December 2023
There has been much to celebrate in 2023, including new business wins and being accepted onto new frameworks, but our most significant milestone is celebrating a full year as an employee-owned trust!
In this month's update, we share the remaining speedy interviews with our Super Six Leadership team, giving an inside look at their insights and experiences. And we will be discussing the new Procurement Act, which has implications for any business working with or for the public sector. We also applaud the work of our next generation of leaders in our Stepping Stones program. And we see that our Head of IT, Paul Dunleavy, is on top of all things AI. Above all, we want to extend our warmest wishes for a joyous festive season to all our clients, partners, and suppliers. We hope you enjoy December and all the festivities.
This month our picture is a glorious view of Pendle Hill on a fine Winter day.
From Frameworks to Fairness: Understanding the Impact of the 2023 Procurement Act
The 2023 Procurement Act in the UK will bring about significant changes in procurement practices, with a particular focus on supporting small businesses, especially SMEs. This transformation of public procurement represents a big change for all public bodies, which between them spend £300bn per year.
The Act promotes fair competition and equal opportunities, encourages innovative procurement methods, and emphasises sustainability. These changes aim to level the playing field and create more opportunities for small businesses to participate in government contracts. By staying informed and proactive, SMEs can position themselves strategically to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the 2023 Procurement Act.
Granby celebrate Lancashire Business Day
Caroline Noblett and Victoria Pittman from Granby had a fantastic time attending the Lancashire Business Day lunch at Accrington Stanley Football Club . In the midst of the celebrations, Amanda Meachin from Community & Business Partners was awarded Business Personality of the Year 2023. Victoria expressed her admiration, saying, “The award was highly deserved and earned a standing ovation from the full crowd.” Amanda, has been CEO of CBP since 2004 and is now transitioning into semi-retirement. Jaydee Davis, the operations director, will take on the day-to-day leadership of the organisation.
Under Amanda’s guidance, CBP has become one of the most respected business support organisations in the region, with a unique focus on community impact. They concentrate on four key areas all closely aligned with Granby’s own Social Value strategy: business, community, environment, and skills. CBP offers comprehensive business support services and reinvests all of its profits back into the community. During the event, Victoria and Caroline had the pleasure of catching up with Amanda and Jaydee, managing to snap this picture with them. A symbolic passing of the baton!
Client Feedback Why Granby are grateful for feedback
We know our success relies totally on the satisfaction of our clients. Understanding needs, preferences, and pain points is crucial as we plan to deliver exceptional service and support. That’s where client satisfaction studies come into play. We regularly conduct such studies as they allow us to gather really valuable insights and feedback directly, helping us identify areas for improvement and to make informed decisions to enhance our clients’ experience.
Good, bad or indifferent, it is always worthwhile hearing first hand. We are really fortunate in that for the most part our client feedback is great but on the rare occasion we do come up short, we are so thankful to our clients for letting us know. We know that honest and open client feedback is never personal, it’s professional. And it’s mission critical for our business.
So, we’d like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to those of our clients who once again generously gave us their time in 2023 to share how we’re doing. And we’ll be back to talk with you again next year!
Exciting times ahead in the world of artificial intelligence!
And just sneaking into the news desk in time for the December update is this. Last week, Paul Dunleavy, Head of IT at Granby, attended the first ‘national productivity week’ conference at the Manchester Art Gallery. The event brought together industry experts and academics who shared fascinating insights into the trajectory of AI . One particular insightful comment was from Alison Wright of Microsoft, “In no more than 3 years, anything that is not connected to AI will be considered broken or invisible”. Food for thought!
Paul shared his thoughts with us “This will be one to watch as we move ahead with our own program of continuous improvement. I’m excited to see what Microsoft Co-pilot can offer to increase the general productivity for our back office staff as a quick win and looking at how our IT team could develop co-pilots into our own systems like any emergent technology, reaping significant benefits must start with going back and looking at the core business model and proposition with fresh eyes.”
Super Six Interviews Read them all!
At Granby, we are fortunate to have a Leadership Team that work seamlessly together. But who are the individuals behind the titles? We call them our Super Six, and so to learn more, over the past couple of months we asked each of them six questions to get to know them better.
We asked everything from what specific challenge or opportunity they are currently facing, to sharing a memorable moment that made them proud to lead the team. But the most revealing answers were around revealing their team’s ideal theme song and imagining a superpower that would benefit their team. The answers make for a fascinating read.
Stepping Stones GROW One step from home
Last month, our intrepid team of Kayleigh, Niamh, Lisa and Dillon encountered the GROW process for setting and achieving goals on the Stepping Stones training programme.
This was all part of the programme’s penultimate session with our team leader, Rachel Haslam from Team Academy.
The GROW coaching model is a popular structured framework used in business coaching to help individuals and teams set and achieve their goals. GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options, and Way Forward.