For many, universities are valued as institutions which provide teaching and research for society and business. Admittedly there has been some complacency by the university sector in demonstrating its contribution to society. As the sector faces a bleak outlook in terms of its finances, more must be done to ensure our value is recognised and understood. New vaccines and scientific discoveries regularly make national headlines but we should not disregard the social impact and social value that business schools deliver.
At a time when there’s arguably more need to capture social value, sadly this is often overlooked in favour of quantifiable, metric-driven KPIs, impact and financial income into business schools.
What wider value do business schools therefore create? At the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS) we’ve been thinking about how we support business eco-systems, especially in our local communities.
Like many business schools, we deliver events and programmes for small business, including Help to Grow: Management. Programme participants regularly tell us that an unexpected benefit of enrolling is that new, trusted connections are made with other business leaders. One participant described this as “my very own informal advisory board”.
Damian Meyers, Managing Director at Clan Contracting Ltd, has welcomed a closer relationship with the school following his participation on the programme. “Following an informal chat, one of the module leaders signposted me to the University’s careers team, who successfully secured a funded student internship for us. A year later we still have that student, now a graduate, managing all our digital marketing remotely from Central America on a retainer. We’ve also benefitted from students working on a business challenge as part of their project module.”
Outside of the direct engagements we have with our business network, how is our role as convenors of business networks positively generating a ripple effect? Many of our connected business leaders go on to build fruitful relationships with each other.
Feedwater, a water treatment service company, and Village Software recently collaborated on a project having been introduced to one another via our Growth Catalyst programme. Village Software secured and digitised Feedwater's on-site scientific analysis systems and are now working with Feedwater again to adapt their original application for the future.
“By developing understanding and trust with Village, they worked with us to capture one of our most intricate business processes and deliver it in digital form,” says Martin Revans, Feedwater’s IT Systems Director. “This makes the service we provide more professional and delivers consistency and better value every single time our people attend our customers’ sites.”
Another of our open programmes, Shaping Sustainable Futures, was impactful in bringing businesses together with a shared purpose and resulted in new opportunities.
Duane Chong at Grow-Wellbeing reflects:
“Within the first hour of meeting and talking with Sophia we felt there was a good fit between our businesses. I had felt for a little while Grow-Wellbeing CIC needed to step up its promotion and marketing, whilst Sophia, who runs a sustainability marketing consultancy called Phase Creative, said that she only wanted to work with purpose-driven organisations, which we are! Since then, Sophia has reviewed our website and has begun to improve its design and architecture. She also led a marketing strategy workshop with our directors and staff.”
Duane has since been commissioned by another participant to facilitate nature-connecting sessions in a community woodland for young people with additional needs. He’s also in discussions with a housing company, which participated in the programme, about how Grow-Wellbeing could enhance community garden engagement in some of their developments.
He sums up: “The course was really good in itself but the connections made have been great too!”
How do business schools best facilitate the development of these relationships?
Whilst the traditional presentation and unstructured networking works for some, especially the event organisers, it puts others off: does the familiar format of networking whilst people arrive, followed by ‘we talk, you listen’ then a short Q&A really maximise the experience for attendees?
At our business breakfast event hosted with Knowsley Chamber of Commerce and our Centre for Sustainable Business, we trialled a different format: open networking, a short presentation for context and then the delegates chose to join one of three discussion groups, each with a different theme.
Facilitated by an academic, some fantastic discussions followed with meaningful interactions between diverse groups. Providing a more informal opportunity for people to give their opinions, rather just ask questions to a panel, not only encouraged participation but generated positive debate. People from organisations large and small shared best practice and cautionary tales. Our academics listened. Participants found each other at the end to continue the discussion. People made connections. Everyone learnt.
We’ve also used more creative events to attract new people, such as a themed film and music night. 70% of the attendees had never attended a busienss school event before. But by giving those people a more ‘accessible’ way of engaging with us and with each other, the more hesitant networkers had a framework for discussions: they compared their thoughts on what they’d just watched and heard. We were able to connect a brand new group, not just for ‘us and them’ but for ‘them and them’.
Business schools have a key role to play in bringing business leaders together. We cannot be perceived as ivory tower institutions but should appreciate, celebrate and shout about the benefits that come from connecting with and for our business partners. The exponential multiplier effect and social value of our brokering new and wider networks is perhaps our unintentional best kept secret.
This article was written by Hazel Kennedy, External Engagement Manager, University of Liverpool Management School.