Help to Grow - Meet our business leaders

At Huddersfield Business School, we offer a range of programmes that enhance business growth whilst also developing the skills of individuals who work within the organisation. Our Help to Grow Management programme is ideal for businesses who are looking to maximise their growth whilst also enhancing the knowledge and skills of current employees.

Help to Grow Management is a government-backed, practical 12-week programme designed to support senior managers of small and medium-sized businesses to boost their business performance, resilience, and long-term growth.

The course has a range of benefits, all of which support businesses in taking their business to the next level:

• Support with developing a custom growth action plan
• 10 hours of one-to-one support from an experienced mentor
• Access to a business network
• In-depth training developed by business and course experts
• Practical management training that covers: reviewing systems and processes to work smarter, analysing financial information and ratios, communicating the business’s purpose and values, adopting new digital technology, and building good leadership and management practices.

In this blog, you will hear from Thomas Burwell, Head of Sales and Operations at BOSS Training Limited, who has recently completed our second cohort of Help to Grow Management. Thomas tells us why joining the programme at Huddersfield Business School has not only been incredible for his personal development but how it’s also given him a proper understanding of how businesses function from start to finish.

 

Why did you decide to join the Help to Grow Management programme? 

I decided to join the Help to Grow Management programme to be able to expand what we did as a business at BOSS Training Limited. We’ve been going for some time, but we had hit a point where we’d become mature. We wanted to venture out into other markets and diversify, but I wasn’t sure how to do that. I needed a little bit of help from outside, which is why I decided to join the Help to Grow Management programme.

Have any topics in particular inspired you? 

The modules on the Help to Grow Management programme that I got the most out of were about changing the structure of the business and how to direct the business down new paths.

When attending this session, it was interesting to see how changing one thing within the business, be that a product or a new market, how that would shift the whole business. This was something that I’d never really considered before so this session gave me the tools to put this into action.

How has the Help to Grow Management programme had an impact on your personal development? 

The Help to Grow Management programme has been incredible for my personal development. I left university having studied theology, and I went straight into business. I’ve kind of progressed as my career has gone on, but I’ve never really had any technical training or been given the understanding, I’ve just had to pick things up as I’ve gone along.

The Help to Grow Management programme has given me a proper understanding of how businesses function from start to finish and the little bits that maybe I missed out on from my own development. The programme has been great for me.

As a senior leader in a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME), is there anything that you have learnt on the programme that you’re looking forward to sharing with your team or colleagues?  

Staff engagement is really important at BOSS Training Limited. As a senior leader within the business, I’m expected to be able to bring people along with the changes that we’re making and although we’ve got a wonderful group of staff at BOSS Training, it’s often hard to get them to understand the bigger picture and where we might be heading.

What the Help to Grow Management programme has done is really help me understand how to engage our staff and make sure that they understand what the business is trying to do as a whole.

How was being able to network and mix with other business leaders on the programme added to your learning experience?

Being able to network and mix with the peer group was brilliant, it gave me the opportunity to work with people who were at a similar stage in their career and who were wanting to learn just like me. We all had different levels of experience and all worked within totally different industries with different expertise.

By sharing our expertise, we were able to learn from one another, as well as being able to network and meet new suppliers, and new customers. It’s been fantastic.

Can you tell us a little bit about your mentor and how they have had an impact on your experience?

My mentor was called Dionne and she was absolutely incredible. The information she gave me and the knowledge and inspiration to take ideas from our meetings and discussions and implement them within the business have been invaluable.

She’s got so much knowledge from 20-30 years in her industry and is a top professional. My experience with my mentor on the Help to Grow programme has been as good as the peer group and the course itself.

Would you recommend other business leaders to join the Help to Grow Management programme?

Yes, I couldn’t recommend the Help to Grow programme enough. In fact, I already have spoken to friends and colleagues and said this is an absolutely amazing course and something that I think anyone looking to take their career to the next level should be involved in.