NWDA High Growth Programme is creating over 200 jobs per month



In September 2008 Winning Pitch Plc (a Manchester based management consultancy) were awarded the contract to deliver the High Growth Programme, a three year £10m initiative funded by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA). The aim of the programme is to assist 1,800 businesses around the Northwest to achieve high levels of sustainable growth through a coaching and mentoring programme with up to 10 days on offer. The programme focuses on those businesses with the potential and capability to achieve very high levels of growth or ‘Gazelles’ as they are otherwise known. This is due to their similarity to the animal they represent, in that they are very agile and have the ability to change direction very quickly.

The High Growth Programme targets small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), from very early stage businesses who show the desire, aspiration and capability of growing to a turnover of £500k in the first three years of trading, to established businesses who already turnover £500k or more and have the ability to grow at 20% per annum. Winning Pitch has now engaged with over 1,500 businesses since the programme started, the majority of which are still actively receiving coaching.

The programme is now coming to the end of its second year and is in full flow in terms of the coaching process and hitting the programme outputs. In June of this year the High Growth Programme created 240 jobs in the Northwest, with the total number of jobs created now over 1000.  

The level of activity in terms of job creation highlights the point that fast growing businesses have a vital role to play in economic development. Fast growing businesses or Gazelles only account for a mere 5% of businesses in the UK, however they are proving the case that they are capable of creating up to 60 to 70% of new jobs the evidence speaks for itself!