Never getting board

The Divine Sophi, a welcome addition to any creative meeting especially as she brings the choc!

The Social Enterprise London board has always been a source of inspiration to me. From the very beginning, it has been made up of some of the country's foremost social entrepreneurs. Co-chairs Mark Sesnan of GLL and Sophi Tranchell of Divine were supporters from the start, seeing the importance of a London-based agency promoting social enterprise. Other social enterprise stars joined the party later. These are busy people with often large businesses to run and in today's economic climate no one is unaffected by recession and has time to spare for the non-essentials.

So I continue to be humbled by the active and energised support of all our stalwarts. We had such a productive meeting this week, again well attended (SEL board meetings have never come close to being inquorate) and with some really strong and creative contributions. Sophi was very generous with the chocolate, which added to our clear thinking, and my thanks to June O'Sullivan for the use of her Marsham Street LEYF nursery as a venue.

SEL is going through a period of change in that we know our job is to ramp up social enterprise development, but the reality is there is very little money out there to pay us to do what we do best. We have known for some time that we face a double, triple even quadruple whammy as central government cut 90% of the contracts they had previously deployed to support social enterprise and regional growth by shutting, among other programmes, the RDAs, business links, Government Offices and Future Jobs Fund. Local governments are coping with swinging reductions in their budgets and have similarly cut much of their economic development initiatives. Those contracts that remain on offer from government or grant funding bodies now face hysterical levels of competition due to their scarcity and most crucially social enterprises themselves have diminished resources to pay for the business support they need. Any plan to achieve sustainability through the direct payment of fees needs to ask itself some hard questions.

What we face is a perfect storm with social enterprise in general and SEL in particular being asked to do more than ever with unprecedented low levels of resource. I have always been a fan of Blue Peter but even I am not sure what I can do for social enterprises with a cereal packet, toilet roll and some sticky-back plastic.

What we do have, however, is a solid reputation for delivery, a loyal membership and a perfect board. Their combined skills, experience, commitment and enthusiasm is an extraordinary resource in itself and one I shall be deploying heavily in the months to come. I have to say that although the cuts are a real pressure point, I enjoy the entrepreneurialism the new climate has teased out. I do not subscribe to the view that only the best survive tough times as I have already seen some good social enterprises go to the wall because social value is still a concept ahead of its time, but I do think at times like these you find out what you do best and who your friends are.

Its going to be bumpy and to ride this out, our offer to our 2,600 members must to be spot on. Watch this space, we will be calling on members for feedback and welcoming all interaction. You are going to be hearing a great deal from us so please do let us know if you like, or not, what you hear.

Can you tax bad business? And is social enterprise good business?

Ed Miliband proposed rewards for grafters in business and not 'predators'. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle / Rex Features

Whether you think the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, did a good job in delivering his speech yesterday to conference or not, his comments about good and bad business have sparked serious debate.

In the past, I have been worried when I hear spokespeople in our movement talk about the revolution that social enterprise represents in business practices and how casino capitalism has heard its death knell because I think that is wishful thinking and shows a detachment from the real climate of British business.

We do not have all the answers but social enterprises do have inspirational models that challenge the idea that profit is greed. And while I don't think the bulk of business leaders in the UK are looking to change their ownership models to enter the slipstream of ethical business, I do think they feel the pressure to be more accountable for how they make money as well as how they spend company profits. Good businesses are those who are careful producers who don't pollute the environment or over-extend their borrowing, but who do employ as many people as they can and invest even a fraction of their profits in acts of charity. While those that borrow against inflated assets, cut staff in favour of quick profit and make no attempt to minimise their environmental impact are the bad ones. Trying to tease out how you could tax these differing approaches is a waste of time, because no-one is ever going to do it, but if you take a step back from some of today's noise around taxing unethical behaviour and look at these ideas, you start to see, I think, what Ed was getting at.

The eminent economist, Will Hutton has been saying some critical things lately and we ignore them at our peril. He has been defending the Euro and its role in what he believes is the front line protecting sterling. Hutton says that without the Euro, each European currency would have come under attack, like a fox in the hen coup, from the uncontrolled financial markets that would have picked off currencies one by one, and if the Euro falls, they may do so yet. Even though there would be little sense to this annihilation, just as foxes will kill every chicken in the coup, we must understand it is just what they do if we let them. Hutton says governments have to recognise this behaviour and act to prevent it. This is bad business and we need to protect ourselves against it before all growth drains from society.

Ed is saying the same thing: that trusting the markets has led us to a very dangerous place and if we are to return to safer ground, we must try a new path. There have to be regulated financial markets, separated banks and significant investment to get people working, producing, saving and spending. If banks are lending, business can afford to hire more people and those who do that will contribute to the public coffers in a way that bank bonuses never will. Hutton, in his Guardian article "Our financial system has become a madhouse we need radical change" quotes and agrees with George Magnus, a senior policy adviser to investment bank UBS, when he says "No major advanced economy is doing anything to promote growth and jobs." My members are dying for lack of cash and their closure means not only increased unemployment but importantly job losses in already deprived communities.

Social enterprises try to scale the north face of business, which makes them heroic. They do the impossible and with trail blazers like Divine chocolate causing a stir in the chocolate world, they can change behaviour in even the most established markets because ethical sells. Since Divine entered the chocolate market with its story of farmer co-operatives and fair trade, suddenly all the big companies are offering fair trade products, more producers in the developing world are getting a living wage than ever before, and I can start eating Maltesers again (Mars estimates that by going Fairtrade they will boost sales by 10%).

This is how social enterprise activity changes the way markets operate and frankly we could all do with more of that. We just need those lovely banks to start lending us the money to do it with, which they will if Government makes them carry more capital, lend more to SMEs and works with the rest of the world to sort out the Euro crisis so we can all start to sleep at night. Then and only then can good businesses get on with making work and wealth creation Britain's big story.

Diary of a work placement newbie: Imogen Morrell tells us about her week at SEL



Sophi Tranchell and I at the ACEVO lunch

Arriving at Social Enterprise London (SEL) I realised what a complete novice I was to the ‘the workplace’. I finished my GCSEs only recently and since then have spent two weeks sleeping and sitting on the sofa watching Jeremy Kyle getting cross. I was ready for some structure.

The parallels between social enterprise and feminism

Both need to go beyond the convention of what defines them and be open to new ideas, says Allison Ogden-Newton in today's Guardian Professional

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• Allison Ogden-Newton
• Guardian Professional, Monday 20 June 2011 12.00 BST
• Article history

Social enterprise and feminism need to go beyond the convention of what defines them and be open to new ideas Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Having read Aida Edemariam's interview with Caitlin Moran in the Guardian, Moran's new book "How to Be a Woman" sounds like essential reading, even if I think I already know how to be a woman. The timing is good as we had Sophi Tranchell, co-chair of Social Enterprise London and managing director of Divine Chocolate on Woman's Hour this week talking about the role of women in social enterprise.

Like Sophi and I, Moran calls herself a feminist and bemoans the fact that 58% of British and 71% of American women choose to not call themselves that.

Shame. She also makes the point that the feminist movement is too purist, setting hurdles to jump and traps to fall into for its prospective followers.

I have often said social enterprise reminds me of the feminist movement. I was involved in the movement as much as I am now in social enterprise - until it started to eat itself, that is. The problem was one of leadership. If the leaders and spokespeople, spokeswomen in this case, decide to define feminism as something you can only achieve if you live in a women-only commune, then most people are going to look elsewhere for moral, spiritual and political guidance.

That is why, having not yet read Moran's thesis I applaud her bring-it-on views on high heels, Brazilian waxing, men and motherhood. I love that she believes that there should be more humour, even on subjects such as abortion. The truth is that the agitation for change often comes from the energy of outrage, but is, in my opinion, only institutionalised for the benefit of all by humour, with which comes acceptance. That is why people who don't find social enterprise/feminism/you-name-it funny frighten me, and why I think those that feel they own the intellectual property or moral high ground on these issues are dangerous.

I was part of fierce rows within the sisterhood in the late 1980s about the sanctity of women-only courses, programmes, funding and housing. I believed then, and still do now, that women will always do better if they are allowed to develop their skills in women-only groups before pitting their fledgling confidence against the often male-dominated work arena. But we were not going to win. Our arguments were largely staged for one another and we didn't notice that those in charge of budgets were men who found our demands shrill and self-serving.

What we needed to do was compromise and welcome a broader spectrum of like-minded people into our world. Money was tight, the Conservatives were in power and getting people, primarily men, into work was the great national challenge. Sound familiar? Only those of a certain age will remember this, but there was a time in the 1980s when every major city in England had a women-only construction training facility (one run by me), funding streams and housing. Only a fraction of that remains, most having been 'subsumed into the mainstream' (read gone).

So what did I learn? Instead of demanding splendid segregation to spend time defining and refining purist notions of feminism (rejection of men, makeup, leghair etc), we should have taken charge of stuff and travelled with our beliefs, allowing them to be tempered with what we learnt on our journey to power about the needs of others (men, painted and smooth-legged women and the like).

If I can take lessons from Moran in how to be a woman, I can also learn from my members about what a social enterprise is. To be able to deliver public services at scale and compete with the big bad boys, social enterprises will need to attract investment as part-employee owned Circle Holdings Plc has announced this week. All definitions might and indeed should be different again tomorrow – for some Lady Gaga is redefining a highly liberated view of womanhood – these are all things that should inspire and intrigue, not threaten us.

Women, like many social entrepreneurs, are in charge of very little. Those who are seem to think that the free market, like a logger's monster truck crunching its way through the rainforest, should be allowed to follow its path unchallenged, and that anyone in receipt of public funds, be they a start-up business, an SME, infrastructure organisation or government contract deliverer, is contributing to the deficit and should learn to live without government money. If our arguments fail to be persuasive, much that is critical to the development of those who do not already dominate the market, like social enterprises, could be lost.

So let feminists wear make-up and social enterprises go where no one has gone before. You never know, we might like what we find. I like marriage and motherhood and I like taking ideas about social value and profit-making not profiteering into new territories like public services. It all feels right, whatever the purists say.

Women can paint their nails as well as walls and social enterprises can use investment capital and still be social enterprises.

Allison Ogden-Newton is the chief executive of Social Enterprise London.

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To join the social enterprise network, click here.

Panda says LOVE

We all love a panda



Working with creative people can be a gamble but when you can pull it off, it really does work. To complete our award-winning project "Winning with Social Enterprise" with the support of the OCS - a piece of work designed to promote social enterprise in the context of the 2012 Games - we have produced a video to give voice to the idea that social enterprise and, in particular, its ability to engage and inspire young people, has intrinsic value for the Games.

What does International Women's Day mean for social enterprise?

Today is the centenary of International Women’s Day.  I picked up some tweets earlier asking why we need a specific day to celebrate the contribution of women?

Our Annual General Love-in

I know I shouldn’t be, but I am always amazed by our AGMs, and even though this was the week we moved offices and times have been tough for intermediaries like SEL, last night was no exception.

Respite care row drags in social enterprise

Yesterday Chris Smith from Swarm Communications wrote a really good piece in the Guardian  on the desperate need for social enterprise to communicate to those outside our cosy tent, what we are and why we matter. I would say that as he generously quotes me, and other than the rather challenging photo of me in what I now regard as dodgy earrings, I come off rather well as do SEL members Fifteen, Belu, Greenworks, Divine and our old friend Rob Greenland the man behind the fantastic Social Business Blog.

SEL staff have had some fun with the above photo today with an impromptu caption competition, front runners at the moment are "How big!?" and "This big". Feel free to join in, you can only do better.

The point Chris makes, that the wider public need to get what we do in order to join us, you might think is self evident in its urgency. He goes on to say that our recent association with the Big Society might have got us out to a wider audience but that could be tricky as the Big Society remains rather ill defined itself. Getting stories out about the smaller, newer, cutting edge social enterprises like Bikeworks or Responsible IT is the job of agencies like SEL and I hope we are doing our job well but I agree we need to do more and fast. Worth a read.

This morning the row over cuts to respite care for families of disabled children is a case in point. On BBC Breakfast the manager of the Watford MENCAP centre for respite care was interviewed and was angry at the cuts, and angry about "all this talk about social enterprise". "What was it?" she asked. "Where are the models for us to follow? How will it help us with these cuts?" she went on to say. These are all good questions and just as Government talks enthusiastically about social enterprise they must offer people support to explore the model. It is the screaming absence of specifics or resource to access expertise that leads to people getting angry, and angry with us. As Chris Smith says, social enterprise needs to communicate its story, we need to do this so that folk in Watford can make an informed decision about whether its right for them.  

Liam Black on home truths and horse shit

Welcome to the first in a series of guest blogs from some of the world's leading authorities on social enterprise, related or indeed unrelated fields. I might not share these or other views but I welcome the debate. SEL has always provided space for the development of new thought around our movement where all views are welcomed. In that tradition I share with you reflections from Liam Black, co-founder of Wavelength and former CEO of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Foundation.

Dear Allison

I’ve long been a fan of your passion, relentlessness, honesty and your jolly hockey sticks good humour. You’re a gal who divides opinion. And that makes you my kind of gal! You’ve asked for my advice.

I'm no longer part of the ‘Social Enterprise Sector’ but I am a fully signed up member of the Movement of the Socially Innovative and Enterprising. One of my mantras for years has been ‘socially enterprising is what socially enterprising does’. Ownership models in themselves do not make one either less or more socially responsible or enterprising.

I love helping entrepreneurs who want to change the world. Some of these are running ‘not for profit’ social enterprises others have opted for private companies. I’m so over social enterprise theology. I focus on providing the world’s best leadership development, to enable them to hone their business skills, build their confidence and expand their connectivity into new places and markets to increase sales, profitability, good governance, verify impact and build resilience. Simple as that.

So I mentor, I hook people up, I get them inside really cool places to meet people who have much to teach and I take them to where the action is which could be with Yunus in Dhaka or the leading innovators in Silicon Valley. Wavelength members include leaders of well-known brands like Wise, Eden and Divine, and upstarts from the likes of Livity, MyBnk, Sidekick Studios and Bikeworks.

The other members are leaders from big businesses such as John Lewis, Deloitte, Vodafone, Molson Coors and Centrica. I operate a cross subsidy business model which means cash strapped entrepreneurs can get equal access to the world class inspiration, education and connectivity typically only open to senior executives from the private sector. The business has no public sector subsidy, was started with our own money and our goal is to keep dreaming up stuff which people wont think twice about wanting be part of – and thus pay for. I would rather close than take a penny in grant money. Seriously.

Allison, put at least as much energy into creating and sustaining relationships with the private sector as you do into impressing and sucking up to the Cabinet Office and assorted ministers.

Be very very careful about this whole ‘social enterprise can run public services better than everyone else’. Get over yourselves. Some might, some might not. Who knows because there is very little independent verified data to prove it one way or another is there?

And beware, Allison: under Labour – which let us not forget kick started the social enterprise sector which the coalition wants to co-opt. – there was plenty of money about. Intermediary bodies sprouted up everywhere and much horse shit and awful service poured forth!

Now with no money about (and a coalition which contains some very unpleasant Thatcherite types), you must be careful not become simply the tool by which the welfare state is gutted and poor and vulnerable people hurt again. The unions do have a point here which needs answering rather than writing them off as Stalinist brontosaurs who don’t get the whole cool Etonian ‘big society’ vibe.

So, Allison, keep up the good work, stay close to your customers and members and make your new year’s resolution to combine passion and skepticism in equal measure.

And obviously tell all your members they should join Wavelength. But in 2012 because we are sold out for this year!

Lots of love


Liam x

Getting "whizzy" about public services

There are two things we need to do to dig our way out of recession, one is spend less but the other is make more. It often occurs to me that whilst most of my time is taken up deliberating over the first part of that equation very little is spent on the latter. Yet social enterprises are manufacturing, against the odds, and some like Divine chocolate are breaking into International markets where the big gains for the UK economy need to be made. This is important stuff and although a demonstration against unfair International trade agreements or the effects of the rapacious money markets on those who trade Internationally is unlikely to need policing, these issues should be of consuming interest to all of us.

What does resonate is the effect of spending cuts on public services. On Tuesday I was speaking at a Guardian newspaper event for the public sector and following Lord Wei for what must be the third time in recent weeks. We exchanged a laugh about that and although Nat had to go as soon as he had done his bit on Big Society, he has since contacted me to set up a meeting for a more in-depth conversation. I will be able to report on SEL member's views and experience around the Big Society, if any of you have specific observations or issues you want me to raise please let me know. It was a good debate with some great contributions from such respected bodies as the National College and recorded for Radio 4 to be broadcast on January 8th. I hope my views are represented in the round. Whilst I think the need for a new narrative on Big Society and its role in the public sector is pressing, talk of volunteering in that context is particularly unhelpful, the central message of empowering staff and consumers to work together to redesign services and deliver them as independent providers is timely and one we can build on.

On Thursday I participated in one of the most interesting meetings I've ever been to. Our hosts were NESTA and the subject was the future of public services and routes that will maximise social value. Contributions from the Innovation Unit, the Office for Public Management, Local Partnerships the fabulous Paul Corrigan dubbed "the quiet revolutionary" by the Guardian, Ben Lucas Director of 2020 Public Services Trust and NESTA led to some electric brainstorming and some really nifty ideas or "whizzy" as Paul had it. More, much more on that later.
 

And now for my next trick...

Yes its that time of year when as well as promoting social enterprise to anyone who will stand still long enough to hear me, and looking after the family, you can add Christmas fairy.

At the best of times life can be a bit circus like, hitting all the targets, making all the meetings and as I did last Tuesday picking up a winter coat for my eldest and then dragging it from venue to venue. Actually it was quite an interesting day. I had a great chin wag with government innovation leading light, Ruth Kennedy in Westminster then off to the very grand Marlborough House on Pall Mall for a reception for the First International Responsible Capitalist of the Year awards. My co-chair Sophi Tranchell, the Managing Director of Divine Chocolate was getting one of this years awards and despite the dodgy title it was a very exciting moment for Sophi and our movement, so I wanted to be there to cheer her on. Previous winners have been the CEO's of GlaxoSmithKline, Starbucks and Siemens. This was their first sortie into the social enterprise world and judging but the cheer Sophi's speech got, I hope it won't be their last. She was given her award by Vince Cable, who was a very engaged listener as Sophi's spoke eloquently of being in business to change business and ethical behaviour needing to be central to what you do not just a nice add on.

Prior to the ceremony I chatted to Douglas Hurd about his son Nick, our Minister. He spoke of Nick's enthusiasm for the brief and seemed a very proud dad, which was nice. I also bumped into Trevor Bayliss who was charming as always. We often see him in our favourite pub in Twickenham so seeing each other in such a grand setting was odd. My 12 year old is his biggest fan and wants to be Trevor when he grows up, either that or Gromit.

I then shot off late to the Guardian Public Service Awards, a dinner I needed to go to as I had been a judge this year. On the way there, I got a call from the event organiser which made my heart sink. My first thought was that I was speaking and had forgotten, after all you don't usually get a call checking if your turning up once an event has started. No, she reassured me, it was just that they had put me on the top table with the Guardian MD and Jeremy Vine and by not being there I had left an empty seat. Oops. It turned out to be a really fun table, apparently I was the only person there whom Jeremy had not had on his show and as if to make up for it he gave me quite a grilling on social enterprise, which he seemed really interested in. The awards were inspiring, its a great idea to recognise those people who often do thankless jobs in the public sector and do them really well for the benefit of all of us.

At midnight I picked up my son's coat from its third cloakroom of the day and headed home thinking about the thousand additional little jobs that need doing in the next 4 weeks. Thank god for technology. I have created my annual multiple Christmas spread sheets, drawn up my schedules and hit the internet hard. All very spontaneous. With over 50 close friends and relatives to gift, and the kids to sort as well as the house to de clutter, again, decorate and prepare for invasion, its always a lively month. Still, as a firm believer in the six p's (Prior planning prevents a piss poor performance) and as someone who needs very little sleep, I'm ahead of the game.

I tell you what I am looking forward to though, is a drink! This is Day 24 of my no-alchol regime and I can't wait for sight of the finishing post on the 16th. I can't remember why I started this nonsense, but Christmas will be a lot more fun once I jump of the bloody wagon. After all, the Christmas Fairy needs to get her spirit from somewhere.

In the laddering of tights and their proper reuse

This weekend I did the extremely satisfying task of pruning my blackberries, I finished the job as I always do, by tying them in. The tie backs I deploy are the legs of my laddered tights. They are ideal because they're so elastic yet strong and stretch as the plant grows. Although, I have to say they have raised a few eyebrows at the allotment.

Talking of tights, or at least whilst on the subject of all things feminine I had an interesting chat with some of the women ceo's at the end of the SEL board meeting today. We started by congratulating SEL coChair and Divine Chocolate ceo, Sophie Tranchell for the award she is receiving tomorrow, The International Award for Responsible Capitalism. We all agreed that it was great for a social entrepreneur to be getting it rather than a corporate with strong CSR marketing, and how good it was to see a woman was at the front of the queue. This led to a very interesting discussion where we compared notes from the varying fields of food, childcare, education, government reform and social enterprise where we all agreed that we are seeing equality sliding off the agenda. It's as if a war is on and the hard fought for civilising effects of equal rights are a luxury that we as a society can no longer afford. As an example I have spoken at three major conferences in the last 10 days and at all of them I was a lone woman in my plenary often following all male plenaries and all male key note speakers. Its becoming a suitfest. This observation seemed to chime with others. We need to watch this. I have not been fighting the cause of equalities for nearly 30 years for some Johnnie come very lately's to wipe it off the agenda with a, 'We haven't got time for all that we have to focus on the REAL issues".

Congratulations to Sophie, previous winners of the award have been the heads of Siemens and Starbucks and last year GlaxoSmithKline so a great achievement and another first for social enterprise.
 

2012, it isn't all just Games

Elegantly hosted by the Guardian newspaper, SEL held a roundtable on 2012 this morning.  Jane Dudman, Editor of Guardian Public was our Chair and kept everyone in line, drawing out the discussion as only a journalist can. Lord Wei kicked us off with some thought provoking comments about Big Society and how 2012 was a unique showcase for social action, and then we got stuck in.


You can read all about it in a feature to be published by the Guardian soon, together with pictures. As we spoke we had our pictures taken, which I have to say makes me quite self conscious. I suddenly became very aware of just how much I wave my hands about when I speak. You will also see that I wore large hoops in my ears, as it was the Olympics.  I point that out in case you miss the reference, it's very subtle.

Some real eye openers for me were comments made from senior colleges about just how much Government prefers to commission the private sector, seeing social enterprise as a risk, and how even some of the biggest firms in the UK, CISCO and GE Corporate represented at the meeting by their senior directors, find Government procurement almost prohibitive.

On a more upbeat note I was delighted to hear from GLL Managing Director and SEL Co-Chair, Mark Sesnan that GLL now employed over 5000 people and has a turnover of nearly £100 million. That settled a late night argument I had with a colleague in Korea, who maintained you could never have a social enterprise topping a £100 million turnover in a developed country. It seems I was right, because it turns out that you can.

I thought contributions from CISCO were particularly erudite, Neil Crockett their Managing Director for the Public Sector gave us both some great challenges and opportunities and I look forward to talking to him soon about how CISCO can work with social enterprise to achieve their extremely ambitious goals for social impact.

Lord Andrew Mawson famous for his work at Bromley by Bow, John Charles of Catering to Order and a successful 2012 contractor like Dai Powell, Managing Director of HCT, all battled on behalf of social enterprise delivering Olympic contracts and Legacy. They argued that we can build jobs and ensure local investment that will transform the East End. This was reiterated by Sophie Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate and SEL co-Chair who made the last point which was that surely if we wanted to keep investment in London then companies that had a commitment to reinvest their profit into their social mission were an effective way of achieving just that.

I threw in my lines about Government being a notoriously bad shopper and that we should build the Social Enterprise Square Mile on the 2012 site (a brilliant idea from our friends at Calverts) and that having just returned from Seoul, a city which is still showing all the signs of being an Olympic venue, I have an immediate sense that there is a lot at stake.

We have all had an eye on the World Cup, and even if you didn’t care much for the football, the social commentary about how it has raised the economic well being, vision and pride of an already fiercely proud country is a lesson we should learn very quickly. It isn’t about the fireworks, fancy stadia and ceremonial flourishes, it’s about the people.

The world over, people are the same, they all want to be inspired by bravery, generosity and vision and Brits can do that in spades. It struck me this morning that Korea is a country hungry to learn from the UK experience of social enterprise and replicate it post games, they even expressed to me their regret that they had not discovered social enterprise before hand, and here we were with little time left to plan, but still with the games ahead and not behind us. Those in the driving seat, encouraged by us all, have an historical opportunity to embed social enterprise in our Games and their Legacy and show how Government and private investment in a very public affair can deliver excellence and world class social transformation.

SEL, with we hope, LOCOG, will be launching its vision for the Games, Legacy and social enterprise very soon, and lets hope there is still time to make this not only the best Games ever, but also the most inspiring.

Entrepreneur of the Year 2010

I did a double act with Jeremy Vine last night. He’s extraordinarily tall and very funny. He’s also interested in social enterprise, but then aren’t we all? I was announcing the social enterprise category of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2010, at their very lovely awards ceremony at the Park Plaza. We had seven finalists in the top tier from social enterprise, 2010 being our strongest showing by far, including the fantastic Dai Powell from HCT Group. The winning finalists were our own SEL Co-Chair, Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate, Duncan Goose from Global Ethics and Debbie Scott from Tomorrow’s People Trust Limited. As it was a black tie occasion I had to bring out my posh frock and do battle with the legendary backless bra. The things we girls have to do to look the part!

Fellow judges Simon Calver CEO of LoveFilm International and Vin Murria CEO of Advanced Computer Software Plc were also really interested in social enterprise, and I look forward to following up on those conversations. I also had a good chat with Debbie Scott. We both ranted on about schools and the need for independent providers and I got on to one of my pet peeves brought on by sending my 10 year old off to the Isle of Wight for 5 days that very morning, which is the cost and unnecessary disruption of ever more ambitious school trips. 2 years ago we had to fork out over £1000 for three children to go on school trips whilst still at primary school.  Why? I have no idea. I certainly was not going on 5 day residential trips with my school at 10 and I can't see the necessity of it.  Of course the kids have fun but that is a lot of money and frankly folk can't afford it. Last year when Sam went to the Dordogne with his primary school, aged 11, it cost us £550! Madness.

Today the Cabinet Office have released their Structural Reform Plan. I was pleased to see they are supporting the creation of mutuals, co-operatives and social enterprises to have a greater involvement in public services. I would argue that all those models sit within the social enterprise camp and I agree that what we need to do is help people build structures that can deliver quality public services that inspire it’s consumers and workforce. I also see they are firming up on plans to reduce or cut quangos. I am crossing everything in the hope that we will not lose vital support through this. There is a big job to do and we will need a little help from our friends to do it.

The beauty of blogging

Thanks to the magical way the internet brings people together I have just read the most exquisite blog, Ngorobob House: Life from the Hill. Reading this blog you realise what a privilege it is to be able to share the intimate thoughts of those whose lives are so different from our own. This latest post, brought to my attention by blogger, Family Affairs, is shocking, beautiful and unutterably sad. You can smell the heat, taste the sweat and salty tears and feel the tangible loss.

Social enterprises are trying to make the world a smaller place, bit like the internet. They are trying to get us all to give a shit about one another, whether we’ve been introduced or not. When I think of the work of enterprises like Divine Chocolate, Global Ethics and Greenworks, all investing in Africa, I am cheered that whilst we can’t bring back Francis Mgambi we can build ethical businesses that help people help themselves. We need to try harder.

Look at the attached David Tennant film about One Water and join their World Water Day.


Yesterday was International Women’s Day and what a great day for Katherine Bigalow to win the Oscars for best director and film. Go girl. She made a relatively cheap but none the less great film about the blood and guts of war whilst her ex-husband made a mind blowingly expensive one about blue lizard people. For once substance won out over big bucks, I was cheering. As an aside I do hope this fad for 3D blows over. I took the kids to Alice in Wonderland on Saturday and although the film was good, in my view, I hated the 3D business. It made me feel sick (maybe because I’m a migrainer?) I couldn’t suspend belief and I was aware of the devise throughout. Horrid.

Finally Stephen Bubb of acevo, having read my last blog post, asked me yesterday if I really had put in my first early potatoes. Although I am the first on our allotments I checked the RHS gardening website called My Garden and others have put theirs in, so although it is risky, given the dodgy weather, I am not alone.

Making a believer out of Boris...

London Mayor, Boris Johnson started to follow me on Twitter yesterday. I was able to welcome him and say how pleased I am when later on in the evening I bumped into him at the London Voluntary Service Council's 100th anniversary celebration at the Mansion House. It was a super evening with a great many familiar faces, including Drew Stevenson who was Chair when I was on LVSC’s board, John O’Brien (CEO at London Councils), Peter Lewis (CEO at LVSC), my old friend Stephen Bubb, CEO at acevo and of course Boris.

I always enjoy Boris’s speeches. As you travel with him to the destination of the point he wants to make, it often feels like a ramble, but it always turns out to be the route with views. He told us how incensed he was by the story during the snowy winter of the chap who was told not to clear snow from the path in front of his house in case anyone slipped on it, in which case he would be liable. Our mayor lamented a culture where people are put off taking responsibility. I thought of the heroic initiative taken by social entrepreneurs like those running the Parent Promoted Foundation, which was hinted at in Michael Gove’s interview with the BBC this morning, who are really willing to do something about my local, shambolic school.

Picking up Boris’s theme and that of schools I am very aware that we are entering the 'school trip' season. I hate school trips. I do not understand how schools that do not feel able to examine children for head lice feel confident in taking them abroad. Nor do I accept the ridiculous expense of these trips. To put it into perspective the state pays roughly £3000 per head for each child to attend a primary school per annum and yet parents at my school are asked to stump up a whopping £550 for each child to go to the Dordogne where they won’t speak French, eat French food or study French history. Instead they will bounce on French trampolines and jump out of French canoes.

In my day it was a day trip to Kew Gardens or memorably Southampton Docks to look at the cargo ships. I am particularly anti as my eldest Joe, an otherwise fit and healthy boy with manageable asthma has been hospitalised twice in his life, both times upon return from school trips. The last time I remember standing in a hospital ward watching Joe, oxygen mask on his face, fighting for every breath whilst I talked on my mobile to the Head teacher who explained that they had not been able to take him to a doctor in France, when he failed to respond to his medication, because she didn’t have sufficient staff. This is not in loco parentis but it is consistent with a society where teachers don’t feel they can put sun cream on kids on a sunny day, and need a signed parental permission slip to lead a class to the post box in front of the school to post a letter!

The number of parents struggling to make ends meet is rising in our neck of the woods, as the recession continues to bite and yet the cost of these mad trips is rising. The pressure on parents not to stigmatise their children by failing to come up with the goods is immense and yet seems of no consideration. As these jamborees occur during term time, children not on the trips have to go to school, by themselves. I think all such ventures in primary schools should be limited to day trips and while we are at it teachers should be able to put on sun cream, and every school should have a 'nit nurse' to stem the rising plague. Then and only then I might trust them to get as far as Southampton docks but would only want to sign up if the cost was affordable for everyone, and I mean everyone.

Tonight is the big night. We have our AGM and hustings. The line up includes our minister, Angela Smith and her Conservative and Liberal Democrat counterparts Nick Hurd and Jenny Willott. We have over 150 social enterprise leaders coming and chocolate and condoms to pass out. Thanks to Divine and Global Ethics for sponsoring the event and illustrating the fabulously diverse world of social enterprise. I hope to see you there, but if you can't make it you can follow the whole thing on Twitter under #VoteSocEnt10.

Playing with the big boys and girls

If you weren't there last night, you missed a fun one. In partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and our very own LDA we put on quite an event for social enterprise leaders. Entitled 'Question Time for Leaders in Social Enterprise' we had some fantastic speakers who told us what we needed to know to face the tough times ahead.  I am always delighted when I hear new stuff. Stephen Dawson of Impetus Trust told us how to address the elephant in the room, (which elephant, you ask? All the presentations were filmed beforehand and are on our website) Philip Wright of PwC gave us the means to weather the 'cold winds of the recession' and Rod Schwartz of ClearlySo, told us that we needed to stop being cute, grow up and look for investors.

Rod's stuff on investment capital was challenging and exciting. In my humble opinion he is one of the best commentators in the social investment world and although he and I have disagreed in the past, most notably on the social stock exchange, I think he is always worth listening to and has probably as much experience as anyone at the coal face of financing social transformation.

What struck me whilst watching PwC's opening (excellent) film is that if the assertions it makes about the impact of social enterprise are genuinely held by the organisation (as the presence as chair for the evening of the impressive Keith Mansfield, London Chairman of PwC testified to), then we have come a long way.  Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't take social enterprise seriously until Government or in this instance the mutinational world does; it's that looking at us through their eyes as we did last night makes you realise just how interesting we are.

Philip's assertion that insolvency is not always a bad thing was a shocker, but so was his rationale, which proved pretty compelling.  He talked about the need to close streams of activity down before they bring the whole structure to its knees and mothballing organisations before they lose their intellectual property as well as their assets. Food for thought.

We also heard from Anne Humphries, former board member of John Lewis and current board member of the London Development Agency. I was delighted that she voiced pride in her association with the UK's leading social enterprise, John Lewis.  I know there are those in our movement who think JL isn't a social enterprise, but I'm not one of them. I think the way they have thoughtfully constructed a business model around profit distribution, staff ownership, ethical behaviour and customer satisfaction is a thing of beauty and their recent success is something we should be proud of.

I woke up this morning to lots of lovely texts and emails from those who had come last night saying how much they enjoyed it.  The use of the word 'superb' more than once helped my early morning tea go down very nicely. Thank you to all who took the time to come and especially those who fed back afterwards. I forwarded all your comments on to the SEL team, who of course worked their socks off.

Tomorrow we host a lunch to discuss procurement.  The purpose of the event, which is being run again in partnership with the LDA, is to bring a handful of folk together (from government, social enterprise and the private sector) who know a thing or two about it, and to discuss how we can empower social enterprises to win more business. I think it should be gripping and I am especially pleased that my co-chair Sophi Tranchell of Divine Chocolate is bringing along Angela Smith MP, Minister for the Third Sector, who, wonderfully is shadowing Sophi for the day under the Coalition's tremendous Social Enterprise Ambassadors' Programme.

Our Sabina, who is organising the event tells me she wants it in the style of me 'hosting it in my own home'.  That was a stretch for me since there will be no children suddenly deciding to practice the trumpet/piano/guitar as soon as the guests arrive and no rabbits and hampsters hopping and wheeling about to the dulcet tones of the ever rotating washing machine. In fact it won't be like being at home at all. I shall have to improvise.

Last Thursday I met Angela's new Director General at the OTS, Rolande Anderson who kindly gave me an hour of her time to chew her ear about social enterprise. I hope she found it helpful, she seemed really engaged. I often come away from meetings like that feeling sorry for folk who are continually subjected to lobbyists like me, but hey that's the job.  Mine to put our case and theirs to hear it.

I have also met up with loads of social enterprises this week, all at different stages of development, all with different needs and all absolutely inspiring. I am currently trying to make sure I have done everything for them that I said I would, again that's the job: to give (hopefully) good advice and to open doors. One person who doesn't need me to open any doors is the lovely Ed Mayo who I had a chat with on Monday. Ed is the new CEO at Coops UK and quite the nicest, most considered man I have met in a long time. We really put the world to rights and I'm excited (as the Americans say) about working closely with Coops UK as we did when my mate Pauline was at the helm.

Finally, and thank you so much to all of you who have enquired, after a lot of huffing (her) and puffing (me and my super sis Sue) my Mother's move is complete. I did manage to end last week with a rather unattractive nervous twitch in the left eye, but after a weekend with the family, gardening and watching Miss Marple re runs I can now hold a steady gaze. My Mother is adjusting rather well to her lovely cottage and has only locked herself out once, although Monday's revelation that she had managed to leave her passport at the old house did, I have to admit, feel like a step in the wrong direction.

I'm off now to fleece my bulbs, which bravely sprouted in last weekends clement weather and will now get scorched in the latest of what seems like an endless line of cold snaps. Life's so like that isn't it?

Getting in the mood

I knew it was December 1 today as dawn found me furiously hunting for a Santa hat. My daughter, Katie is singing carols with her class at the O2 tonight and I was informed solemnly this morning that ‘everyone else would be wearing a Santa hat, but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter’. My working mother’s guilt went into overdrive as I tore the house apart, finding no hat. I rang friends and neighbours, they had no hat, and finally I went shopping. I was aghast, and disproportionately grateful to find our local party shop open at 8.30am. I fell through the doors, told the shop keeper I loved her (alarming her I think) and bought three Santa hats, later informing the school receptionist that the others were for any class mates who might have parents that also missed the Santa hat memo.

Like every working parent I know, keeping up with school correspondence is a real challenge. Like every working mother I know, they are a source of constant guilt. I have had dozens of emails in the last week from the children’s schools, scouts and brownie associations asking for donations, preparation time and time on the day for their respective Christmas fairs (interestingly my husband gets none of these despite me making sure they have his email address as well.) I do what I can, making cakes at midnight and bagging up tat, and I heartily congratulate those who do so much more. However each and every email does serve to remind me that not everyone is living their lives at break neck speed. An odd, but curiously comforting thought.

Still I love life in the fast lane so social enterprise is a good place to be. Things are always shifting as we work away at the coal face of social change. Talking of change, I recently heard on the grapevine that there are key folk interested in changing the term social enterprise to social business, which is what the Japanese call it. Given the time and effort we have taken to build the brand of social enterprise, I think this could set us back. We need to focus resources on cranking up the social enterprise profile and fighting the corner of social entrepreneurs who are feeling the heat of cut backs, cut-throat markets and competitive contract tenders. Besides, I’m not sure 'social businesspreneur' would catch on???

The position of social enterprise, as we become more successful, will get more adversarial. So hang on to your Santa hats folks. Sadly we have unions like Unite and Unison producing anti-social enterprise leaflets; we have people like Peter Jones from Dragons Den talking about social entrepreneurs as a bad credit risk as if that were a matter of fact (I gave a rather blunt interview to a reporter yesterday on my public challenge to Peter Jones at the British Library when he made that unhelpful comment) and we have some voluntary sector leaders questioning social enterprise as either privatisation by the back door, or voluntary sector organisations masquerading as social enterprises to unfairly compete for funding. Make your mind up.

My job and SEL’s is to address these misconceptions and promote the real stories that are improving society through business.

To this end I met yesterday with Gerry Walsh and Mike Cornelius respective heads of procurement for LOCOG and the Olympic Delivery Authority. They were resolutely optimistic about the chances of social enterprises delivering some of the final £1.3 billion pounds worth of 2012 contracts. They both urged me to encourage SEL members to register on the procurement vehicle Compete For, and Gerry in particular highlighted transport as the next big opportunity. Such was their enthusiasm we concluded the meeting with an agreement to hold a joint event bringing them together with interested social enterprises. I am hoping the Cabinet Office will agree and if we do manage to get their support I will be in touch to let folk know when that is going to happen. Obviously given the timing of events, the sooner the better, so watch this space.

I relentlessly sell social enterprises, a part of my job I relish, made easier by the existence of wonderful organisations like the City of London Migraine Centre where I got life changing treatment for my migraines. Having suffered since my teens I had no idea how effectively migraines can be treated by the world class experts at the clinic. So when disaster struck on Saturday and I had one of my rare aura migraines that temporarily rob me of peripheral vision, I was able to take medication that restored me to the extent, that Katie and I made the rather lovely Gingerbread house below.

The result of the O-N's gingerbread house construction project. Kevin McLeod would be impressed.

"It’s too early" I hear you cry. Let me defend myself. It was a rotten afternoon, I was housebound and the pile of sweets I had bought to make the gingerbread house was fast disappearing into the mouths of short ghosts. Lastly I am a firm believer in prior planning and not leaving anything to the last minute. It is because of this that I am able to feign composure when our family and friends invade by the legion over the festive period.

Anyway I am a self confessed Christmas junkie and love the whole thing, more is more in my book so Ho Ho Ho to all you Grinches. For those of you getting in the mood but too busy to get to the shops I have posted some links to Christmas shopping sites in the right hand column (scroll up!). Let me know what you think.

Finally I urge you all to get out there and buy your Divine Chocolate advent calendars. It’s not too late!!!

Anything but board

Education is very much in the air for social enterprise. I picked up Red Mummy's blog last night thanks to a tip off from Stephen Fry's Tweet which chimed with the things I've been saying about schools. Parents of children in many secondary schools up and down the country are really not happy and they want things to improve. The blog is facinating and echoed  a number of conversations I have had lately.

This morning I met with officers from Lambeth Council and Sarah Neuff from the fantastic development trust, Coin Street Community Builders to launch a really exciting initiative designed to develop social enterprise in the borough. I think Lambeth is really showing its dynamic commitment to social enterprise and I look forward to working on a project which I'm sure will establish the borough's credentials for innovation.

Interestingly Lambeth is the only place in the UK that has succeeded in establishing a parent run school, something I discovered when meeting with Paul Mason from Parent Promoted Foundation this morning.  Paul is leading the monumental struggle of Barnes, Mortlake and East Sheen parents, trying to establish a school in the area that meets children's needs.  The thing I like best about this movement of ours is meeting people like Paul who are real social innovators, fighting to create a world I for one, want to live in.  Parents should be able to run schools, certainly where local authorities have failed; they couldn't do a worse job. In fact, I think they could do an excellent one. Paul told me the Foundation have the backing of 2000 local parents, impressive. He and I worked over possible models, related initiaitives and where social enterprise fitsin - all good stuff. 

I think this growing development in education (exemplified by the work CfBT commisioned SEL to do on social enterprises delivering extended services in schools) is unstoppable. Clearly the existing system needs an injection of responsibility, commitment and enthusiasm.  All qualities you get in spades from people like Paul, working to improve the community for people like me and my family. watch this space for our up and coming conference on this.

This afternoon my lovely board met.  The SEL Board is a meeting place for many of the UK's leading social entrepreneurs, chaired ably today by Sophi Tranchell MD of Divine Chocolate.  During the discussions we learnt from Carmel McConnell of Magic Breakfast about a great deal they've done with Quaker Oats whose packaging now carries a 5p per pack funding commitment to Magic Breakfast, Carmel's social enterprise that currently feeds over 3000 children a day who arrive at London schools too hungry to learn. So go out and buy Quaker Oats people!

Off to a reception for Southwark Leaders now, no rest for the wicked.