Collaboration and ambition can unlock UK business potential

Not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion The Growth Com­pa­ny is ded­i­cat­ed to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, inward invest­ment, skills, employ­ment and enter­prise. In July 2019, it was appoint­ed to run a series of nation­al men­tor­ing pro­grammes by Be the Busi­ness, which will be rolled out via the nation­wide net­work of growth hubs, includ­ing The Growth Company’s own GC Busi­ness Growth Hub.

The news rep­re­sents a cul­mi­na­tion of suc­cess sto­ries for the Greater Man­ches­ter-incept­ed organ­i­sa­tion, of course, but more poignant­ly sheds light on recur­ring issues that domes­tic busi­ness­es are fac­ing in the cur­rent cli­mate, chal­lenges that the hub has strived to help clients com­bat since 2011.

“When we found­ed the first Hub in the coun­try, it was a dis­play of how we could be a com­plete sup­port infra­struc­ture for busi­ness­es in Greater Man­ches­ter,” recalls Richard Jef­fery, the Hub’s direc­tor of busi­ness growth. “We want­ed to help com­pa­nies to start, grow, scale and expand from here in the city, pro­vid­ing active pro­grammes along the way by lever­ag­ing the best of pri­vate and pub­lic pro­vi­sion.”

At that time, the over­rid­ing chal­lenge for star­tups and ear­ly-stage busi­ness­es was access to finance, but the con­stant­ly evolv­ing nature of the UK ecosys­tem has now veered towards chal­lenges of access to skills, inter­nal rein­vest­ment plan­ning, devel­op­ment of lead­er­ship teams and the inte­gra­tion of new tech in the dig­i­tal era.

There are now hubs all over the UK repli­cat­ing our mod­el, all well-net­worked cities with ambi­tious visions, com­ple­ment­ed by a series of periph­er­al actors work­ing togeth­er for the ben­e­fit of busi­ness­es

Mr Jef­fery con­tin­ues: “The focus is on how to apply mod­ern day, applic­a­ble solu­tions to stage-cen­tric chal­lenges, often start­ing with one hook or
prob­lem they want help with, before delv­ing into the wider work­ings of their busi­ness to instil much more wide­spread improve­ments.”

Much of what GC Busi­ness Growth Hub pro­motes revolves around col­lab­o­ra­tion, a notion Mr Jef­fery believes can take bud­ding enter­pris­es from con­cept to inter­na­tion­al suc­cess. This process is ingrained into the facilitator’s offer­ing via an amal­ga­ma­tion of pub­lic and pri­vate part­ners that com­bine to pro­vide full wrap­around sup­port when need­ed or more bespoke trou­bleshoot­ing of indi­vid­ual needs if more applic­a­ble.

The resul­tant tai­lored pro­grammes of sup­port help small and medi­um-sized enter­pris­es over­come spe­cif­ic bar­ri­ers that are arrest­ing their growth, can address all facets of a scale-up jour­ney and help to cre­ate an ecosys­tem of aid for com­pa­nies dur­ing their most piv­otal devel­op­men­tal phas­es.

“I’m a mas­sive believ­er in ecosys­tems and the Greater Man­ches­ter mod­el is a great exam­ple of how enti­ties can come togeth­er to assist bur­geon­ing busi­ness­es,” Mr Jef­fery explains. “There are now hubs all over the UK repli­cat­ing our mod­el, all well-net­worked cities with ambi­tious visions, com­ple­ment­ed by a series of periph­er­al actors work­ing togeth­er for the ben­e­fit of busi­ness­es.

“Start­up teams, scale-up teams, banks, pri­vate part­ners, all work­ing togeth­er. The best of pri­vate and pub­lic at their dis­pos­al.”

Col­lab­o­ra­tion then also applies to what will be pro­mot­ed through the Hub’s Be the Busi­ness affil­i­a­tion: col­lab­o­ra­tion with each oth­er via peer-to-peer sup­port and men­tor­ing to pin­point oppor­tu­ni­ties both local­ly and fur­ther afield.

“There needs to be a big call to action around inter­na­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties,” says Mr Jef­fery. “We’ve all seen var­i­ous fore­casts for the UK, high­light­ing lim­it­ed mar­ket growth pro­jec­tions, but there are still huge oppor­tu­ni­ties inter­na­tion­al­ly and we want busi­ness­es to put that ambi­tion at the heart of their growth plans.”

The recent launch of The Growth Company’s inter­na­tion­al scale-up pro­gramme, deliv­ered by the Hub in Greater Man­ches­ter along­side part­ners includ­ing KPMG, DWF, San­tander and Man­ches­ter Air­port, epit­o­mis­es the lev­el of sup­port that is on hand for com­pa­nies in Greater Man­ches­ter to make this leap.

It’s not just about expand­ing mar­ket poten­tial; it’s a way to tack­le domes­tic bar­ri­ers to growth and to fos­ter a more well-round­ed busi­ness in the long term.

Mr Jef­fery con­cludes: “The mes­sage gets lost some­times, but when you become inter­na­tion­al, you become more pro­duc­tive and a bet­ter busi­ness. You learn from glob­al play­ers and com­peti­tors, and it forces you to improve. That then leads to bet­ter jobs and more excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for your teams; a con­cern that has been at the fore­front of our agen­da since
day one.”

For more infor­ma­tion please vis­it www.businessgrowthhub.com