LG Davis get on board with Be the Business pilot

LG Davis are delighted to share that Liz Smith, Managing Director has taken part in the pilot for Be the Business, a new initiative bringing together companies, large and small, to make the UK home to the most ambitious organisations in the world.

An independent, not-for profit movement, Be the Business is aimed at helping SMEs to improve their own performance and productivity through a mentoring programme, partnering small businesses with larger organisations, to share knowledge, expertise and examples of best practice.

Taking part in Be the Business

Our Managing Director Liz was invited to participate in the pilot earlier this year.

Liz had the pleasure of working closely with David Low, Head of Supply & Demand, Emerging Markets at GSK, a science-led healthcare company with 3 global businesses that research, develop and manufacture innovative pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines and consumer healthcare products.

“I joined the programme because I believed that having an external mentor would help me to focus on the business rather than be on the hamster wheel of working in the business. Print is a mature market place and there is a constant drive to reduce prices, reduce margin, and so to hear that the focus of the mentoring scheme would be to help drive business improvements and productivity was just what I needed to help our need to continuously improve.” commented Liz

Throughout their mentoring sessions, Liz and David covered a wide range of topics, including performance management, developing a long term business plan, tackling resistance to change within the organisation and much more.

David also came out to visit our site in Kings Heath, Birmingham, which proved invaluable and Liz and the team had the opportunity to visit the GSK site in Ware, which was a truly eye-opening experience, where she could see first-hand some of the recommendations David had suggested to address some of the topics discussed during their mentoring sessions.

What are the benefits of Be the Business?

The benefits that this movement brings to businesses involved are wide ranging and at LG Davis, we have already reaped so many of these benefits.

Following the pilot, we have already began implementing actions and ideas, with more to be introduced in the coming months, all of which have helped to drive business improvement and productivity.

There has been a big change in thinking and leadership within the business, and we now have a very clear direction and strategy in place for the succession of the business, as well as steps for continuous improvements.

One key statistic we are delighted to share and highlight is that 2019 has been the best year for LG Davis for over 10 years, where we have achieved a year turnover in just 11 months. We have also acquired another business in recent months, which again has helped us to grow the business and our offering.

These achievements have been amazing for LG Davis and they have been made achievable thanks to the knowledge, ideas and best practice we have learnt through being part of the Be the Business movement and mentoring from a large corporation such as GSK.

To conclude, we would like to end on a personal note from Liz:

“Thank you, David and GSK, for the pro bono work that has enabled a small business of 46 employees to become more profitable and be able to offer more sustainable prospects for all involved at LG Davis in the future.”

If you are an SME who is looking to transform the way you work to plan for the future and improve business performance and productivity, we couldn’t recommend the Be the Business initiative enough.

You can find out more about the movement here.