Help To Grow.

Plan for growth, resilience and success.

90% funded management course for senior leaders.

Achieve your business potential.

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LSBU Logo SBC logoHelp To Grow logoHM Government logo

Help to Grow at LSBU

The Help to Grow programme at LSBU has been developed with business leaders in mind. We know it's difficult to manage personal professional development at the same time as managing your day to day responsibilities, so we are offering evening sessions at our convenient Southwark and Croydon campuses.

Our facilitators, trainers and support leaders have been handpicked based on their knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by SMEs. All have extensive experience in either leading small businesses to success or are experts in their particular business discipline. All are passionate about enabling your business to not only plan for growth, but also to thrive and drive change within the organisation.

About Help to Grow

The past 18 months has been challenging for all businesses, but particularly for SMEs. Help to Grow is a 90% government funded 12 week programme designed to enable business leaders to strengthen and grow their organisation in the wake of unprecedented disruption.

Offering unrivalled networking opportunities as well as training from top business leaders, the programme is a ‘must’ for senior executives wanting to future proof their organisation.

Delivered by a consortium of business schools across the UK, the programme is accredited by the Small Business Charter (SBC) and is supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Boost your performance and growth potential

Develop strategic skills to increase your business’s long-term productivity, resilience and capacity to innovate

01

Peer Support

Run by expert facilitators with extensive experience in SME development, Peer group sessions offer an opportunity to discuss the theory learned in a small group setting with other business leaders. A valuable opportunity to share ideas and collaborate with your peers, the sessions are an integral part of the programme and lead directly into your plans for growth.

Business people round a table
02

Hybrid Learning

Virtual and in-person programme. 50 hours over 12 weeks. Designed to be manageable alongside full time work.

03

Industry Relevant

Curriculum designed with support from industry, using real world case studies from British businesses.

04

One-to-one Support

Participants will receive 10 hours of 1:1 support from a mentor to develop a business growth plan.

05

Form Relationships

Programme includes 8 hours of peer-to-peer learning, as well as access to an alumni network.

06

Accredited Learning

Delivered by a consortium of the UK’s leading business schools accredited by the Small Business Charter (SBC).

07

90% Discount

The programme is 90% funded by government so participants only have to pay £750.

Programme Structure

Everything you need to put together a realistic and valuable Growth Action Plan specifically for your business.

Innovate
Market
Build
Grow

Strategies for Growth and Innovation

This focuses on what your business does and how you want it to develop in the future. We look at your business’s strengths and core capabilities, your opportunities, and your current and potential markets, and how innovation, digital adoption and new market penetration can be key drivers of productivity and growth.

Strategy and Innovation

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Understanding innovation and its relationship to growth, profitability and productivity.
  • 2. Reviewing your business model and value proposition in relation to current and future market opportunities.
  • 3. Understanding how business model innovation can help you respond to and recover from challenges.
  • 4. Finding out about the UK’s innovation ecosystem.

Digital Adoption

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Understanding the benefits of digital adoption for SMEs in innovating business models and seizing opportunities.
  • 2. Considering what stage your business has reached on the path to digital adoption from digitisation to digital transformation, and identifying priority development areas.
  • 3. Understanding the role of digital leadership and considering digital enablers to achieve a transformational culture.
  • 4. Being alert to the risks of a digitised environment and ways to mitigate that risk.

Internationalisation and
Winning New Markets

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Taking an in-depth look at how a business has:
    a) innovated its model
    b) developed markets overseas
    c) explored models to address opportunities in different countries
    d) adapted their business model and overcame challenges
    e) how the experience encouraged them to innovate.

Engaging with Customers

This part focuses on why you do what you do, how you connect with your customers and how you effectively convey your values and purpose in your brand. We look at building demand, segmenting your markets, and achieving a targeted and strategic approach to marketing.

Vision, Mission and Values

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Understanding the strategic value of vision, purpose and brand, their link to the
    customer value proposition and role in achieving competitive advantage.
  • 2. Exploring vision, mission and values statements and planning an approach
    for reviewing these in your business.
  • 3. Defining brand components and how they
    add value to your business and customers.
  • 4. Understanding the role of your business’s vision, values and brand in organisational culture and employee engagement.

Developing a Marketing Strategy

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Further developing your customer value proposition and your business’s approach
    to marketing
  • 2. Understanding market segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) within
    your business’s competitive environment.
  • 3. Considering the stages in the buyer decision-making processes.
  • 4. Starting to consider the benefits of database marketing.

Building a Brand Case Study

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Exploring how a business built a market-leading brand and continued to serve its customers’ needs through changing times.
    What challenges had to be overcome and how did the company stay true to its purpose and values.

Building a Sustainable and Agile Business

This part focuses on creating a suitable organisational structure to deliver your goals, and adopting good practice in the leadership and management of teams.We look at leading people through change and supporting the wellbeing of staff, as well as developing your people and introducing agile ways of working.

Organisational Design

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Identifying growth phases and when and how it will be necessary to evolve the shape of the organisation to implement growth.
  • 2. Considering SME examples of different structures and ways of working and
    the implications for your workforce.
  • 3. Jointly with others in your business, reviewing skills, roles and training to ensure the required expertise is available to deliver the growth plan.
  • 4. Considering structures and processes to facilitate agile working.

Employee Engagement and Leading Change

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Identifying appropriate strategies for leading change in an inclusive and engaging
    way.
  • 2. Planning to implement approaches that enhance employee engagement.
  • 3. Recognising the impact of your own leadership approach as a key enabler for growth.
  • 4. Being able to utilise tools and resources collaboratively to lead your team towards strategic goals

High Performance Workplace Case Study

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Exploring an example of a company that has put employee engagement at the heart of their business and created an inclusive culture. The tools and ways of working are innovative and productive, and the business has achieved growth through the way it works as much as through what it does.

Operations and Financial Strategies

This part focuses on what happens in the business to create outputs, how you monitor progress and use information to inform decision-making. We look at a strategic approach to operations, financial management and options to
finance growth, and how everything comes together in the implementation of your Growth Action Plan.

Efficient Operations

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Understanding the role of operations and how to take a systemic approach, aligning
    operations with marketing strategy.
  • 2. Analysing operations using a value flow map.
  • 3. Considering an approach to key metrics which engages teams and creates a culture
    of continuous improvement in value flow.
  • 4. Recognising how your operations improvement strategy contributes towards
    your Growth Action Plan.

Finance and Financial Management

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Using financial data to make informed decisions about future operations including identifying relevant financial metrics for monitoring growth and productivity
  • 2. Understanding the importance of cash flow forecasting in managing crisis and recovery.
  • 3. Considering options for financing growth both internally and from external sources, and being aware of where to source information and advice.

Implementing Growth Plans Case Study

Learning outcomes will include:

  • 1. Developing priorities and a
    timeline for implementation,
    sing your Growth Action Plan
  • 2. Identifying the resources required to achieve the objectives in your Growth Action Plan.
  • 3. Embedding key management practices critical to growth and
    productivity in your business.

Eligibilty

All businesses with 5-249 employees and have been operating for over a year are eligible to participate in the programme. Participants must be a member of the senior management team and have at least one direct report.

Cost

Help to Grow is 90% funded by the UK Government and so participants are only charged £750 for the entire programme.

Hybrid learning allows you to learn how you want

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Hybrid learning is designed to fit around YOU as a business leader. The past 18 months has taught us that face to face learning and networking is key to relationship development, but also that online sessions can be time efficient and easier to manage around a busy schedule. Our approach is to use hybrid learning to its full advantage.

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Upcoming Cohorts

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Cohort 20

Start
January 15, 2024
End
April 3, 2024
Location
Southwark - Hybrid

Cohort 21

Start
March 4, 2024
End
May 23, 2024
Location
Southwark - Hybrid

Do you want to plan for growth, business resilience and success?

Apply

Hand picked trainers with a wealth of experience

Colin Crooks MBE

Colin Crooks MBE

Entrepreneur
Ann Healey

Ann Healey

Charles Graham

Charles Graham

Woman teaching adults

Why participate in the Help to Grow programme at LSBU?

Taught by world class industry experts

Evening classes designed to fit around your day

10 hours of 1:1 support from a mentor to develop a growth plan

Unrivalled networking opportunities

Excellent Locations in Central London and Croydon

Taught in our modern, newly refurbished business school

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