We’re delighted to announce that Operations Director Jerry Redman has recently graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme and was joined by none other than British astronaut Tim Peake on the virtual celebration.
The programme is designed to help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity as well as sustained business growth. It runs for four months with over 100 hours of high quality tuition delivered online and in person.
Jerry has been working on what the next years look like for Sycamore Process Engineering and this programme has supported him through this process. Here’s what he thought:
What did you learn?
Through attending the 10,000 Small Businesses UK Programme, I came away with far more confidence and a better ability to execute the required steps both new and already identified to scale up, create employment and potentially expand into new markets.
How will the course support Sycamore?
The programme is designed to provide high-quality, practical education and business support to high-growth small businesses like us. SME’s play a vital role in creating jobs and driving economic growth in the UK through innovation and market expansion. Throughout the course a detailed business growth plan was developed and made ready to implement back in the business. The ongoing support post-programme from Goldman Sachs and the UK alumni is incredibly useful, the latter consists of over 1,700 UK members alone that offers a supportive network, further learning and invaluable insights into every aspect of business.
How did COVID-19 affect it?
I came away from our first residential training in February full of ideas and inspiration, it was such a good experience meeting my cohort and growth group members. With the advent of the pandemic, the remainder of the programme was delivered online but everyone at Goldman Sachs and the Said Business School, Oxford did an incredible job in a matter of days to reshape and deliver the programme through online webinars and learning. The support from the GS10K programme, my Growth Expert and team members throughout this years crisis was invaluable.
What plans have been/are being developed as a result?
The programme has served to focus the business on our current objectives, giving key people the tools and motivation required to drive us towards our targets and this has already resulted in growth.
How was it meeting Tim Peake?
Sadly the Cohort 12 graduation had to be an online event due to the Covid restrictions but we were not disappointed with our keynote speaker. Tim was an incredibly interesting and charismatic individual, it was inspiring to hear him talk of his career change and the many events leading up to and during his time on the International Space Station.
Based at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme continually look for the right participants to join the programme; small business owners with a passion for growth. You can connect with them at 10KSB.Recruitment@sbs.ox.ac.uk
