FMB Business Skills Research: Good Practice Case Studies

This document provides 6 case study summaries of the experiences of learners on recent FMB business skills training (Build & Grow Workshops and NVQ Diploma in Management) to accompany the full research report. The case studies have been chosen to specifically identify the benefits and impact of the training. The main report, which concludes that overall the training is viewed very positively, also covers areas of potential further improvement for Build & Grow and/or the NVQ programme in the future.

Please note names have been changed as the research interviews were conducted under assurances of confidentiality.

FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – Build & Grow Workshops
Case Study 1:
Jack is the Managing Director of a smallcompany focused mainly on residential refurbishment. They employ 5 full-time equivalent staff and have a turnover of around £0.5m. Jack decided to attend the Build and Grow workshops because he wants his company to take a more structured approach to business planning, and to improve specific aspects of the business, like marketing (the company does not have a website yet), estimating, improving margins and, more generally, improving business efficiency.
The main challenge for the business is competition with low-cost builders. Nevertheless, the business aims to double its turnover in the next 12 months without significantly increasing its financial risk.It aims to compete by building a niche market, providing quality customer service and improving cash flow, whilst also controlling costs.
Jack feels he got a lot from the workshops:
“The workshops were very relevant to the needs of my business and were a very positive and useful learning experience. Generally speaking, I developed new knowledge or remembered and developed existing knowledge in each of them.There was an “a-ha” moment every day”.
The first workshop helped inform Jack’s strategic thinking about the business. Jack is using the learning to help him refine the niche for and enter new market segments (e.g. office refurbishment). From the second he has already started to apply some of the tools on value engineering, business information modelling and a new approach to stage payments which is significantly reducing risk to the business.
Jack feels the new business skills learning offer from the FMB is particularly welcome.
“My company has been a longstanding member of the FMB. They do a good job overall and the training they now offer is precisely the kind of thing I have been recommending for some time.”
FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – Build & Grow Workshops
Case Study 2:
Peter is the Managing Director of a general building firm that has been trading for around 35 years. It was founded by his father and is a family firm. It has grown slowly over the years and now has 12 PAYE employees. Most of their work is for domestic customers but they also do some contracting work from time to time.
Over the years, Peter has looked at a number of ways to try to improve the management of the company and is aware that a lack of business infrastructure is a potential barrier to the sustainability and expansion of the business. They started to go for IIP accreditation and attended a number of other management skills workshops. However the relevance to the business was not always clear.
The FMB Build and Grow workshops looked ideal. They offered fundamental structures for managing the business and were focused on smaller construction businesses.
“We’ve been going 30+ years, so we’re obviously doing some things right. I was mainly looking for a few beneficial tips or things to do from each workshop and an opportunity to take a few steps back and look at the basics of the business again. I wasn’t disappointed.”
Peter thinks the workshops will have a significant impact on his business over the next couple of years. He picked up a lot of tips. One thing he has already done is to improve project planning and communication with customers.
“I learnt that we often used to work more on wishful thinking rather than realistic plans in our estimates of how long jobs take. It’s important to realise the difference between what you plan to do in a week and what you can guarantee to do.”
Peter also feels that a key added benefit of the workshops was the opportunity to talk to other businesses attending them about what they did and why.
“The neutral space the workshops provided for these conversations was really important… Construction is an industry that has quite an adversarial feel to it. Firms are competing directly for work. They can feel quite insecure because they may only have work booked for a few weeks or months in advance. As a result they don’t often share good practice. “
FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – Build & Grow Workshops and NVQ Diploma
Case Study 3:
John is the owner-manager of a small family firm with a turnover of around £1 million. He attended all three Build & Grow workshops and felt they were very good – there’s always something new you can learn. He felt that all the workshop content was good and there was lots of supplementary information that he hopes to go over in more detail when he has time.
In the meantime, John has already put some of the learning into practice:
I applied the bidding tips from Workshop 1 (business analysis and planning) and it worked! I won one new piece of work and stepped back from a bad job. Workshop 1 also helped us improve our marketing.
After workshop 2, I now understand cost control and the critical path stuff better. On the basis of this I created a funding graph for a proposal, which I think was successful in part due to that graph.
On marketing and winning business a key learning point was to spend less time up front and give a looser estimate to get a foot in the door and then work up something more detailed when the client is interested. This avoids a lot of wasted effort on detailed proposals which can get rejected because the client isn’t yet committed to having the work done.
Some of this learning is also helping improve the delivery of work:
I have also now added an app to gang’s phones to record hours worked into a reporting system. This gives me early intelligence on how project costs are evolving and helps avoid costly overruns.
John has also been working towards a Diploma in Management with the FMB and feels that combined with the workshops this has been a powerful learning experience which is starting to have a real business impact. John feels that by improving its efficiency and effectiveness the business is starting to punch above its weight with the resources they have available. The business is exceeding financial targets for the year and hopes to take on new staff soon.
FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – Build & Grow Workshops
Case Study 4:
Sharon runs a new small construction business in South Wales with her husband. She does all the business administration and handles some project management too. Sharon also has her own landscape architecture practice, and previously was a project manager for a local authority.
Sharon did all three Build and Grow workshops and found them relevant to her and to the needs of her business.
“The trainer had lots of experience and packed in a lot of useful information, perhaps so much that a longer course would have been better. In addition to the formal course information there was a lot of useful anecdotal stuff too. The downside of a longer course would be a greater time commitment from people attending, and it would be shame if the price increased as a result – the current price is great!”
The business did not have a formal Business Plan and Sharon is now preparing one using the ‘very thorough input and tools’ from the workshops. The company is also applying learning on pricing and cash flow, and is “dissecting” the cost of different activities more. This is giving them a better understanding of how the business is doing.
The second module covered tendering and estimating, and, although Sharon felt she already knew quite a bit in this area, it was reassuring to confirm that they were doing things in the right way.
Sharon suggested that whilst it was too too early to attribute business impact to the workshops the Business Plan that is being developed will have an impact, as will her learning on improving cashflow management. Sharon also feels that her own career prospects have been enhanced and noted that she will be preparing a Business Plan for her landscape architect’s practice next.
FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – NVQ Diploma in Management
Case Study 5:
Dawn is a manager in a small family-run building company which does residential and domestic work, as well as some light commercial and industrial projects. The company has an MD and three managers at the centre, with 6 PAYE staff on sites and a variable number of sub-contractors. Dawn is a trained interior designer and her role includes kitchen and bathroom design but also client liaison more generally. The business has decided it needs to have more structure to its procedures and people management practices as it grows.
Dawncompleted the combined workshop and online NVQ programme last year.Overall, she feels that the experience helped her to focus on the things “we should do” rather than just avoiding the negatives or bad practice.
“The programme gives you the “nuts and bolts” to improve practice, without being overly complicated. The section-by-section structure of the programme made it easier to implement the learning at work.”
When doing the programme, Fiona updated current processes and implemented new ones to improve the business and generate evidence for her NVQ assessment.
Dawn noted that the programme covered some things she already knew but found this reassuring and noted that different people took different things from the programme.
Most people from medium sized businesses “got” the importance of how job roles should be clearly specified in order for businesses tooperate effectively, for example. But this was valuable to a small, growing business like ours.
Overall, Dawn felt the programme was easy to do and fit in alongside other commitments. When help or input was needed, there was always help or a good answer to questions, and the support staff were informal and approachable.
Dawn has worked with the team to apply her learning from the programme in a number of ways, including developing an induction programme for new staff, improving performance reviews, and starting to produce a newsletter for clients.
“One immediate impact has been that staff motivation has improved since performance reviews were implemented: people are now more engaged and understand their role better.”
FMB Business Skills Research
Learner Feedback – NVQ Diploma in Management
Case Study 6:
Frank is the MD of a small business that specialises in agricultural and industrial steel framed buildings, offering an end-to-end service to cover all aspects of projects. The business has 8 staff. A key challenge is ensuring that staff employed by the company have both the right skills and attitude.
Frank is the MD and handles a wide range of things within the company, including quotes and surveys. He chose to do the combined workshop and online NVQ Diploma in Management to get new ideas and to meet and learn from other businesses.
“For me, it was good to be with other businesses, some of which were large and some small – there was a full spectrum of types of company. This meant that you got lots of useful feedback from peers. You cannot really talk to computers and so not having the workshops to go to would have made the experience quite an isolated one.”
Frank noted that there was a good balance between teaching and assessment on the programme:
“We all run businesses – we don’t need to be treated like at school. The assessment experience was positive: the assessor was good and the Skype sessions worked well. The assessor respected what you already knew, and focused their support on your own particular needs.”
Frank feels that he learned a lot on the programme, learning how to do a staff appraisal being one specific example. Frank instigated a 6-monthly process for appraisals, with a new structured form given to people before the appraisal to help them think about it and get more out of it.
Every two months, there is also now a staff briefing, so that people know what is planned for the next two months and can discuss it. Without this, there was always the issue of “Chinese whispers” being people’s main source of information. A key impact has been that staff attitude has improved, because people now feel that they are informed and have a say.
The programme has also had an effect on strategic planning in the company going forward, with a co-ordinated e-marketing strategy now being put in place.

Emergent Research & Consulting Ltd1