Dudley’s Aluminium forges ahead post-pandemic with Help to Grow: Management
HELP TO GROW: MANAGEMENT COURSE AT CARDIFF BUSINESS SCHOOL “GIVES YOU THE TOOLS THAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS” IN BUSINESS
ANY business needs to equip itself with a set of tools to adapt to change and Steve Muir, commercial director at Dudley’s Aluminium Ltd, knows this first-hand.
Dudley’s Aluminium has been manufacturing windows and doors since 1993, and Steve has seen a great deal of the business’s journey since joining the company as an apprentice in 2002.
However, the company underwent some significant changes in 2021 as a new management team was put in place and Steve was one of the employees put in a senior position. He enrolled in the Help to Grow: Management course with Cardiff Business School at Cardiff University to get guidance on how the team could steer the company through difficult times.
WHAT CHANGES WERE MADE?
Steve said that while he was on the course, he learnt how a “flexible and adaptable” approach could benefit the business. Equipped with the processes to make this kind of change, he fed back to the business on what changes could be put into practice.
Not only did this enable the circulation of new ideas, but once a plan was in place Steve and the management team were able to “make sure we got everything aligned”.
Steve added that the Help to Grow: Management course at Cardiff University “gives you the tools that you need to make better decisions about things you maybe haven’t thought of before.”
“The tips that the course has given us have helped us in a really rocky time in the last year, the road has been crazy in the last 12 months and we’ve navigated it really well,” he said.
HOW DID THE COURSE WORK?
This course supports senior managers of small and medium sized businesses to boost their business’s performance resilience and long-term growth. The 12-week programme can be done around existing work commitments and is delivered through a combination of eight online and four face-to-face sessions.
Making time for learning can be difficult, particularly when business issues arise. Steve said the combination of remote and in-person sessions helped him develop at a comfortable pace over the 12 weeks.
In addition to the 12 modules, Steve highlighted the importance of having a dedicated mentor alongside your development, he said: “For me, the course wouldn’t be the same without a mentor.”
The opportunity to bounce ideas and discuss shared experiences with a mentor has helped Steve explore new processes with Dudley’s Aluminium.
GOING FORWARD
Dudley’s Aluminium is now “constantly looking at how we can grow new product ranges or how we can improve on the way we do things at the moment”.
On top of that, Steve said: “We’re going to bring youngsters into the industry, by offering bespoke apprenticeships to people, so I think the future is very bright for us”.
The Help to Grow: Management course is available to any business that has been operating for a year or more and employs between 5 and 249 people. Currently the course is not open to charities. Participants must be decision-makers who are prepared to complete every
session. It is 90% funded by the UK Government.
Find out more about the Help to Grow Management course on the Cardiff University website