It's about social change, stupid
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Transcript of 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
• 0113 257 3942
• 07905 800 710
www.socialbusinessconsulting.co.uk
• Lots more resources on
all aspects of social
business planning
• Links to other sites