it's about social change, stupid

It’s about social change, stupid

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School

What we’ll do today

• Outline why I’m enthusiastic about

social business

• Let you know what winds me up

• Open it up to discussion

What do I do?

• Training - market research, marketing, social business planning

• Consultancy - social enterprise

• One to one support• Writing and

bloggingPhoto from Ant Smallwood via flickr.com

What have I done?• University of Leeds - Spanish & French

• Senda Juvenil

• Trade for Change

• Social Enterprise Leeds

• WYSE School

• Social Business Consulting

• A journey from activist to entrepreneur

Trade for Change 1995-2004

Blogito ergo sum

• I blog

• I write

• I think

• I challenge

Social entrepreneurs are not superheroes

• Guardian article

• Irrational

exuberance

• Credibility crunchCredit - dougward via flickr

Ten reasons why I’m enthusiastic

1. Customers come first

2. Marketing - building relationships

3. Learn from the best in the business

4. The double-bottom line

5. Problems need entrepreneurial responses

Ten reasons why I’m enthusiastic

6. It’s attracting talented young people

7. A challenge to the voluntary sector

8. A challenge to the private sector

9. A challenge to the public sector

10.Some openness to learning from failure

Ten reasons why I’m not so enthusiastic

1. Celebrity social businesses and

entrepreneurs

2. It’s a bit too popular with politicians

3. Unrealistic expectations

4. Financial buck-passing

5. Social enterprise shock-therapy

Ten reasons why I’m not so enthusiastic

6. Big is beautiful/corporate lite

7. Football clubs were not-for-profit too once

8. “Oh yes, we now do social enterprise.”

9. Still not enough maturity about risk/failure

10.An assumption that business = smart

Popular issues on the blog

1. What’s the point? (social change, stupid)

2. Does ownership matter?

3. Are we being irrationally exuberant?

4. Social enterprise - social business - or both?

5. Is it OK to make a profit?

Good to Great and The Social Sectors

We must reject the idea - well intentioned, but dead

wrong - that the primary path to greatness in the social

sectors is to become “more like a business”. Most

businesses - like most of anything else in life - fall

somewhere between mediocre and good. Few are great.

The critical distinction is not between business and social,

but between great and good. (Jim Collins)

On balance

• Social business and social entrepreneurs give me

hope

• There’s a lot of nonesense spoken - but a lot of

good done.

• For me, you can’t argue with the idea of doing

good and doing well

• But we need a more mature attitude towards it all

Opportunities for you

• Social enterprises need talented

graduates as much as any other

business

• Social enterprise offers a different route

into business - often for people who

wouldn’t otherwise go into business

Liam Black, The Same Wavelength

“Getting and holding on to people who are happy to live with the pressures of balancing the commercial and social missions is really difficult.

I would say this is the biggest barrier to scaling up the social enterprise part of the economy in this country.”

Over to you….

• Comments?

• Questions?

Photo from aymlis via flickr.com

www.thesocialbusiness.co.uk

• Blog about social enterprise

• e-newsletter

• rob@thesocialbusiness.co.uk

• 0113 257 3942

• 07905 800 710

www.socialbusinessconsulting.co.uk

• Lots more resources on

all aspects of social

business planning

• Links to other sites