Springboard to business growth
5 April 2022
Cardiff Business School’s partnerships and collaborations with smaller businesses across Wales, the UK and further afield was the subject of the latest Breakfast Briefing.
Breakfast Briefings returned to campus this month, with the team holding their first hybrid event in the Executive Education Suite.
Dr Jane Lynch, Programme Director of the Help to Grow: Management programme, was joined by representatives from businesses here in Cardiff and across South Wales that have benefitted from collaborations with the Business School.
Opening the session was Simon Roberts, Managing Director of Unite, who spoke about the multiple ways his organisation has engaged with the Business School, including student placements, the Executive MBA programme, and professional networking.
Simon discussed the benefits he has gained through is partnerships with the Business School, including developing his leadership skills, and receiving mentoring and coaching.”
He said: “It has been a phenomenal journey. We have benefitted not from one experience, but holistically as a whole from Cardiff University.”
Also joining the event representing volunteer adoption agency, St. David’s Children Society were CEO, Wendy Keidan and Adopting Together Service Manager, Singeta Kalhan Gregory.
The agency have worked with the Business School on a knowledge transfer partnership developing fundamental changes to the way child adoption services are procured by local authorities in Wales by creating service level agreements and developing new processes. As a result, all of the regional and local authorities they work with are now referring to their service through the service level agreements, leading to an improvement in finding placements for children.
Wendy and Singeta shared some of the benefits from this, such as the social return on investment benefitting some of the most vulnerable children in Wales.
Next to speak was Beverley Lewis, CEO of Welsh Triathlon, who was part of the first cohort of the Help to Grow: Management programme.
She said: “the programme enabled me to look at the science and art behind business modelling.”
Beverley highlighted some of the benefits from the programme, including the opportunity to work in a group of peers, learning from other businesses, discussing their problems, and finding solutions together.
Changes at Welsh Triathlon as a result of Beverley’s time on the programme include an improved working environment, a new staff survey process, and an updated performance development review format.
Regardless of business size, one of the challenges facing many business owners and CEOs is that you get so focused on the day-to-day operations of the business, you forget to focus on developing the management and strategic vision of the business.
The final speaker of the day was Thomas Wilkinson, Group Operations Director of Barcud Shared Services. Thomas also shared the benefits gained on the Help to Grow: Management programme, and the benefits to his organisation. These included a growth in client base and taking on new staff members.
He said: “I now have a wealth of resource at my fingertips. I can drop an email asking for help or a recommendation, and the network are there to help and support us going forward.”
To close the session summarised the opportunities offered by the Business School as:
- a safe space to think about new ways of tackling your business
- networking abilities
- knowledge transfer.
Help to Grow: Management is a 3-month practical programme designed to help small or medium-sized businesses to boost their business’ performance, resilience and long-term growth.
Watch the full recording of the event.
Cardiff Business School's Breakfast Briefing Series is a network of events, which enables business contacts to find out more about the latest research and key developments from industrial partners.
