Lord Leong CBE, Minister for Small Business and Enterprise, reflected on his own experience as an entrepreneur at a roundtable hosted by Help to Grow: Management and London South Bank University (LSBU) Business School on 7 October 2026.
At the event, held at the school’s Croydon campus and chaired by Flora Hamilton, Executive Director of the Small Business Charter and CEO of Chartered ABS, Lord Leong met course alumni and the team who deliver the programme.
Help to Grow: Management is a 12-week, 90% government-funded, course that helps SME leaders develop the skills and confidence to grow their businesses. Delivered by Small Business Charter-accredited business schools across the UK, it combines practical learning with 10 hours of one-to-one mentoring and peer networking.
Lord Leong said: “Talent is everywhere. It doesn’t matter your background. However, running your own business is a very lonely process, so having a network of people close to you that you can bounce ideas off is fantastic. The access to practical learning, mentoring and peer support that Help to Grow: Management provides is vital. We need partners like our business schools to support the companies that need it to unlock their growth.”
The Help to Grow: Management Course has 14,420 participant enrolments and 11,915 participant course completions. 85% are based outside London and 40% are women, against a national average of 24% of businesses led by women. Independent research found that 92% of participants reported improved business confidence.
Alumni, Charlie Gardner, Strategy Director at Caroline Gardner, a well-known British lifestyle, stationery, homeware and gift brand, completed the course at LSBU in 2024. Along with his siblings, he’s one of the second generation in this 33-year-old family business employing 50 people. A 10-year vision exercise from the course has shaped the company’s direction.He said at the event: “This exercise brought real clarity as all the issues were laid out on the table and we set out a 10-year vision around our growth and succession planning. We still have that vision, and everything we try to do as a business is guided by that trajectory.”
Peter Watts, founder of Watts Sustainability, a sustainability strategy and training consultancy working with global brands, also joined fellow alumni at the event. He graduated from the course at LSBU in March 2025. Peter said: “I can confidently say this is the best training course I’ve ever been on in terms of its impact on me as an individual and on the business. I studied Environmental Strategy and am a Chartered Environmentalist, rather than a business professional, so this course really helped fill in the gaps. My mentor has also been the best mentor I’ve ever worked with, and she works with us to this day.”
Executive Director of the Small Business Charter, Flora Hamilton, concluded: “It was a pleasure to welcome Lord Leong to LSBU Business School and hearing from alumni like Charlie and Peter shows the real difference Help to Grow: Management makes to businesses and the people who run them. Small Business Charter-accredited business schools like LSBU are doing a terrific job of supporting their local business communities to help drive growth in every postcode. I’d like to thank the fantastic team at LSBU for sharing their expertise and experience with us all at this event.”
The next Help to Grow: Management Course at LSBU starts in January 2027.
