What Star Wars can tell us about Social Enterprise

If you asked me to name my favourite films, my gut instinct is to say Star Wars (episodes four, five and six that is, although one, two and three aren’t as bad as all that, apart from Jar-Jar). What's this got to do with social enterprise I hear you ask - well just cool your Hoth-resistant moon boots and stick with me. 

With the new Star Wars film just around the corner I'm watching the trailers with awe and excitement. I feel a bit like the seven year old who saw the first film in a small, dingy cinema in Cornwall in the 1970s.

So to social enterprise. The nature of the battle of the Rebellion versus the mighty Galactic Empire got me thinking about the parallel with social enterprise and standard business. I know all big firms aren’t really hideous Vader-esque clichés but, hey, I’m having a bit of fun here.

On one side you have the fragmented Rebel Alliance - a rag-tag fugitive fleet (er - I’m mixing my science-fantasy metaphors, that's Battlestar Galactica) being pursued across the known universe (isn’t that from Dune?) founded on some mystical mumbo jumbo. This is like the social enterprise community. No one can really define it (I'm sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can't do that). It is slippery; a loose federation of coops, CICs, charities, registered societies and other exotic, hybrid special purpose vehicles cobbled together to form a movement. The politics are complex and sometimes unity seems a far horizon. 

Compare this to the Empire; a vast, malevolent machine with a clear governance structure directed from the top. Its minions are motivated by fear and greed. For the Rebellion (read social enterprise) power is diffused and the motley collective struggles against the Empire which is dominated by one man, the Emperor Palpatine. I should like to inspect his declarations of interest for swanky lunches paid for by Trade Federation corporate lobbyists.

And it always seems to be a man. Look at the Empire, can you find one female role model? Are any Stormtroopers secretly clone women? Despite some movement on this, FTSE100 companies are still dominated by men. Unlike social enterprise where there are large numbers of women leaders. The recentSEUK State of the Sector report points to 40% being led by women. This needs to get well above 50% of course. The Republic had strong female role models. Is Sophie Tranchell the Princess Leia of social enterprise? Is June O'Sullivan our Mon Mothma? Claire Dove our Amidala?

Let's look at the capital assets of the empire. Huge star destroyers, even more massive super-star destroyers. Then mightiest of all, the Death Star itself, which can destroy a planet (much like a massive oil spill or endless carbon emissions). Maybe, if Grand Moff Tarkin, of foul stench fame, had hired Futureclean - a social enterprise - to wash the seemingly limitless squadrons of TIE fighters, the packs of AT-ATs and the swarms of speeder bikes - he would be still be alive. All that stuff was beautifully maintained, sleek and impeccably clean wasn’t it? Just hold that image and think of a well-resourced corporate business that can seemingly throw money at all the equipment and gear it needs.

Compare this to the Alliance with its rusting speeders, bolted together X and Y Wings and its used, dirty tech. This is social enterprise: under-capitalized, lacking assets, begging and borrowing although sticking to good principles of reducing, reusing and recycling.

Then there is research, development, marketing and training. The Empire invests enormously in the Imperial Naval Academy, in clone armies, in new ways to crush and terrorize the opposition. They can even obliterate planets: “Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.”

Many social enterprises lack marketing and training budgets and often struggle to invest in new services and products to grow but they are strong on innovation as the State of the Sector reports. The Rebel Alliance had to innovate and be clever to survive - finding hidden weaknesses, moving their secret bases, using cunning tricks to get past guards on forest moons. 

However, it is not all as gloomy as a Dagobah swamp. The rebels have key allies strung across the galaxy. They - and social enterprises - are motivated by values. They may have a small workforce (compared to the colossal Stormtrooper/corporate army) but they have an untapped pool of supporters. Many worlds and peoples will rise to support them, even lowly Ewoks. The lack of marketing, lobbying and corporate power in the Alliance and social enterprise is offset by the passionate tales that are handed down and heart-warming stories of the few taking on the mighty. And that mystical mumbo jumbo may well end up being quite useful after all.
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We all know who wins in the end, right?

£1 million for Plymouth

Here at Iridescent Ideas CIC we’re co-delivering (with the Zebra Collective) a funding advice and business planning contract for Plymouth City Council.

The scheme - called Pop Ideas - runs until March 2017. So far the partnership has achieved some great successes. For instance, we have:

1. Helped bring in over £1 million of funding to 50 community groups
2. Delivered workshops on issues such as legal structures, social impact, funding bid writing, project management, project development and financial management
3. Run the quarterly Plymouth Fund-Raisers Network which has seen over 60 people gain knowledge about Lottery funding and fund-raising best practice
4. Supported around 150 organizations across the city with business planning, funding searches, starting up and more
5. Sent a weekly newsletter and kept an active social media presence sharing funding and other opportunities.

So what have we learnt over the last year and what do we need to do next? 

What has struck me is the tremendous diversity of the organizations we have supported. There are community groups and social enterprises working in all corners (and the middle!) of the city and they are engaged in all areas of the social and economic fabric of life. From hairdressers tackling alopecia to gyms to theatres to marketing companies to beach schools to play groups and many, many more, the reach of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector is astonishing.

The reach is far-ranging but these organizations need to engage more publicly about the impact they have on people, families and the communities they work in. It is likely that these groups make a deeply profound contribution to their communities, however, there is a need to evidence and talk about this more effectively. A common issue is a shortage of marketing and PR capacity and a lack of experience in this area.

I think this is a result of at least two key factors. There is an inherent paradox whereby many people (not all) in the voluntary and community sector have an ingrained humility that gets in the way of self-promotion. Also, the reticence seems to come from a struggle to evidence the social impact they create and then to build powerful marketing messages from this.

Many people we work with know the value of what they do in their hearts but find it harder to put this on paper or provide the robust evidence to prove it. Also, proving social impact is one thing, marketing it effectively is another.

So what about all the organizations who have applied and been turned down for funding?

The feedback we’ve seen from funders suggests that there were two main reasons for this:

1. Lack of evidence of need for the project
2. A need for better linking of proposed activities of the project to the expected outcomes. 

These are inter-related and go back to the fundamentals of understanding your community needs - be that geographic or of interest. It is also about putting these needs down on paper in a way distant funders - no doubt sat in plush offices in London far from the pressing issues you face - can understand.

So where next for Pop Ideas?

We need to continue to deliver solid funding advice. This brings cash into Plymouth, creates jobs and helps good things happen. We also need to support groups to plan effectively, to start-up with the appropriate governance structures and to plan to thrive. We need to help groups work more in partnership and develop brilliant solutions to community needs. We need to reach out to a wider range of stakeholders.

We also need to help social purpose organizations develop solid theories of change. It’s about proving impact; it’s about evidence. More than anything it is then about marketing this impact so more people grasp the issues and support good causes. It’s about backing public engagement for social good.

Ten myths of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship

1. Social enterprises are not-for-profit

WRONG!

'Not for profit' is a tricky phrase. Most social enterprises we see are ‘for profit’ but they dedicate their profits to achieving a good cause. Many social enterprises can also pay dividends from profits to investors and shareholders although this is usually restricted so that a majority of profit is dedicated to social causes.

2. Social enterprises can't pay salaries

WRONG!

Social enterprises can pay salaries and bonuses. A social enterprise that turns over tens of millions of pounds would be justified in paying their CEO a salary commensurate with running such a business. Directors of social enterprises - depending on the legal structure chosen - can also receive remuneration.

3. Social entrepreneurs can’t run a real business

WRONG!

Many social entrepreneurs come from successful business backgrounds. Social entrepreneurs are just like other entrepreneurs - some will succeed, some will change track and some businesses will fail. Most social entrepreneurs we meet are acutely aware of the need for their business to succeed so they can tackle the social issue that they are passionate about.

4. Social enterprises are just small businesses

WRONG!

There are many examples of large social enterprise businesses. Examples include large healthcare providers, big leisure trusts and universities. These are usually multi-million pound businesses with thousands of employees that have chosen social enterprise as their business model.

5. Social enterprises rely on grants

WRONG!

The whole point of being a social enterprise is that you trade to achieve a good cause. This means selling goods, services and products. Many social enterprises do access grants to help with start-up or with certain projects. Our advice is that a social enterprise should aim to use a grant as an investment with a view to developing an income generating idea once the grant runs out.

6. Social enterprises are automatically more sustainable

WRONG!

Social enterprises will only succeed if they can sell their services and products to customers. Many charities have survived for decades by relying on grants. That said, being dependent on grants can be challenging and developing successful, socially enterprising income streams can improve sustainability. Social enterprise should not be seen as a panacea - you need a strong business model, excellent market insight and an ability to deliver what customers want and need. Much like a ‘standard’ business really.

7. Social enterprises are more likely to fail

WRONG!

There is plenty of evidence that suggests that social enterprises are more resilient than their ‘standard’ private sector counterparts. We can speculate on the reasons for this including diverse income streams, social purpose and tenacity of social entrepreneurs. Recent research into longevity of the top 100 PLCs and top 100 social enterprises showed that, over the last 30 years, 41% of social enterprises have survived compared to 33% of PLCs.

8. Social enterprises are not scalable

WRONG!

Social enterprises are no different to ‘standard’ businesses in this regard. If you have a great product or service, a great team, the ambition, the drive, resolve and a clear plan for scaling there is no reason why you cannot significantly scale your business.

9. Social entrepreneurs are only concerned about social impact

WRONG!

Whilst most social entrepreneurs we meet are motivated by social or environmental issues they also understand that their business needs to be profitable to enable them to achieve their good cause goals. Focussing only on social impact without paying regard to finances, marketing, customers and all the standard business issues is a surefire path to trouble.

10. Social enterprises only operate in health and social care

WRONG!

Social enterprises operate in many sections of the economy. There are social enterprises in banking and finance, media, creative industries, business services, agriculture, tourism, fashion, education, entertainment, energy, heritage, housing, sports and more. Pretty much any business could be a social enterprise (maybe not selling cigarettes?).

All the fun of the festival

Last week was Plymouth's fifth annual Social Enterprise Festival. Held, appropriately, during Global Entrepreneurship Week, it saw over 300 people attend nine different events on social enterprise themes. My highlights were as follows.

The week kicked off with a wonderful and animated talk by Rubies in the Rubble founder, Jenny Dawson. Jenny's passion and practicality struck me. She just got on with it and learned as she went. There was clearly deep strategy and clever thinking involved but also the sense of bootstrapping - so common to social entrepreneurs - was strong. If there's a lesson around the perceived need for endless business planning and analysis versus learning by doing this was it.

We at Iridescent Ideas delivered a masterclass on measuring social impact alongside Sara Burgess, CIC Regulator. The need to start some kind of social impact measurements, even if bespoke and limited in scope, was a key theme. The sooner you start, the sooner you learn how to do it better and the sooner you'll get great information on your impact.

Wednesday saw the flagship event, the Social Enterprise City Summit, hosted by Plymouth City Council. There was a variety of speakers including a great rabble rousing speech by Peter Holbrook, CEO of Social Enterprise UK. We also heard from some of the investees of the Council's Social Enterprise Investment Fund. A common theme was the need to remember social impact along with talk of the economic benefits of social enterprise. The looming general and council election was an ever present context. The ideas in the Social Economy Alliance's great manifesto also need to come to the fore over the next few months. Now is our chance to shape the social, economic and political landscape. Now is when we need to be clear about the world we want to see over the next five years.

The Next Big Things, an exhibition of newer social enterprises at Thinqtanq, was a fascinating insight into the needs of new entrepreneurs. Many are looking for start-up investment and also beginning to clarify their business and social ideas.

Finally Friday saw an insightful talk by Jessica Smith of Poached Creative - known for their excellent work on the Buy Social campaign - on marketing for social enterprises. This was full of practical and strategic advice.

The week showed me that we all - large and small, new and established - need to sharpen up our understanding of our markets, our ability to sell our products and services and to build strong brands to survive and thrive. We also need to get back to first principles on why we exist, the social causes we tackle and the impact we are having. Finally, the need to talk to politicians and campaign for change was brought into sharp focus. 

In defence of social enterprise

I read Iqbal Wahhab's article on the supposed death of social enterprise the other day. A piece that demands a response.

Firstly, to declare an interest, I am a director of several social enterprises and also involved in a local social enterprise network, so, clearly, I'm a flag-bearer for the idea. As I've argued many times, I think that businesses that create economic, environmental and social returns are better for the UK. 

Wahhab talks of there being no 'credible explanation' and no 'agreed definition' of the term social enterprise. Well there is clearly a credible explanation and as close as you can get to agreement on a definition. Two of the leading organizations in this debate - Social Enterprise Mark and Social Enterprise UK - have a virtually identical set of criteria to define a social enterprise. They can be found here and here. Spot the tiny difference. The Labour party is even proposing to legally define social enterprise if it wins power in 2015. Good luck with that.

Wahhab goes on to describe a failed social enterprise restaurant as if to highlight the flaws inherent in the concept of social enterprise itself. I find this a bizarre claim. Do we say that all private sector models are flawed because one business goes bust through selling a poor product or service? That is the nature of the market and social enterprises compete like any other business. I'm not sure we should decry an entire business sector because some firms make a loss or don't make huge profits. Many sectors work on tight margins.

To the 'social entrepreneur' Wahhab calls a boardroom beast: I say challenge him; ask for his socially entrepreneurial credentials. Just look at what happened when the Advertising Standards Authority investigated A4E for claiming they were a 'social purpose' organization.

Wahhab's final point, to claim that somehow social enterprises are not 'real' businesses is unnecessarily provocative. To argue that real businesses - I assume he means 'standard' private-profit making firms - can tackle society's problems lacks credibility. Are those the same real businesses that have driven the world to the brink of ecological disaster, that have screwed workers, that evade and avoid tax, that miss-sell time and time and time again?
So let us be pro-real-business. Be pro-business that achieves economic, social and environmental 'dividends'. Pro-business that treats staff fairly. Pro-business that creates wealth, prosperity and jobs for all; not a tiny minority. Pro-business that rewards success appropriately. Pro-business that makes a profit, makes it ethically and honestly and does something profoundly decent with that profit to help make the world a better place. You are more likely to find that those 'real' businesses will be social enterprises.

Don't get me wrong, there are brilliant private businesses that go further than greenwash and bolt-on CSR. However, I just do not believe that there are enough of these businesses that will 'own society's problems and fix them'.

The last five years has surely shown us that we need a new way of looking at business and how it can resolve the world's issues and yes, business can be a driving force for achieving positive change and doing great things to advance humanity.

Social Enterprise Festival November 2014

It’s that time of year again: the clocks go back, trick or treaters roam the streets, bonfire smoke gets in your eyes, and, oh yes, it’s time for Plymouth’s annual Social Enterprise Festival.

This year festivities run from 17^th to 21^st November and are held, as usual, during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The festival is hosted by Plymouth Social Enterprise Network and we are thrilled to be part of something happening all over the world where people will be celebrating the passion and inspiration behind business.

Our take on this is that we need to go a step further than ‘business as usual’. We want to see how we can harness the best of entrepreneurial thinking to tackle the world’s - and Plymouth’s - social, economic and environmental problems.

The week itself is packed full of thought-provoking and practical activities. We have secured some of the nation’s top social entrepreneurs to share their stories with us. People like Jenny Dawson of food business Rubies in the Rubble; Cecilia Crossley of children’s clothes firm From Babies with Love and Jess Smith from the ethical PR company Poached Creative. There are practical sessions on marketing and proving social impact. We will celebrate the rising stars of the social enterprise world in Plymouth. The CEO of Social Enterprise UK - Peter Holbrook - will talk to us about how the social economy is set to transform public policy. There will even be a ‘liveblog’ at Rumpus Cosy café on Derry’s Cross. This will all be served with a hearty dose of social enterprise beer, bread and chocolate.

The festival is made even more special by the fact that Plymouth is the world’s first and finest Social Enterprise City. We want to celebrate this and also to explore what’s next. We want to see how social enterprises can be more influential in the economy of our city and how they can solve the big issues of today. Let’s not forget that social enterprise in Plymouth is already big business - PSEN members have a combined turnover of half-a-billion pounds and employ 7,000 people.

This is also the last festival before the next round of political elections in May 2015. If you want to influence the people who will be shaping economic and social policy for the next five years please come along and share your opinions.

Information about all the events can be found at www.socentcity.com.

Refine/define: Why talking about what is a social enterprise is still important

“So you’re a social enterprise, eh? What does that mean then?” How many times have you been asked that question? How many times have you answered it but still aren’t convinced that they questioner has ‘got it’ or believes it?

The debate about the definition of social enterprise may well seem jaded and old news to those of us within the social enterprise community but it seems that a large proportion of the general public didn’t even realize there had been a debate going on. So the aforementioned question comes up time and time again. If we want to establish new audiences for social enterprise and push the concept into a wider public consciousness it is vitally important to maintain a public dialogue about ‘what is a social enterprise’.

No one really seems to question you in the same way if your business is a charity or Fairtrade or eco-friendly. There is an automatic assumption these are ‘good’ things. People know what these terms mean. They come with a nice badge, logo or number that tells the public they’ve been checked out and do indeed do what they say on the tin. If only there was a similar thing available to social enterprises…

Enter the Social Enterprise Mark. The Mark is the social enterprise equivalent of the Fairtrade logo or the Charity Commission number. The Social Enterprise Mark provides:

*A clear definition of what constitutes a social enterprise
*An instantly recognisable ‘stamp of approval’ to show that your business has been independently assessed and meets criteria to justifiably call itself a social enterprise
*A national community of like-minded ethical businesses for social enterprises to engage with
*A range of other benefits around marketing and support.

There is growing interest in the Social Enterprise Mark, particularly among large organisations like universities.Plymouth University is the first social enterprise university and has held the Mark since 2012. Another university is set to join. Many of the large health spin-outs also hold the Mark. These organizations provide services to huge numbers of people and have strong roles in public life in their respective towns, cities and areas. I would like to see more large healthcare providers really engage with the public around understanding that they are receiving great services from a local social enterprise. The Mark could help them do this.

As the social enterprise sector, and public awareness of it, continues to grow, so I hope that the Social Enterprise Mark will continue to flow into public consciousness and eventually become as recognizable as the Fairtrade logo. The Mark will evolve, I am sure, and we need an ongoing dialogue about what it means to be a social enterprise both within and outside the sector.

With the introduction of the Social Value Act in 2013 there is a requirement for social value and impact to be given more weight within commissioning of services. Consumers are looking to purchase ethical goods and for businesses to behave better. Surely then, the time is right for the Social Enterprise Mark to become a stamp of social value so that commissioners and customers alike will recognize social enterprises and be able to make more informed choices about the goods and services they buy and use.

I believe that social enterprises are better for the economy and for society. We need to articulate more clear what 'better' looks like of course. Social enterprises create wealth and jobs and also deliver environmental and social value. The Mark can be the guarantee that proves this.