This week, Seven Hills travelled to Birmingham and Oxford with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford to promote Generation Growth: The Small Business Manifesto – highlighting the significance of fast growth small businesses on the UK economy, and further exploring findings from the manifesto.
Seven Hills co-founder and chair Michael Hayman hosted the first Generation Growth City Summit in Birmingham on Tuesday, where Charlotte Keenan, Head of the Office of Corporate Engagement International and 10,000 Small Businesses UK (10KSB UK) at Goldman Sachs, was joined by Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, who shared advice for more than 100 entrepreneurs attending on how they can innovate through challenging times.
We also heard from three brilliant 10KSB UK alumni: Avril Grant, CEO at AVision For Empowerment CIC; Daniel Szor, Founder and Executive Chairman at Cotswolds Distillery and Naynesh Karia, Operations Director at Food Attraction Limited, in conversation with Aston University‘s Deputy Dean for Enterprise and Engagement, Paula Whitehouse, on the challenges they have faced in scaling their operations to trade internationally.
Henrietta Brealey and Professor Deborah Leary OBE from the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, and Midven’s Surjit Kooner, then discussed the regional landscape for growth in the West Midlands with Gurjit Jagpal, Head of Goldman Sachs in Birmingham.
The City Summit was followed on Thursday by the first in a series of Generation Growth policy roundtables, delving deeper into the key themes of the report. The event brought together a group of 20 entrepreneurs and small business leaders, academics and Goldman Sachs leadership, to discuss the crucial importance of improving access to finance for small businesses in the UK. Key insights that emerged included raising awareness of funding options as well as how we can address the prevailing disparities in funding across ethnicity, gender and region.
We’re excited to continue these conversations on Generation Growth in the coming months, with the next City Summit in Manchester in April.
Read the full Small Business Manifesto here