06 JUN 2013

10,000 Small Businesses UK: Delivering Greater Opportunity for High growth Businesses in their Supply Chain

Working Together to Deliver Greater Opportunity for High Growth Businesses in their Supply Chain

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme discusses driving growth through better Supply Chain Management

A conference hosted in Birmingham on 5 June 2013 by the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme revealed that there have been a number of recent strategic initiatives from the corporate and public sector designed to increase the number of opportunities for small businesses in supply chains. These initiatives include those providing financial support for small businesses to engage with confidence in supply chain opportunities, as well as those which commit the corporate sector to the development of a more diverse supply chain.

Developing greater transparency and simplicity in the tendering process for large private and public sector contracts is, however, only part of the story. A number of speakers at the conference, including Andy Street, Managing Director, John Lewis and Chair, Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, emphasised the importance of developing working relationships between large firms and their smaller suppliers and this in turn can provide key innovations for individual businesses and for the sector overall.

The event, the second in a series of conferences for 10,000 Small Businesses alumni following the first that took place in London in April, also looked at the range of ways in which small businesses can drive growth through more efficient management of their own position in supply chains. There were a number of practical workshops throughout the day, led by each of the 10,000 Small Businesses delivery partners, which allowed participants to learn firsthand from practical case studies on how they can take immediate steps to become more competitive in their existing supply chains and position themselves for new opportunities. The topics of these workshops ranged from developing a green supply chain, preparing for the public procurement process, enhancing the service offer alongside the supply of products and building strategic alliances with other small businesses in the supply chain.

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