The Randers Business and Development Council is a not-for-profit organisation which supports small and medium businesses to succeed beyond two to three years. They also provide free advice to entrepreneurs, including business planning and strategy development and assist with connecting them with other professional services to help get their business idea up and running.
They are funded partially by the Randers Municipality and also by around 600 member businesses. They employ 9 permanent staff, and have other sub-consultants working for them when needed.
Throughout our day there, all of the staff members who were on-site took the time to come and meet us and tell us a little about what area they specialise in. This included the newly appointed managing director, who was busy preparing for his first board meeting.
This was the first glimpse of what we soon discovered was an extremely inclusive, open and collaborative work environment.
What was most impressive to us were the little things that all worked together to form what we perceived to be a very positive workplace culture. Simple things like:
- having morning tea together every day (Torsten said it was the most important meeting of the day)
- Uffe (the new MD) chose to sit in the open plan office space rather than the closed office
- relationships were their number one focus, and their most important resource, and this seemed to start at home, and with each other.
Their external focus is on ensuring that local business succeed, and they do this through a network of well established and well nurtured relationships. This is all done with the generous spirit that we have been seeing so much of over the last eight days.
Thank you to everyone at Randers Erhvervs- & Udviklingsrad for a very insightful vocational day.
Jasmine and Lauren.
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