New Partnership Announcement

New Partnership Announcement

St Andrews Management Centre (organisational leadership, training and international trade) and the Edinburgh Institute (competitive and advantage and edge for SMEs) and have teamed up to provide a one-stop shop for Scottish organisations, of all types and size, to help them survive and thrive.


To compete successfully in the 21st century, and particularly at a time of unprecedented change, requires all organisations to be more nimble and resilient – not only to adapt and be recognisably different and stand out in their marketplace, but to make a meaningful difference to all stakeholders. It is no longer sufficient to simply seek to be interesting to your market, now you have to be truly attractive and valued, indeed critical, to the Customer, Citizen or Client.

Based at St Andrews Management Centre’s training centre in Fife, this unique collaboration provides organisations here in Scotland and abroad with rapid-change programmes – short, powerful, practical and easily-deployed – that result in a truly remarkable and sustainable advantage and operational edge. Results can be achieved in days, often with existing resources, directly after completing the enjoyable courses and workshops provided by the partnership.

Jeff Lockhart of St Andrews Management Centre said of the collaboration ‘we already have a track record of successfully helping very different organisations and sectors with ‘backbone’ organisational and structural management training and advice, in Scotland and around the world; this is now complimented by competitive advantage programmes, meaning that both the back and front end of a Client’s operations are covered’. David Hood, Founder of the Edinburgh Institute took up the theme and said ‘by bringing together two brands with a potent mix of programmes and resources for the SME and other organisations, we truly have a modern centre of excellence for commercial and organisational improvement right here in Scotland. Times are difficult, organisations have to change like never before. It is no longer acceptable to be uninteresting or undifferentiated. People have a lot more choice and organisations need a radically better offer to be attractive. We know this and have responded with a definitive path to help all organisations tool-up, survive and thrive’.

There is a lot of talk about the ‘new normal’ and business and organisations ‘doing things differently’, by adopting better techniques and products or services to meet changing tastes and increasingly tough market demands. From government through to trade bodies and other agencies or commentators, management thinking has not yet caught up and defined what a ‘new normal’ looks like, or how to make the necessary changes to organisations and make them more relevant and effective to meet those everchanging challenges and opportunities. The new collaboration between two strong Scottish-branded organisations is timed perfectly to provide a thorough response to the threat: to show how to leverage what an individual organisation has, to elevate it to what it could and should be, to effectively break through the noise in their sector, and thus to truly stand out.

Lockhart’s co-Founder Rick Bond is looking forward to helping SMEs in particular, through and beyond current challenges. ‘We have helped many organisations, whether large or small, private, public and third sector, elevate people and processes; and we now we can additionally help improve revenue and profit. This means we can guarantee to enhance operational effectiveness for any size of organisation, and can show them a clear and rapid path to a distinctive and sustainable competitive advantage that can last up to two years’.

Left to right, Jeff Lockhart (St Andrews Management Centre), David Hood (Edinburgh Institute) and Rick Bond (St Andrews Management Centre).

To launch this new relationship and opportunity for Scotland’s SMEs, an invitation is extended to a special Edinburgh Roundtable, timed around the release of programmes for applying organisations; to secure an invite or to grasp the opportunity to be part of the initial in-house workshop intake (a limited number are available), contact kirstie@edinburgh.institute or enquiries@stamc.co.uk