Many SMEs have had it particularly tough during the pandemic, with small and medium-sized businesses less likely than their larger rivals to have access to the resources to help guide them through.
Free advice is to hand, though, from the All Together not-for-profit collective of CEOs of leading UK businesses, who are convening their first summit on 26-28 April, with much to interest those in the drinks and hospitality sectors.
With All Together drawing on the expertise and experience of CEOs and ex-CEOs across retail, hospitality, tech, creative, manufacturing and business services industries, its Three Things Summit will look at the challenges faced and opportunities for SMEs over the next 12 months, with advice on how best to ‘build back better’ and what further support government can offer.
M Restaurant founder and Gaucho CEO Martin Williams is among those that have teamed up with like-minded cross-sector business leaders for All Together, providing free mentoring to business heads during the Covid-19 crisis.
As such, he is a strong advocate of the importance of the role of hospitality and related sectors in the fabric of the UK, believing that the pandemic has driven a “newly found appreciation of the sector” as the fifth biggest part of the economy and major employer.
“People didn’t really appreciate hospitality until it was taken away,” Williams told Harpers.
“Like we’ve seen with football over the past few days, hospitality is very much part of the fabric of society and needs appropriate representation and support into the future.”
Turning to the aims of All Together and the Three Things Summit, Williams said that the cross-sector view gives a “much more positive and long term strategic outlook on business, rather than it all being about ‘what’s next and how are we going to get through this’”.
“It should help restaurants and smaller businesses think in a more cross-sector and rounded way, looking at the coming years, learning from other business leaders, perhaps of things they hadn’t thought of before.”
More information on All Together and the Three Things Summit can be found here.