About this Event
Designing the Roadmap to Resilience is a practical, research-led session exploring the critical sustainability factors that determine whether SMEs survive and thrive in the face of economic, environmental, and social pressures.
The session draws on two core concepts:
Volume flexibility (VoF) — your business's ability to scale up or down in response to demand without losing stability. Most SMEs have never formally tested this. This workshop will help you start.
Critical sustainability factors (CSF) — the specific conditions your business needs in order to remain viable long-term, financially, environmentally, and socially. Think of these as the load-bearing structures of your business model.
Together, these form the foundation of a Sustainability Matrix — a practical tool being developed specifically for SMEs, designed to reflect the real-world complexity of running a smaller business in today's economy.
➡️This isn't a lecture. It's a co-creation.
Your experience as a business leader is the raw material this research needs.
Through interactive focus group discussions, you won't just learn from the academics — you'll actively contribute to their work. The insights you bring to the room will directly shape a long-term SME resilience model that has the potential to influence policy, practice, and support for small businesses across the UK.
This is genuine collaboration between practitioners and academia. Your voice matters here.
📢A particular focus on women in business
Women entrepreneurs and leaders are central to this workshop — not as an afterthought, but as a core research focus.
The session will explore the specific challenges women face in adopting sustainable business practices, and the distinctive role that women in management play in building organisational resilience. If you lead or manage a business and want your experience to be heard and taken seriously, this is the room to be in.
🌟What will you gain?
Attending this workshop, you will:
- Develop a deeper, systems-level understanding of resilience — and what it means in practice for your business
- Gain practical strategies and ideas for your own organisation, developed during the session and facilitated by experts in sustainability, finance, and EDI
- Actively contribute to real academic research that will shape how UK SMEs approach sustainability
- Connect and network with like-minded SME leaders, women entrepreneurs, and professionals from across sectors
- Receive a certificate of attendance from Leeds Business School
🎆Who is this for?
This workshop is designed for:
- SME owners, founders, and directors
- Women entrepreneurs and women in leadership roles
- Business managers with responsibility for strategy, operations, or sustainability
- Anyone running or leading a small or medium-sized business who wants to think more seriously about long-term resilience
You do not need an existing sustainability strategy or prior knowledge of sustainability frameworks. You just need to run or lead a business — and be willing to share your experience honestly.
➡️What's included:
- Interactive workshop facilitated by Leeds Business School academics
- Free materials
- Certificate of attendance from Leeds Business School
- Business lunch and networking from 1:00pm
Cost: Free to attend
📣Schedule
10:30am — Doors open, registration and refreshments
11:00am — Welcome and introductions: meet the research team and your fellow participants
11:15am — Presentation: critical sustainability factors for SMEs, with a focus on women-led businesses, volume flexibility, and the sustainability matrix
11:45am — Group activity: collaborative focus group work on economic sustainability and operational flexibility
12:30pm — Report back and discussion: groups share insights, facilitated synthesis of key themes
1:00pm onwards — Business lunch and networking
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Leeds Beckett University, Rose Bowl, Portland Gate, Leeds, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
