Birmingham training business heads to Vietnam

Export market follows acclaimed entry in business competition.

A Birmingham leadership and management training company is on the road to exporting success after winning its first overseas contract to deliver its courses in Vietnam.

Business Development Midlands Company Ltd will partner with an Hanoi-based training provider in launching its first tranche of courses, which will be delivered with the support of the globally renowned Institute of Leadership and Management, in the autumn.

The news comes just days after it came fourth in a nationwide Open to Export competition held at the International Festival of Business on June 30th. More than 100 companies entered the competition to pitch their export plans to a panel of international judges and the firm won free membership of the prestigious Institute of Export and free access to the global business-to-business portal Great British Store.

Andy Munro, business development manager at Business Development Midlands Company Ltd, said the positive feedback from the panel has boosted further its confidence that it can go global. The New Market Street-based company has spent the past 12 months working closely with UK Trade & Investment West Midlands, learning how to access the international market. It has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with their experienced Hanoi-based training partner which is the first stage of taking the ILM-branded courses to Vietnam.

As the company’s training and development portfolio grows in the country, it plans to move towards a structured development programme and aims to set up the first fully accredited centre for Institute of Leadership and Management training delivery in Vietnam. He said: “Our courses are different from those normally delivered in Vietnam because they include work-based assignments, which we have found is an attractive proposition to businesses out there.

“We are a very small company of 12 so it was a bold step for us to decide to take our courses out to an audience out of the UK but we are very pleased with how everything is going so far, especially because we know that offering ILM-accredited courses is a real kite-mark of quality.

“It only came about because of a chance conversation with a business acquaintance about opportunities in Vietnam that we decided to pursue it and although it’s early days, we couldn’t have done it without the support of UKTI. It has helped us get to grips with how to do business in such a different culture and enabled us to go on a visit last year so that we could meet contacts face to face, which is essential.”

Ann Cook, the international trade adviser at UKTI West Midlands who worked alongside Business Development Midlands Company Ltd, said it offered key advice on a number of issues, including intellectual property, to safeguard its training portfolio documents. The firm also completed a number of export seminars and training sessions. She said: “It’s great news that the company is forging ahead with exporting its training courses to Vietnam and that we have been the catalyst in enabling it to find a suitable partner over there.

“This shows that even small companies can make an impact on the international stage and although it’s not always a quick process, Andy and his team clearly demonstrated a need in the market over there, which is why the memorandum of understanding has already been signed. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with him.”