If the pandemic taught us anything, it was the value of collaboration.

Driven by necessity, businesses joined forces to remarkable effect, looking beyond the profit towards positive outcomes for people, place and the planet.

As we move on from that extraordinary period of human history, there is a growing acknowledgment that we need to move away from the exploitative ‘us versus them’ model of success and towards an ‘us with them’ approach where business value and social impact are both enhanced.

Mick Gornall, Managing Director of accountants Towers + Gornall, is committed to this new direction after completing Good Growth, a programme from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS).

The programme came along at the perfect moment for Mick, who joined the 65-year-old firm in early 1990s and became a director a decade later. In the last few years, Mick, 56, has found himself as the managing director of a young board primed for modernisation.

“Having spent three decades in a more traditional business with entrenched ideas, I found myself something of a father figure on a board with young, talented and enthusiastic fellow partners who didn’t have much experience running the business but were hungry for a chance to develop and grow,” Mick explained. “It was like we had a blank piece of paper to transform our business model to overcome our challenges, such as staff recruitment and retention which were being driven by a demand for a more flexible work/life balance. I saw this programme as an opportunity to explore how we could do things differently.”

Introduced to the programme by his bank manager, Mick had no previous experience of working with the university and no expectations of what impact Good Growth could have.

The programme started with a two-day residential, introducing the delegates to each other and laying the foundations for the forthcoming five months.

Mick admits to being slightly sceptical of the concept.

“Those first days were jarring,” he said. “I had spent my whole career being told profit was king, even though my instincts told me otherwise, and having ideas knocked back. To learn about a model which put people first sounded too idealistic, too perfect. It was a shock to the system.”

The pivotal moment was the first face-to-face workshop, where programme leader Professor Steve Kempster dug deeper into the Good Growth model, explaining it as an alternative to the out-dated, short-term and often exploitative approach of ‘growth at all costs’ model, towards a more sustainable strategy which enhances relationships with partners, suppliers, customers, employees, and communities.

Recognising that a new approach could still deliver growth, Mick became a convert.

Over five months, supported by digital tools and underpinned by Professor Kempster’s Good Dividends research, Mick and other delegates assessed how each dimension of their businesses contributes, creating a baseline to measure growth against, before exploring how specific practices can contribute to solving local and global challenges in a way that enhances value for all, including the planet.

The outcome is the building blocks for a 'Good Growth' action plan with clear objectives to generate positive outcomes for both people and place, inside and outside the organisation.

For Mick, one of the most valuable elements of the programme was working so closely with other SME leaders who came from a wide variety of different backgrounds and sectors.

While the cohort came together for sessions, they are split into smaller groups, Good Growth boards, who acted as a non-executive board of directors to share fresh and impartial perspectives, as well as scrutinise and encourage.

“There was a huge amount of knowledge and experience transferred between us,” he said. “We shared our troubles and worked through them, and came up with new ideas to overcome them. It was extremely useful. It created a critical sense of community and trust between us, and many of us have remained in contact since the end of the programme.”

One of the most valuable lessons for Mick was the benefit of taking time away from the business.

“When you are an SME and a leader you are extraordinarily busy,” he said. “This programme really forced me to shine a light on the business and realise that our most important client is ‘us’.”

With the programme concluded Mick has now started speaking to clients whose business models were reaping the benefits of investing in their staff and community. He has also taken his learning back to his board with big results.

“To get instant buy-in and backing from partners about Good Growth was sensational,” Mick said. “Having been anchored by traditional approaches and thinking for much of my career, that collective agreement really gave me momentum. To pursue that metaphor further, it really put the wind in my sails.”

The business has already made small changes to create a big impact, such as an extra holiday on birthdays, flexitime and health insurance. There are also plans to revamp the website with a new mission statement and put the workforce at the centre of the story.

Having previously seen sustainability as a minor concern, Mick and the board have committed to understanding its own environmental impact and taking steps to become net zero.

The business is now exploring how it can create an add-on service for clients, many of which are in the agricultural sector, around carbon scoring and reporting. Meanwhile, Mick has joined a collective of accountants championing sustainability and sharing ideas.

“It is clear from discussing sustainability with the team that there is some real passion about taking real steps to change how we operate in some areas,” he said. “We are committed to getting our house in order and pursuing education and training to help ourselves as well as support our clients.”

Mick is also in talks with the university about the potential for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, which would give an opportunity for a researcher from the University to study, whilst working at Towers and Gornall.

“Our clients, particularly in the agricultural sector, could really benefit from somebody with their knowledge and experience, when it comes to sustainability and other carbon issues,” he said. “From our point of view, it will help us develop our goal of offering Net Zero as a service to all our clients in the coming months and years.”

Having completed the programme in June, Mick is approaching his leadership of the business with renewed enthusiasm and optimism.

“Participating in the programme has been a game changer,” he said. “It has re-invigorated our business mindset and has completely changed how we approach growth as a strategy. Profit is no longer the only focus.”

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