Driving business success through knowledge
Mark Fairweather (Managing Director, D2E International VT Consultants) enrolled on Birkbeck’s first cohort of the Help to Grow course in 2022 after recommendation from his colleagues, along with his desire to demonstrate the importance of learning and development initiatives within the business.
The Help to Grow: Management Course is a 12-week programme for small business leaders designed to unlock growth potential and leadership skills. Birkbeck has successfully delivered eight cohorts of the programme as part of our Small Business Charter accreditation, supporting the success of over 100 small business leaders and their organisations. Delivering the programme contributes to our rich history of teaching and supporting working professionals.
driving success through knowledge
D2E are a specialist consultancy within the lift and escalators sector. Operating in a niche consultancy, where selling time and knowledge is key, D2E maintain a single vision; ‘to be the most knowledgeable in [their] industry’, rather than the biggest or best. To achieve this, they invest 10% of their annual profits into educating employees. Help to Grow was recommended to Mark, and he noted the reasonable, subsidised cost of just £750 – it seemed like an obvious investment to his organisation’s mission.
implementing theory into practice
Each module focuses on a specific subject area, allowing participants to take away their learnings for short-term implementation as well as longer-term success. As they approach the end of the course, participants are given time to reflect on their own business challenges and build an actionable business plan in response. Just a few years later, Mark has successfully implemented many of the actions he’d identified for D2E, leveraging the learnings from module content and his Birkbeck mentor, contributing to business growth:
- Digital Transformation Strategy: helping D2E to become a more efficient and dynamic organisation.
- International Growth Plan: taking advantage of opportunities across new geographic territories both in the UK and abroad.
- Product Diversification: branching into new areas of consultancy services and creating a new business stream.
Building meaningful long-term connections
It’s not only the course content that makes Help to Grow so impactful for our attendees but also the opportunity to create connections with other participants and their Birkbeck mentor. Our cohorts offer a blend of face-to-face and online learning, meaning those in-person sessions facilitate networking opportunities and shared learning, and having an assigned mentor allows our students to feel supported and understood.
Mark comments: “It is very hard to pick out just one or two key takeaways as the programme was so comprehensive, but for me the blend of academia and life experience (from other participants) brought the whole business process to life.”
Despite operating in what he knows to be a niche sector, Mark felt that the business challenges represented across the SME leaders in the room resonated widely – and suggests that any future students on the programme should ensure they maximise the peer learning element to gain the full benefit of the programme. The diversity of industries and experience across the participants only further enhanced Mark’s enjoyment of the programme by studying alongside passionate and likeminded individuals.
Invest in your business
If you’re an SME leader hoping to be inspired by others and looking to drive growth, follow Mark’s vision for driving success through knowledge and explore the Help to Grow: Management Course at Birkbeck. It may be the best investment you make.