business diagnostic tools, Benchmark Index, 
along with software development expertise, and 
years of experience in SME support - enhancing 
GC’s existing business support services.

J 3
J 5
2024

We added expertise to our Destination 
team to better help towns, cities and tourist 
attractions create and implement investible 
propositions and attraction programmes, and 
strengthened our Infrastructure offer which 
provides impact assessments and evaluation 
of digital connectivity, housing and energy 
schemes.

We also enhanced our Place capability 
to offer a wider package of support to the land 
and property sector and clients involved in the 
planning and development process.

2025

GC Business joined our ranks to 
broaden our consultancy service, focusing 
on sectors, enterprise and business support. 
The business team also bring extensive experience in 
business support delivery to our portfolio, as 
well as Growth Flag, a unique dataset of UK 
businesses designed to identify growth potential 
and guide economies in making informed 
investment decisions.

These combined capabilities are now delivered 
through GC Insight, offering seamless, data-driven solutions to help clients make informed decisions at every stage of a project—from strategy and investment to delivery and evaluation.

J 4