For Shivendra Kumar, connecting with ICN at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic was what kept his start-up small business, Shivendra & Co, afloat while the world shut down.
“I started two weeks before COVID started,” he said. “You come up all pumped up to get into business, you’ve done all your homework, resigned from your day job and then two weeks later, everyone goes home.
“It was in that period, a couple of months into it, the whole world was online, I attended a virtual conference. Something to do with infrastructure and construction companies.
“They were presenting number of projects, and Ian Hudson [Executive Director of ICN NSW] was there. He did a presentation about ICN.
“As any young, enthusiastic business person would do, I reached out to so many people, and Ian was one of the handful that responded and agreed to meet with me.
It was just a couple of days later that Shivendra and Ian connected over the phone.
“He got to know about the business. I got to know a little bit more about ICN.”
Shortly after that, Ian got in touch with Shivendra about an opportunity with New South Wales Indigenous Chamber of Commerce (NSWICC), looking for people to help with procurement advice for Business Connect, which gives free independent advice to small business.
Shivendra has been working with NSWICC as a subcontractor ever since.
“It’s helped my business considerably,” he said, adding that he featured in a video teaser for Service NSW about Business Connect.
Through Ian’s network, Shivendra was also introduced to the Western Sydney Procurement Steering Committee, which he has now been involved with for more than 3 years.
“That’s a committee that’s focused on giving more prominence to small businesses in Western Sydney and having them involved in the large infrastructure projects.
“It’s opened a whole new network for me where I can interact with like-minded professionals who are working with small-to-medium sized businesses.”
Shivendra has also helped ICN run workshops to demystify the process of submitting tender responses, giving them tips and guidance to articulate their offerings.
“One workshop was with the western tunneling package. They were looking for local subcontractors, they were trying to encourage small businesses to tender for it. But tendering for these large contracts is a daunting task for small businesses.”
As well as presenting at the workshop, Shivendra also provided hands-on help to a few businesses keen to tender for the project.
He did a similar project for the Energy Connect project in southern NSW.
Shivendra launched Shivendra & Co on the back of successful career with Siemens and Downer, leading transformation programs. He also holds a PhD from Griffith University, building an index to track and control the price of water.
Shivendra & Co is a national full-service consultancy with three business streams that help clients solve complex problems and drive growth.
“One of the streams is what I call Corporate and Transformation PMO, to help executives and leaders of businesses implement their strategy. The second part of the business is what we call Reporting and Analytics, so that’s processing all the data that businesses have and getting meaningful insights and helping executives in the leadership team understand those.
“The third part of the business is what I call Business Support Services. It’s more like an agency model in that side of the business, where someone needs help with a tender, or assistance with any other matter in the business. If we cannot assist ourselves, we surely can point to the right resource.”
The company works with small-to-medium growing engineering and construction businesses involved in roads, transport infrastructure, water treatment plants, renewable energy and civil construction.
Shivendra said his relationship with ICN was one of cross referrals.
“They come across a small business with potential or in a market that they would benefit from, which helps within construction engineering, they continue to recommend to me.”
“Equally, I have a lot of small business clients that are looking to understand more about infrastructure projects.”
“When comes to infrastructure project, ICN’s record keeping is maybe the best, most accurate, and maybe easiest to navigate as well. And I find the advisors are always in the know.”
Find out more about Shivendra & Co.
