Tuesday 24 May 2016 12:01 am

Bosses feel the strain on their entrepreneurial motivation and drive as work woes increase

London's top executives are being beaten down by regulatory issues and the daily grind of corporate life research out today has revealed.

This is having a knock on effect on entrepreneurial motivation and drive, according the survey, commissioned by London-based private bank Kleinwort Benson.

The YouGov poll shows that 39 per cent of senior executives in London feel they have lost their entrepreneurial drive.

Joss Mitchell, executive director at Kleinwort Benson, said:

We have seen it happen many times. When a business becomes successful, business leaders are all too easily victims of their own success.

As the business grows, they move from innovator to, potentially, administrator where they are having to focus on human resources and deal with regulatory issues rather than focusing on business growth which requires them to be dynamic and innovative.

It is much better for executives to recognise this early on and build a management team around them to ensure that the entrepreneurial spirit of the business continues to grow. Overall, our experience of working with senior executives is that it can be lonely at the top.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that demand for demand for compliance department workers is booming, suggesting executives are keen to pass along many of their regulatory burdens.

Over two-thirds (68 per cent) of managers describe their compliance department as “insufficiently resourced”, according to specialist recruiter Barclay Simpson.

In terms of financial reward, 47 per cent of London executives surveyed believe that they are paid less than they are worth, compared with just seven per cent who believe that they are paid more than they are worth.