Having left the Army in 2016, I seem to have entered a loop of completing Goldman Sachs development programmes, firstly the Veterans Integration Programme back in 2016 and now their superb small business incubator; GS 10,000 Small Businesses. A successful import from the USA.

Before you think I lack stickability, I was remarkably fortunate to stumble across the idea for 3Pillars Project in 2016, and develop it whilst completing my Goldman Internship. 

I was eventually confronted with the daunting choice of banking or building the charity, I chose to develop 3Pillars, which has become an exciting journey growing a prison based programme that mentors young men in custody and beyond. We are achieving fantastic results.

To those wondering about my new venture Amodigo, I am now balancing part time work on the charity with running the company. Amodigo – meaning Industrious Leader, is the product of being asked to deliver a number of training and leadership events for firms over the past few years. Originally a one man consulting band, we are growing, and quickly!! 

A relaunch of the company awaits (obviously not possible through Covid) partnered by a wonderful range of remote, in person and blended (a mixture) training packages that improve leaders and teams.

We are centred on a belief that Human Performance: leadership, wellbeing and resilience can all be developed with brilliant training and mentorship. And we want to share the extensive knowledge of our team with others. We will hopefully train 1,000 leaders per year by 2025.

Amodigo is building upon new opportunities. Goldman’s programme requires participants to prepare an extensive Growth Plan, underpinned by two core business opportunities. We’ve recognised these opportunities as enhancing our online and remote training delivery, and building our range of accredited qualifications, starting with the ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management).

Last week, I presented the growth plan to a packed, certainly by Covid standards, auditorium of 15 other business leaders at Oxford University Business School. The programme – an on the job, very practical, real world MBA, has demanded intense focus over the past 6 months and opened doors along the way. Whilst also drastically enhancing our corporate knowledge.

Over the coming months, I’m excited that we will be launching a range of accredited leadership and management development courses, an interactive online training platform with some fantastic contributors, a new website as well as continuing our socially distanced training delivery by our expert practitioners.

We owe one last thank you to Goldman Sachs, as we brace ourselves for an exciting future ahead. If anyone would like to better understand the programme, please do reach out to speak about its merits if you are an SME business owner.