Head of Lab - maternity cover

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Head of the Be the Business Lab - Maternity cover FTC

About us and what we do

Be the Business was established as an independent charity in 2017 by a group of prominent
business figures led by our chair Sir Charlie Mayfield, in response to the UK's poor productivity
performance. For more than fifteen years, the UK's productivity growth has been negligible, and
we have fallen behind many of our international peers. And we're working to understand what
needs to be done to reverse this.

Having received seed funding from government, we are now fully financially independent of
government as of the start of this quarter. We have a new strategy with a clear focus on
delivering three key areas that we know will increase our influence, reach, and impact.

These three areas are:

(i) Build on our proven ability to innovate by testing and learning what engages
business leaders and makes a real difference to small business productivity.

(ii) Further our influence by developing the impact of our knowledge and insight, and
making it valuable for partner organisations.

(iii) Apply our expertise by delivering market-tested services proven to boost business
productivity, and enhance the professional development of corporate executives.

About The Lab

The first of these areas is the focus on the Be the Business Lab.

While it is a new operating unit, it goes to one of the founding principles of the organisation - to
understand the challenges to improve productivity in small and midsize businesses by on-the-ground
testing and learning what makes a difference 'in the real world'.

The Lab's customers are corporates, government, and grant-giving organisations who are
interested in piloting different interventions and want to use our expertise to evidence and
measure the impact on productivity.

About the role

The Head of Lab role is responsible for building this operating unit.

It involves working with the CEO to deliver the new strategy and accelerate the number of
organisations that we work with to increase the range of projects with undertake and build the
unit's income.

In running the testing centre of the organization, you'll also be working closely with the other
parts of the business to determine the areas for experimentation and oversee delivery.
Plus you'll be ensuring that we deliver significant value to our customers.

Objectives of the role
• Build a pipeline of income generating opportunities and secure new income from
enterprise and grant funders.
• Develop the proposition and products to meet the different research and commercial
priorities of funders.
Develop the business unit based on practitioner-led research that develops new ways to
drive small business productivity to produce fresh insights, advice, data and (potentially)
new business lines for us or our funders.

Key responsibilities of the role

Leadership
• Work as part of the senior leadership team to develop the Lab's strategy and deliver
income targets, achieve operational excellence, and manage risks.
• Deliver KPIs and OKRs that align to the organisation's overall ambitions.
• Own delivery of the Lab strategy, targets, and activities.
• Effectively manage the Lab team and support their professional development.

Sales
• Drive outreach, sales activity, and pipeline development, to achieve and exceed the Lab's
targets.
• Work with new and existing enterprise clients and grant-givers to build and secure
income opportunities. This will include developing high-value, long-term partnerships
with enterprise and grant-giving organisations and building routes to new opportunities,
including through referrals and prospecting activity.
• Build a grant and corporate pipeline of significant income-generating opportunities
(min. £100k+ each).

Delivery
• Act as senior responsible officer on key projects with responsibility for progress and risk
management, by working closely with the project manager.
• Work with the project manager to build operational delivery plans for new partnerships.

Research
• Work with the team to identify key issues and research questions to address and develop
innovative solutions based on our insights about small and midsize business productivity.
• Build partnerships with academics and research institutions who we can collaborate with
on projects or grant work.

Skills and competencies that we're looking for
• Proven track record of income generation from providing consulting services at min £50k
per transaction.
• Clear leadership experience - potentially in a consulting environment, as a start-up team
and/or in a research setting.
• Experience creating and selling a new proposition as part of a start-up team.
• Programme management experience.
• Experience of having secured grants and private sector funding.
• Experience of working with corporate organisations to meet commercial priorities and
requirements.
• Well-developed interpersonal skills.
• Strong commercial acumen.
• Alignment with Be the Business values.

Anticipated 12 month FTC, plus handover period.