Branson Centre, NCB host operational excellence workshop

The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship -Caribbean and the National Commercial Bank (NCB) hosted the operational excellence workshop at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, facilitated by Jorge C. Gonzalez Rico, supply chain senior director at J. Wray & Nephew Limited.

This is the first of two specialised workshops for the year opened to the public from Branson Centre’s scale-up accelerator programme. The half-day workshop covered topics which showed small to medium enterprises (SMEs) how to achieve superior performance through continuous process improvement in order to comprehensively satisfy the needs of both internal and external customers.

“This workshop got rave reviews last year, so we opted to bring it back. This year, we sold out all tickets within the first week,’’ said Dmitri Dawkins, Branson Centre’s entrepreneur programme director.

“Identifying bottlenecks in your business, where to invest to fix them, and how much increased margin it will result in are crucial for any scaling business. It was a very interactive session, with all the entrepreneurs contributing to the conversation based on their specific industry and business models,” Dawkins added.

“Small interactive workshops like these are value-filled but costly to set up, which is why we’re happy that NCB is invested in the development of SMEs through our partnership, making this all possible,” he said.

“We are always looking for opportunities to help our customers grow and solve problems, and there is no doubt that our partnership with Branson Centre has done that. The Jamaican economy is sustained by entrepreneurs, and our investment in programmes like these are important in helping businesses reach their full earning potential,” said Gregory Peart, sales manager at NCB.

Branson Centre defines companies in the scale-up phase as those in the $25-million to $200-million revenue bracket, looking to scale their operations through increasing revenue and entering new markets.

Its high-touch services are delivered to two cohorts across a six-month period and incorporates rigorous training through business workshops and investment-readiness boot camps sponsored by NCB. It also offers support through advisory boards and monthly CEO meetings with heads of industry.