Learn vital business skills, grow capacity, and build a roadmap to rebound and sustain growth during this time of crisis with this intensive 6-week programme for London SME owners.
In partnership with:
Key Information
Format: In person (Masterclasses will be held in-person at Bayes Executive Suite, alongside some online work)
Modules:
- Masterclass 1 | Leadership Lessons of the Explorers’ Mindset | 1- day
- Masterclass 2 | Business Finance for Value Creation | 1- day
- Masterclass 3 | Developing Digital Capabilities for Growth | 1- day
- Masterclass 4 | Market Change & Changing Markets | 1- day
The programme includes an online induction with access to preparation activities on Bayes' online learning environment (approx. 2 hours in own time for registration and pre-reading), and post-programme Business Clinics and Coaching for selected participants based on their performance during the programme.
Dates of upcoming intakes:
- 21, 28 September, 4, 12 October 2023
- 16, 23, 29 November, 8 December 2023
Fee: Free of charge for qualifying SMEs
Selection: The programme is funded by the London Business Hub and is free of charge for qualifying SMEs to attend. An in-depth application form will need to be submitted to assess initial eligibility and in some cases an interview with the Programme Director.
Programme overview
The Recover & Grow programme is a high-impact business support programme to help London SMEs navigate the impact of COVID-19 and develop a growth roadmap underpinned by digital transformation. It is highly practical, builds your knowledge base and capacity, draws on established best practices and emerging promising practices, and enables you to work through challenges and opportunities with business leaders and peers.
The programme will help you take immediate actions to get through the current crisis, decide the right pathway to sustainable growth, and avoid common mistakes.
By the end of 6 weeks, you will have practical tools, a clear plan, additional management support and a network of trusted peers.
So, whether you are a builder, a beautician, a branding company or a brewery, if you are up-and-running, and have the ambition to grow, we encourage you to register your interest for the programme.
We particularly welcome applications from small business owners who are not well connected to established business support services, or who never had an opportunity to receive a business management education, whether you have an ethnic minority background, are a female or disabled entrepreneur or are based in an outer London borough.
Who is the programme for?
SME applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria to be considered for the programme:
- Owner or key decision-maker of an SME
- Business has been operating for at least 3 years
- Employs between 5 and 50 people
- Businesses with revenue of more than £250,000 in a previous financial year
- SME based within Greater London
- Participants without extensive or recent business management education.
Benefits
- Identify and analyse the skills needed to build resilient, adaptive businesses
- Understand the emerging world of workplace physical distancing and profound change in customer behaviour and preferences
- Develop a growth plan to implement back in your business
- Get specific, practical feedback and coaching for individual business needs and goals
Faculty
Costas Andriopoulos, Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Entrepreneurship
Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, Professor of Security Engineering and Director, Institute for Cyber Security
Aneesh Banerjee, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Management
Jon Goldstone, Visiting Lecturer and Global Managing Partner at the brandgym
Vicki Townsley, Visiting Lecturer
Sotiris Staikouras, Senior Lecturer in Banking & Finance
Focus and structure
Week 1 - Programme online launch
Meet other SMEs in the cohort and the faculty team, run through business fundamentals and access to pre-programme materials.
Business Finance for Value Creation
SMEs will need to focus their growth interventions to account for changes in their markets in a post-pandemic world. By attending this module, SMEs on the programme will:
- Identify financing options they need to survive and return to growth
- Learn how to mine financial data for optimal strategic value and communicate detailed financial information and its impact
- Learn about value-creation vis-a-vis funding options, risk management, and restructuring
- Build their knowledge base and leverage global networks in London
- Boost their confidence to create strategies across different cultures and markets.
Leadership Lessons of the Explorers’ Mindset
This module draws upon research of exploration and leadership of an Explorer’s Mindset as a strategic asset in fast changing business environments. Thinking like an explorer is crucial, as the world has changed and there are opportunities to capture new value if they can successfully navigate unfamiliar environments. Specifically, an explorer’s mindset enables SME leaders on this programme to understand how to:
- Define and communicate your purpose
- Identify opportunities for innovation, advantage and technology deployment
- Balance when to exploit and when to explore and adapt goals and priorities in a fast-changing environment
- Create networks which reduce risk and increase opportunities
- Adopt the most effective leadership skills when facing routine, technical and adaptive challenges
- Build trust in teamwork through highly engaged, aligned and resilient teams.
Market Change & Changing Markets
As we enter the recovery period of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are seeing changes in consumer behaviour which comes with important implications for businesses trying to build and nurture relationships with customers. To chart a path forward, in this unprecedented new reality, this module offers suggestions for how SMEs on the programme can begin to understand change and changing customer needs, and ensure that their value proposition meets these needs and reaches the intended target market. By attending this module, SMEs on the programme will work on:
- Understanding changed customer needs by analysing data and trends in consumer behaviour
- Developing and adjusting brands and value propositions
- Promoting new offerings.
Developing Digital Capabilities for Growth
In a short period of time, the pandemic has forced business to initiate a digital transformation process that is changing the way in which they create, deliver and capture value. At the same time, for those SMEs unfamiliar with remote working, this may present cyber security and fraud risks if the appropriate security technologies are not in place and operating effectively. By attending this module, SMEs on the programme will:
- Design a digital architecture fit for growth and understand the leader’s role in improving the technology-strategy fit
- Learn how to engineer value from technology investments and practical implementation of the ideas and calculating Return on Investment
- Understand when technology does not deliver value and how to mitigate these risks
- Learn about the cyber security threats facing SMEs, how to audit risks and identify vulnerabilities and what actions can be taken in the event of a cyber-attack.
Week 6 – Business Clinic and Coaching
- Guided peer-working exercise where participants are challenged to assess scenarios and build an action plan in small groups
- SMEs will receive a 1-hour coaching session, designed to dovetail with peer-working and focused on growth targets
- Business support from the Bayes Business School MBA students.
