School of Business
MBD
Established: 1996
Legal structure: Company Limited by Guarantee with Co-operative trading status
Who we are
MBD began our journey as a theatre company rooted in the belief that live performance could spark real world impact. Curiosity led to new frontiers; the company embraced emerging technologies like VR, AR and motion capture, evolving into a multi-disciplinary studio and eventually settled on Virtual Reality as our main offer.
The challenge
After 27 years of trading MBD was facing a succession change and wished to revisit the practices, principles, values and ethics upon which the workers’ co-operative business was built to ensure a smooth transition into the future. The co-op also wished to explore new markets and ways of working.
What was required
MBD’s mission is to provide communities with new tools for storytelling using tools that are interactive, accessible, and capable of sparking curiosity in ways traditional formats often cannot. Married to this is a need to ensure financial stability and business continuation.
- Business modelling
- Exploring new tools and methods
- Addressing succession issues
- Action planning and implementation
The project supported MBD to explore options and possibilities around business development, new markets, recruitment and new services. Special attention was paid to the areas of succession and co-operative working practices.
Growth acceleration through
Business modelling: MBD focused on exploring creative solutions to address identified concerns. As a co-op, the team is the strength, so all members were involved in identifying and investigating options.
Business planning: The entire team worked on ideas for developing the business plan. All staff were consulted regarding co-operative practices, ethics and values and the way forward for future working.
Action planning: MBD implemented action and changes around: Staff structures, Salaries and rewards, Training and development, Recruitment, Board membership, Ways of working, Succession planning and future planning.
“Being part of the Growth Accelerator project was a fantastic opportunity to meet other socially driven companies. Knowing that we were part of a bigger community and having people who we could talk to about how we balance business success with social goals was really refreshing. During our time with the Accelerator, the business has seen consistent development. It is not necessarily big steps that have mattered, but an ongoing opportunity to step back and assess how we do things and to consider how we improve incrementally.” Paul Long, Founder and Director, MBD Ltd
