Goldman Sachs
We were delighted to be part of the recent small businesses pilot scheme set up by Goldman Sachs late last year, but as with all good things, it has sadly drawn to a close.
On Wednesday the 16th March, the Goldman Sachs Small Businesses Education programme, which was trialled specifically in the Yorkshire and Humber area, drew to a close as 25 fast-growing companies successfully completed the pilot scheme. The programme culminated in a dinner that was attended by Tom Riordan Chief Exec. Leeds City council, DFS founder Lord Kirkham, Vice Chancellor of Leeds University Prof Michael Arthur and co-CEO of Goldman Sachs, Richard Gnodde.
The programme was set up to encourage businesses to expand and grow; Michelle Pinggera, chief of staff for Europe, Middle East and Africa said:
“We designed the programme to support employment growth in the UK by working with local entrepreneurs, and we look forward to expanding it in 2011.”
The programme was three times oversubscribed, and of those businesses that were lucky enough to be able to take part, Cloud2 were delighted to be included and were represented by director and co-founder Taran Sohal.
Taran says of the programme: “The programme was a big bonus for us – learning from the academic teams of LUBS, and Oxford Saïd Business School underpinned by the support of Goldman Sachs has really helped to expand our ideas for the business, and taught us how to put these plans to use.”
“The HR aspect enabled us to launch our graduate intern programme, and operations have helped us speed up our project delivery to an impressive 8 weeks.”
“Some of the most interesting lessons I’ve taken from the project revolve around strategy; our move to the private sector has undoubtedly been made possible through the support the programme has offered small businesses such as ourselves.”
The pilot scheme was attended by 22 businesses from a variety of sectors including manufacturing, technology and leisure, attend classes once a fortnight. Five of the participants on the pilot are social enterprises, or viable small businesses with a social objective, and all were given mentoring from Goldman Sachs.
Partners of the scheme included the Saïd Business School at Oxford and Leeds Business School.
