London, 9 March 2023: today Be the Business and Lloyds Bank announce the renewal of their partnership, which first launched in 2019, to help hundreds of UK business leaders achieve sustained productivity growth and success.
The partnership will continue to support and empower leaders of small-to-medium sized businesses, through Lloyds Bank sponsorship, onto either Be the Business Mentoring or Boards programmes. These programmes aim to increase productivity levels of businesses by developing the management capabilities of participants. This will build on the estimated £45 million economic uplift generated by the partnership to date.
Be the Business Mentoring, Be the Business flagship, mentoring programme, has been carefully pairing business leaders with experienced and committed senior executives from the UK’s most successful companies in 1-to-1 relationships since 2018. The programme helps business leaders to drive tangible impact through in-depth, impartial support on digital and leadership development.
Business leaders will also have access to Be the Business Boards, a programme that provides business leaders with their own non-executive director-style board, which they wouldn’t usually be able to access. Each business leader then receives an individually built experience that utilises the unique and varied skills of every Board member.
The partnership will in addition empower Lloyds Bank colleagues to access professional and personal development opportunities by participating as Be the Business mentors and board members, further supporting businesses through the sharing of knowledge and guidance.
Anthony Impey, Chief Executive of Be the Business, said: “We're delighted that we'll be able to extend and grow our partnership with Lloyds Bank. Their contributions over the last four years have been invaluable and Be the Business is immensely proud of the work we’ve achieved through this partnership. Our Productivity through People leadership training and Rebuild programme meant we could be there when businesses needed support the most during the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, our work isn’t done, and the continuation of this partnership represents our shared commitment to helping UK firms through these challenging times, as well as tackling the productivity challenge head on.”
Paul Gordon, Managing Director of Relationship Management, Business & Commercial Banking at Lloyds Bank said: “SMEs account for 99% of UK business and three-fifths of employment, making them the key to unlocking UK productivity growth – which has the potential to improve the living standards of everyone across the UK. We are pleased to continue our longstanding partnership with Be the Business, a small business champion who have demonstrated the importance of how investment in management and leadership can support growth. Our contribution to date has helped to generate an estimated £45 million boost in productivity, supporting Be the Business with their ambition to create £1 billion of UK SME productivity uplift by the end of 2025.”
For further information, broadcast bids and interview requests please contact James Gribben, Head of Communications, james.gribben@bethebusiness.com, mob: 07854897974
About Be the Business
Be the Business are the small business productivity champions. We inspire behaviour change in business leaders to deliver greater productivity by convening private sector expertise, innovating impactful programmes and identifying ways to increase demand for business support.
In doing so, we aim to transform the UK economy, raise the value of businesses in our communities, safeguard jobs and improve standards of living.
We offer access to experts who can help others understand the UK's productivity puzzle; business leaders who are getting big results by doing things differently; and research focused on improving productivity.
About Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank provides comprehensive expert financial services for businesses of all sizes, from start-ups, SMEs, and mid-sized corporates all the way to large multinational corporations and financial institutions. It has over one million UK business customers.
With a network of relationship teams across the UK, Lloyds Bank delivers the mix of local understanding and sector expertise necessary to provide long-term support to its clients.