[Claire MacDonald, Director at MacMartin] The Help to Grow management program has been really useful I think to bounce ideas around on each other and to give each other's opinion I think, of the business.
[Laura Kaye Tomlinson, Director at Holos Group] For me one of the big attractions for the programme was knowing that you've got people — especially because they've paid for it themselves — you know you've got people that are invested, that want to be there and are committed. It's not something anybody's been forced into doing. So you automatically know going into the room that there's people that you're going to get on with on that level.
[Claire] When you can put something forward to other people — that's useful....as well as take ideas from others and their businesses.
[Paula Twine, Operations Manager at Pinnacle Surveyors] And we've already started to do that haven't we?
We've already started to do ideas that other people have suggested, so I've already done things that Laura's suggested.
And I think Claire, you're starting to look at things that we've done as well and it's having that... sort of forum to be able to talk to other people, but use their ideas to go forward.
[Claire] I think we've been lucky as a group as well, in that we've all got very different skill sets. So I think it's really useful that we can all take a little bit from each other.
[Laura] Having people that go "yeah that's exactly what I would have done", but also people going "well I did something completely different because I've got a different background". I think that's been a really nice mix to have.
[Des Gosling, Director at Des Gosling Mobility Ltd] As a business leader it can be quite a lonely place in some ways, so this collaborative thing that's going on here with a peer group I think is a really strong thing. It's one of the strongest things that I'm gaining from the whole experience as well as the great course content that's been given to us.
[Laura] Definitely the most valuable part of the programme for me has been our peer groups. And, I started looking forward on a Wednesday thinking "oh I've got an hour just to talk to you guys and hear what's been going on". The other parts of the programme have been good but that's been the best part of it for me, definitely.
[Claire] It's like a real non-competitive environment isn't it? So you feel really comfortable to ask for help or to share ideas.
[Laura] I think that's a really important part of it isn't it? We very quickly got to a point where we could be really honest
with no kind of... "oh you know, I'm brilliant at everything." It was very much a place of "this is what I'm struggling with" or "this is what I've not thought about" and I think that was quite nice to get to really quickly.
[Paula] We're already making plans to meet up again, obviously because now the course is finished. We're already decided that we're going to meet up for a coffee sometime and catch up again and see where everybody's at and still support each other going forward.