The Office for Budget Responsibility recently released a report revising its estimate of productivity growth down by 0.7 percentage points per year, reducing the potential output in 2021-2022 by 3 per cent. As a result, by 2023, the Office for National Statistics estimates that output per hour will be 27 per cent lower than the 2008 pre-crisis trend.It is important that this should not be seen as a cry of despair, but a call for action.The drivers of commercial success — innovation, cost efficiency, price competition, effective distribution and customer service — don’t change. And to achieve the key elements requires a foundation of growing productivity and accelerating exports.Addressing the productivity problem and driving export performance are the two mission-critical agenda items that require fundamental shifts in both mindset and skillset across government and industry.