Inaugural Scottish Impact Investor Readiness Programme cohort graduates
The Scottish Impact Investor Readiness Programme was launched earlier this year in partnership with Scottish National Investment Bank.
SBS was delighted to welcome 18 senior leaders of SMEs to the Business School to focus on expanding knowledge of responsible growth and creating meaningful economic and social change.
The challenges faced in today's world require businesses and their senior leaders to become more resilient, innovative and value driven to play pivotal roles in how and why we do business. This programme sought to encourage these ambitious businesses and its leaders to think about their impact and how to integrate this into business growth strategy.
The cohort was comprised of companies from a range of industries, including energy, construction, health and life sciences, digital and enabling technology, advanced manufacturing, social innovation and the creative industries. Collectively, the companies on the programme employ almost 450 people, with a cumulative turnover of just over £42m and an average of 17.5 years trading.
Utilising world class internationally recognised research and real-world practitioners, the programme invited experts from across the University to deliver sessions, including individuals from the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strategy & Innovation, the Centre for Sustainable Development and the Department of Work, Employment and Organisation. External speakers from KWC Global and individuals working on research in Earth Intelligent Finance provided a well-rounded experience, offering an engaging programme with practical takeaway tools and live case studies relevant to SMEs. Topics included building foundations for sustainable growth; policy, community, and governance; measuring and communicating impact; and financing impact.
Feedback from the cohort at the conclusion of the programme revealed 100% of participants would recommend the programme to others, while 90% had already utilised tools and knowledge from the programme to help with future decision making in their business. Participants welcomed the practical tools and knowledge gained, found the programme topics to be comprehensive and relevant to business needs and agreed the programme improved skills and confidence in planning for potential future impact investment.
Participants’ comments include:
“It was very good and very well organised, struggling to think how you could improve the programme further”
“Excellent programme. Will be recommending this to my network”
“This has been an amazing programme, so many takeaways and practical tools. There’s lots to consider, think about and prioritise for our business (prioritise being key!) the structure and peer learning throughout the programme has been really useful and I’ve made new connections. Thanks to everyone involved in designing such a fab programme. Loved it!”
“Absolutely loved the learning on the course. Huge value to me”
“Everything has been very good, staff so friendly and welcoming, and very well organised”
Graduates from the programme will now benefit from the Universities’ wrap around SME scale up support in the form of an alumni club.
If you are interested in joining a future cohort of this programme, you can click here to register interest: https://www.strath.ac.uk/business/huntercentreforentrepreneurship/siir/
Published: 19 November 2024
