The Dek Growth Programme
Student page
The Dek Growth Programme aims to deliver strategic, practical and innovative support to businesses who want to achieve growth.
Covid-19 Update
Traditionally the Dek Business Growth programme was set up to help businesses grow. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic and businesses struggling to survive we are ensuring that the support offered is tailored to meet this current need.
Our present workshop offerings reflect this and the business mentoring has also been slightly extended to provide additional support to businesses:
- All workshops made available online
- Existing workshops/training adapted for crisis response
- New workshops have been/are being developed to help SMEs responded to the current climate and help them survive and think about what happens after
- Increased 1-1 offer to provide additional sessions to companies
- Regular contact and updates with existing SMEs through a call centre, notifying them of upcoming workshops, taking any comments and feedback
- Continuing to offer consultancy projects and placements remotely
Many businesses think of growth in terms of increased sales, but we think it is also important to focus how the business community develop their skills and knowledge to create the capacity and environment for growth and also crucially important how to maintain or improve profitability.
What the programme does
This programme focuses on developing business people using a mix of traditional business, social science and creative thinking based training.
Our aim is to help you discover things about you, your staff, your business and target markets you do not yet know.
We will help you understand alternative models of management, leadership and business and help you develop the mind-set and flexibility to respond and manage increasing pressures and shifts in challenges.
Who it is for
The Growth programme is available to individuals and businesses with up to 250 employees.
For those in the process of starting a new business or in the first years of dek trading we aim to help you establish a sound business base or help you move to a stage where you can grow your business. Once you have reached this stage we then focus on how established businesses can build capacity for sustainable growth.
Support offered
We offer support in the following areas:
- Business diagnostics and support
- Accounting and finance
- Marketing and promotion including social media
- Business mentoring and networking
- Staff development
- Product and service development
- Innovation and culture change
- Creating and managing growth
The Programme
Stage 1
Business diagnostic and growth planning
On registration you will be offered a business diagnostic with LSBC. The aim of this meeting is to identify growth potential and barriers to growth for you and your business the outcome being a growth strategy. The consultant from LSBC will draw upon a range of initiatives and work with you to build a bespoke business growth plan which may include accessing the Small Business Centre Loan scheme if finance is required.
Stage 2
Business Workshops
The aim of the Dek programme is to create the conditions for growth. The focus of the workshops is to enhance you and your staffs skills and knowledge in key areas of business. London South Bank and Goldsmiths universities have selected short intensive workshops focusing on delivering targeted learning outcomes enabling you to build a tailor made training programme for you and your staff.
Business Mentoring
It is often useful to critique a business growth strategy with an independent business expert from outside your business to gain additional insights and new prospective. It is possible to access a business expert through the Dek programme to work with you to develop your growth strategy. This is ideal when considering challenging, innovative steps and managing risk or simply to reappraise your business strategy to ensure you are not missing opportunities.
Stage 3
Business Consultancy with student placement (remote)
Often when a business attempts to grow there are skills and knowledge gaps within your organisation. This may mean you would normally need to recruit one or more new members of staff or commission expensive consultants. As part of their research culture universities are an ideal places to find individuals and teams to deliver short term projects where specialist knowledge and skills are required. As part of the deK programme it is possible to access consultants from London South Bank and Goldsmiths universities. A typical project would last 6-12 weeks and involve one specialist consultant and a student intern.
How to join the Dek programme
Please register at deklondon.com once you have registered you will be contacted by Dek Lewisham to arrange your business diagnostic and deK support plan.
