What Vodacom’s Fast Forward Series teaches us about developing suppliers

When a company the size of Vodacom invests in growing small businesses, it isn’t charity — it’s how you build a stronger, more localised economy. That is the same idea at the heart of everything we do.

What the Fast Forward Series is

Launched by Vodacom Business in 2019, the Fast Forward Series is a free programme of workshops, webinars and masterclasses designed to help small and medium enterprises grow — building digital skills, streamlining operations and strengthening business fundamentals. Run in seasons around practical themes, it brings SMEs together with experts from organisations such as Google, Meta, Amazon Web Services, Business Doctors and the National Small Business Chamber, and publishes the sessions online so businesses can access them for free.

Why it works

What makes it more than a marketing exercise is the structure. Rather than one-off advice, the strongest sessions pair hands-on training with an evaluation and a practical plan of action — meeting each business where it is and giving it concrete next steps. Assess, develop, plan, repeat: that is what turns goodwill into measurable capability.

Why it resonates with us

At ValueCore we hold a simple conviction: ICV Growth = SME Capability Growth. When a large buyer deliberately develops the smaller businesses around it, the effects compound — local spend rises, jobs are created, supply chains become more resilient, and more value stays in the economy. A programme like Fast Forward is corporate-led supplier and enterprise development done in public, and it proves the model at scale.

Developing the businesses in your supply chain isn’t a side benefit of localisation — it’s the engine of it.

From inspiration to a programme

Our Business Builder applies the same logic directly to a company’s supplier base. We baseline each supplier on a ten-dimension scorecard, develop the gaps through structured modules, track progress on a live dashboard, and re-evaluate — so capability gains show up as a higher In-Country Value score, a stronger business and more local economic impact. The Fast Forward Series shows the appetite is there; the Business Builder turns it into a repeatable system tied to procurement.

Watch the Vodacom Fast Forward Series, then talk to us about building the same momentum into your own supplier base.