Sandwell Business Ambassadors wanted: your chance to positively influence Sandwell’s future

7th September 2020

We are looking for Sandwell Business Ambassadors to join our collective of passionate, high-profile people working hard to:

* Represent our borough’s businesses
* Shape the economic recovery and growth of our region.

You will be joining an enthusiastic team, each of us committed to nurturing economic growth in Sandwell that raises everyone up, benefiting individuals and communities as well as businesses.

Membership

Being a Sandwell Business Ambassador is a voluntary role, suitable for local business leaders and stakeholders who are interested in ‘doing business better’ for the good of Sandwell and the wider West Midlands.

Current Ambassadors represent the manufacturing industries (including glass, metals and chemicals), the professional services sector, education and transport. We are keen for Ambassador representation from all sectors and – to widen our knowledge base and expertise – especially from retail and leisure & tourism.

Your role

Your role as a Sandwell Business Ambassador is to support the Sandwell business community by:

* Using your insight and voice to show Sandwell Council what the local business community needs
– Helping to inform council policy and priorities when it comes to business
– Supporting Sandwell Council’s vision and strategy, including the Inclusive Economy Deal which seeks to build a local economy in which everyone benefits and no-one is left behind.

* Supporting the economic recovery and growth of our region
– Promoting Sandwell as a great place to do business (helping to nurture inward investment)
– Sharing the importance of responsible, local buying and inclusive recruitment.

As Sandwell looks to emerge brighter and stronger from the coronavirus pandemic, and with many high-profile regeneration developments transforming our borough (including the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital and the Sandwell Aquatics Centre), Sandwell Business Ambassadors have the chance to ensure every opportunity is taken to maximise economic growth for the good of everyone: businesses, communities and individuals.

Sandwell Business Ambassadors are increasingly being invited to sit on or even chair influential boards, including local boards for Sandwell’s Towns Funds applications and Sandwell Council’s Community Wealth and Economic Resilience Board.

Commitment

As a Sandwell Business Ambassador you would attend and contribute to a minimum of nine meetings per year (we hold one each month, on a Tuesday morning, lasting around two hours). This is as a spokesperson for the sector you represent, and as a representative of the wider Sandwell business community. We ask for a commitment of two years’ service.

Between meetings, you should be committed to sharing information for our website (such as opportunities for Sandwell businesses), and happy to promote the work of the Ambassadors within your other networks. You should be willing to support and, where possible, attend occasional events organised by the Ambassadors – such as ‘meet the buyer’ sessions designed to nurture local procurement. (As an example, we have this one online on Thursday 8 October, with Balfour Beatty, the main contractor for the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital.)

At our meetings we agree actions to follow up, either collectively or as individuals. You must be willing to undertake your assigned actions in a timely fashion and report on the outcomes to the rest of the team.

Sandwell Business Ambassadors have individual profiles on our website and act as champions for our borough. However, becoming an Ambassador is not for promoting one’s own organisation, personal profile or business interests.

Help us to stay relevant and to speak for more people

We hold our hands up in saying that, in terms of our backgrounds, we’re not as diverse a group of people as we’d like to be. So while our call for new Ambassadors is open to all Sandwell businesspeople, we will especially welcome approaches from potential new Ambassadors who are younger and/or who are female and/or who are black, Asian or from other minority ethnic backgrounds, and/or have encountered barriers within the business world, such as disabilities.

Having a bigger range of voices and perspectives in our team is vital – to expand our own thinking and to ensure we better represent (and do our absolute best for) the dynamic, culturally diverse population of Sandwell.

How to apply

We’re making this very informal. Please send us a message with a personal introduction, outlining why you’re interested in becoming a Sandwell Business Ambassador and what you could bring to the role. If appropriate, we would like to invite you to attend one of our monthly meetings (currently being held by Microsoft Teams) so you can what see being an Ambassador is all about.

If you have questions, or you would like to apply, contact us today.

#DoingBusinessBetter