The ripple effect of spin-outs: Improved services or just economies of scale?

Service providers are being enabled to spread their delivery model beyond the boundaries of geography and service type

The Aquatic Centre in the Olympic Park is run by GLL, a company that has grown in the face of cuts. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Recently a debate erupted on Twitter: would outsourcing services, where the focus is often on achieving economies of scale, be an obstacle to better services or an opportunity? While it's true that economies of scale are often treated with suspicion when it comes to the public sector, where the vision of private sector monoliths stacking it high and selling it cheap is understandably unwelcome, we are seeing a growing trend for service providers being enabled to spread their delivery model beyond the boundaries of geography or even service type. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

For our part, the Transition Institute entered the debate pointing out that while spin-outs can achieve economies of scale, we need to look at how that affects the quality of delivery. This is developed in our publication Scaling up your business: Expansion strategies for spin-outs, where the benefits to the service user are examined.

Once free of geographical or single institution administrative boundaries, spin-outs can spread quickly across boroughs and towns. A good example of this is GLL (Greenwich Leisure Limited), which started from one leisure centre in Greenwich, was threatened by cuts, and has now grown into a company that manages more than 100 facilities across more than 20 local authorities, including the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park, and is now looking beyond sports leisure facilities to libraries as possible services that could benefit from its model of co-operative ownership and community engagement.

This is how outsourcing service provision can achieve economies of scale, but how can that move also unleash innovation? Does the act of removing administrative boundaries enable providers to look outside the original site or district? Or can enlightened contracting actually encourage increased innovation?

A good example is the Innovation Unit, an organisation that started life as part of the Department of Education, from which it spun out in 2006. While it was part of the department, the unit supported innovative programmes for schools and was highly successful in doing so. It is reasonable to assume that the unit would have remained successful had it remained where it was; however, by spinning out the department and becoming a self-determining social enterprise, it established a model that enabled a coalition of ideas and innovations developed in studying education trends to other services, right the way across the public sector. As an early adopter of independent status, the Innovation Unit now operates in areas like environmental policy, health and social care and education.

By spinning out, it has made the transformative potential available to more public services than if it had remained a service managed within the public sector. It is our observation that this trend is helping to build data and models that could generate a more forward-looking and innovative public sector.

We are seeing more expert agencies that are able to operate beyond a single local authority and, in doing so, move tried and tested ideas from one site to another without the expense of repeated trial and error. A good example is Pure Innovations, which has developed an innovative approach to social care and employment services. Once it had spun out from local authority control, it has not only continued to diversify and grow, but also been able to establish consultancy services.

The public sector has started to benefit from agencies like Pure Innovations, the Innovation Unit and GLL, not only through the economies of scale they can generate, but also by looking beyond the sell-by-date approach often found in established but unchallenged public service delivery.

One final example is the Cleveland Fire Brigade, which we believe is the first fire and rescue service to spin out and that now plans to finance itself with additional revenue achieved in providing services as security consultants. If its model succeeds, it will have found a way to maintain a public service while also generating income from operating as experts in the market place. In this way Cleveland Fire Brigade could act as a useful example to other emergency and security services.

These trends are interesting in that they offer solutions at a time when budget cuts and increased demand are prompting commissioners to seek alternative approaches. When an organisation spins out, it could be a success story, not only by achieving economies of scale but by also improving service delivery and increasing the public awareness of a diversity of models beyond the perceptions of conventional public/private sector delivery. In this way these new, enlightened providers are helping to build a more efficient and resilient public sector, fit for the challenging 21st century.

Allison Ogden-Newton is former chief executive of Social Enterprise London

2012 Victory Parade: A celebration of faith, commitment and funding`

Today, I was at a meeting at the RSA just as Team GB's Victory Parade went by. I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity and so waited for the floats with Jaume Martorell, Network and Communications Manager at the Transition Institute, which is now based at the RSA and is right on the route of the parade. Jaume is from Spain where parades are a common occurrence, I told him that on the whole, we were not a big parading nation and this spectacle was unusual for us reserved Brits.

The atmosphere was very jolly with people smiling, cheering and waving flags. I fell into conversation with an delightful older lady jammed next to me by the crowd. After apologising for getting me in the eye with her flag, she told me how much she had enjoyed every moment of the Olympics and Paralympics, that she had gone to see both and thought they were 'wonderful'. It seems that few have missed out on the spirit of 2012 and, for those of us lucky enough to go to the Games, it has been magical.

My role right from the very beginning of winning the bid had been to work with the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office, then headed up by Ed Miliband, to ensure as many social enterprises as possible were able to contribute to the building, running and legacy of the Games. For social enterprise advocates, our starting point back in 2009 was the vision of the Social Enterprise Square Mile and for us this has turned out to have been a successful Games, with social enterprises like HCT providing transport on the site, Catering to Order supplying food to the construction workers and Clarity the soaps and detergents, both of which provide employment to the visually impaired. At the time, Ed had been really fired up by the Olympics and was extraordinarily supportive, using his influence to persuade key folk like the then mayor, Ken Livingstone, to give me the time to explain why social enterprise was so on message for 2012.

My gold medalist, John Charles, a great social entrepreneur

I thought today, as I watched the Paralympians, about inspiring social entrepreneurs like John Charles the extraordinary CEO of Catering to Order who set up the company after losing his sight at 18. For him, their success would perhaps be less surprising as he knows only too well what those challenged by disability – with the right support, guts and determination – can achieve. Not content with being a profoundly visually impaired, most of John's employees have similar difficulties and yet Catering to Order is commercial all the way. Now that deserves a gold medal.

Truly the greatest show on earth

Our family trip to the Olympic Village was in August when we went to see the men's hockey, something the kids will never forget. Joe, our 16-year-old, was particular thrilled as he is captain of his hockey team and was voted player of the year at the end of last season. It was an extraordinary atmosphere, hard to quite pick up on the TV and the Olympic Park was every bit as impressive and inspiring as you dared hope it might be. During a break in one of the matches, we even bumped into one of Joe's schoolmates, a fellow hockey team player and his family, so incredibly the Games left us feeling connected to our community even though they were evidently global.

As we left the Olympic Village we walked past the Aquatic Centre, which is now being managed by GLL, a great social enterprise that beat all other bidders in a highly competitive process to win this most prestigious 2012 legacy management contract. SEL, in our role as social enterprise ambassadors to the Games, supported its bid and I personally made representation to the legacy committee on its behalf, explaining the advantage of social enterprise in terms of its sustained commitment to local employment, community engagement rather than shareholders. So many victories made possible by vision and commitment.

Today, as the athletes went by, those of us on the pavement shouted our salutations and in turn many of them mouthed thank you to the crowd, including Victoria Pendlelton, Mighty Mo and Lee Pearson, which I thought was touching. They too seemed a little caught off guard by events. It's not in our nature, we Brits, to go over the top about things, but their achievement has given us all something to shout about. It is heartening to witness what can be done when faith and hard work are met with investment, something for us all to take away with and ponder.

Not got all the answers? You are not alone

Sometimes it can all get a bit much. Despite working all hours, results can seem ever far away and if that describes you, it is time to take stock and know you are not alone. A great many people are coping with dramatic change, I am aware of this because they are talking to me about the decisions they face. Social enterprise is not excempt from the effects of the economic climate.

We in the social enterprise world have a growing body of support for our ethical business ideas but still our models are often fragile, our markets are young and our access to capital often remains limited. Interest in a business model that promotes community is definitely on the increase, but the challenge to make it pay has never been greater.

Many leading businesses were established during a recession such as Microsoft, Apple and Burger King and, closer to home, successful social enterprises like GLL, so now is not necessarily the wrong time to go for growth. But many more close, so careful consideration and collaboration are essential.

I have been advising a number of social entrepreneurs lately and I have told them not to go it alone and, as an example, to resist using personal borrowing, and look for business loans wherever and whenever possible. If you can't argue the business case to a lender, the chances are the idea is too much of a gamble. In any event running your idea in a structured way past a lender can only help in getting your thoughts and plans together. I give this advice knowing that some of our headline social enterprises were founded on credit card borrowing and personal mortgages, but those were the exceptions and not the rule, and that was then and this is now.

I am also telling people to look at their aspirations and challenges and make a list of those people they think could help them. These might be people they know or someone they could get to know through an existing contact. Three of four key people will always give you food for thought, an honest sounding board and potentially even become a future supporter. Now is the time to network and start a dialogue, even with old competitors. Everyone is under pressure and starting a conversation you would not dream of having years or even months ago may just pay off. Anyone worth their salt these days is looking for deals and ready to think outside the box about complex solutions for challenging problems.

And try to stay calm. When all about you are losing their heads, as the saying goes, a true leader stays focused. Try to remember that as passionate as you are for your business, it is business and not personal.

Remaining cool under pressure does not mean you must always know which way to go, in fact certainty is not the job at all, leadership is all about being able to assess risks and opportunities and knowing when and who to ask for help. These are the true marks of my kind of leader.

My old Dad used to tell us when we complained that life was all too much “Ogdens go forward” so let me share that with you and add: whatever is on your plate, take a deep breathe, dream the dream, ask for help, make it happen and yes, go forward.

Can 2012 deliver the world's first social enterprise square mile?

New Olympic contract wins could start a trend, says SEL's Allison Ogden-Newton

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• Allison Ogden-Newton
• Guardian Professional, Tuesday 10 January 2012 08.00 GMT
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The London Olympics could be good for social enterprises. Olympia/ Photograph: Arne Dedert/EPA

2012 starts with a bang as news breaks that social enterprise, Leisure Trust GLL, has won the landmark contract to manage the London Aquatics Centre and the Multi Use Centre (Handball Arena), whilst the development agency Renaisi, in partnership with Balfour Beatty and charity Groundwork, gets the contract to run the Olympic Park. These bids will deliver jobs and community regeneration and much more through entrepreneurialism that understands the importance of enhancing social value. There is a vision at work here and it is to make good on the promises of the legacy by supporting the most audacious community development any games has ever undertaken through the canny management of the site's assets.

That might sound like hype, but a closer look at the successful tenders show some very clever, ethically-driven plans to create jobs; giving local people a real stake in the facilities the games leave behind.

I spoke to Rob Pearce, Director at Renaisi, who told me that "We argued strongly that you will only get a great park if you create and involve successful neighbors and unless you create a specific mechanism, like a social enterprise, with that purpose in mind a park that inspires would be hard to achieve."

The community interest company "Our Parklife" that got the green light from the Olympic Park Legacy Company brings together co-curators Balfour Beatty, Renaisi and Groundwork. It will guarantee that jobs are created for local people and will ensure that a minimum of 50% of the supply chain contracts go to local small and medium-sized enterprises. It sets a clear vision for local integration and, like the GLL bid, creates a framework for a sustainable park where local communities will see real benefits.

GLL is another success story, and this latest landmark contract will mean a great deal to others in the social enterprise world given their strong social enterprise supply chain. Mark Sesnan, GLL's managing director told me they will "make a real difference", by working with other social enterprises. For example, GLL plan to work closely with transport specialists Hackney Community Transport (HCT), as well as London Recycling Network who have developed innovative recycling in East London and local social housing agencies. This will ensure that GLL's success supports other community based partners for a socially sustainable future.

HCT has been providing transport on the Olympic site for the last four years and its managing director Dai Powell told me he was delighted with today's news, adding: "When you look at the confidence public bodies and the public themselves are showing in social enterprises you realise that now is our time."

These latest contracts and other proposals, such as Business In The Communities plans to turn the 2012 Olympics Media Centre into a social enterprise business hub, all add up to the possibility of the world's first social enterprise square mile, set in London's Olympic park, post 2012.

I am sure the OPLC wants to make sure we don't get a games like Atlanta in 1996, where jobs failed to materialize, or Sydney in 2000 where the Olympic Park, set 18 miles outside the city, couldn't inspire a community to grow up around it and remains isolated and in a state of decline. Or, worse yet, Athens: where a failure to plan for any legacy missed every trick in the book with many of the facilities mothballed and jobs nowhere to be found.

It is fortunate that the 2012 games are set in the city that is acknowledged worldwide as the lead for social enterprise development. By choosing to back social enterprises based in London which innovate in regeneration, environmentalism and social impact, the OPLC has invested in a vision where a great games is just the starting gun ahead of the main event: a sustainable community where everyone is a winner.

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

Looking back with pride at 2011

Magic Breakfast working to feed London"s hungry kids wins the Big Society Award in 2011 

Looking back on an extraordinary year I can hardly believe that our small organisation could have achieved so much and made such a difference! That is, of course, down to our members, networks, clients, supporters, co-chairs Mark Sesnan and Sophi Tranchell and board, all of whom enabled the fantastic SEL team to really pick up the pace for social enterprise in 2011.

The year started for us by hosting the world’s largest 2012 Olympic social enterprise conference at the London Film Museum where hundreds of delegates met to discuss and plan a successful games that will establish a worthwhile and long-lasting legacy for the wider community.

SEL also held a conference, put together by our own local government expert Mei Hui, especially for London’s local authorities with the support of London Councils. This was the 5^th LAConnects conference and the most successful yet. Bringing together representatives of all 32 boroughs and the City, we took a good hard look at their social enterprise strategies and ways in which boroughs could do more with social enterprise. This was an important conversation to have, especially in such difficult economic times because social enterprises are working with some of society's most vulnerable citizens who are always the hardest hit by economic decline.

A big breakthrough came in 2011 with another seminal partnership, this time with NESTA, the leading innovation agency, with which we worked to established the ground-breaking Transition Institute. The organisation, led by Director and policy supremo Dominic Potter and supported by the dedicated Jillian Oxenham, gained its full institute status from the government - no mean feat, because it provides a unique and vital platform for the discussion and promotion of public sector reform that maximises social value.

I am privileged to Chair the Institute, which has as its board members luminaries like Sir Stephen Bubb, Lord Micheal Bichard, Ed Mayo, Philip Colligan, Sue Bruce, Helen Bailey, Andrew Burnell, Sophia Looney, Mark Sesnan and Ben Lucas.

The Institute has attracted real media attention and as a result been contacted by an ever-growing number of public sector workers looking for information and support in the pursuit of their plans for a new approach to service delivery.

Launching its first publication in 2011, Social Value Ethos the Instutute offers strategic support to the Public Services (Social Value) Bill which, thanks to Chris White MP and Minister Nick Hurd’s tenacious campaigning, has made it to the House of Lords. We hope it gets through and is passed in 2012.

Our international work continued to be a significant part of the 2011 story with SEL consultants working in Croatia, South Korea and Copenhagen led by our chief boffin, Director of Policy and Research, Sabina Khan who has also started a series of tele-events for the Chinese government with partners, the British Council.

SEL’s work with local authorities continued to blossom and, over the year, we trained over 400 local authority officers in how they might approach becoming independent service deliverers. Building on their challenges and experiences and those of the 10 local authorities we worked through our consultancy team, we published Spin Out and Deliver from the Guardian as part of our Social Enterprise Day celebrations, which has since been downloaded from the SEL site many thousands of times.

We also continued to work with the Department of Health researching the challenges faced by health sector spin-out services through our research hub and consultancy. 

Our links with the corporate world also defined 2011 in that we delivered eight oversubscribed events for social entrepreneurs sponsored by our partners KPMG and PwC. These events have become astonishingly popular and offer real evidence of the way in which the larger City-based firms have valuable expertise to offer social enterprises that our members, in turn, are delighted to benefit from. 

Thanks to our Membership Team, Emma Hodson and Clare Sharpen, the SEL family has risen in number steadily all year and means that despite the battles we have fought and, I have to say, not always won for social enterprise, we are clearly doing something right. Offering programmes like ERDF Winning Contracts headed up by our own powerhouse Sue Potter, we know has really helped members. This programme saw us train over 580 social enterprises in improving their performance in securing and delivering quality public sector contracts. Independent assessment showed that our training resulted in over £4 million of new business being won by clients who specified the training they had from SEL was key to their subsequent success. 

I was a judge for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the Guardian Public Sector, the Third Sector and Social Enterprise Photography awards all in 2011. These competitions might not change the world but they give us an unparalleled opportunity to make sure that social enterprises like Livity in Brixton and the Acton African Well Woman Centre get the recognition they deserve.

Our membership goes from strength to strength and is about to top 3,000, which is fantastic and makes us the largest social enterprise community in Europe. It seems that as things get tougher, social enterprises are looking for more information and support and SEL is the obvious go-to choice. 

Having the design and techno wizard, Surbhi Bahl sorting out our front end has, I hope you agree, made a real difference to the impact and clarity of our message. Surbhi has made sure that the success of members like Magic Breakfast, which joined SEL members GLL and Central Surrey Health when they bagged a Big Society Award in 2011, was shared by the whole network and SEL’s now significant global audience. 

Astonishingly 2011 saw SEL get our members covered in at least 43 pieces of national media and countless more sector-specific and local media sources. We also continued to do well in the world of social media with a combined (SEL, Transition Institute and aogdennewton) Twitter following of over 6,000 and consistently high Google ratings. If you search social enterprise from anywhere in the world, SEL will not be far from the top of any search engines suggested links.

But what is my highlight of 2011? It has to be the successful conclusion of our London Future 500 programme in which we got 500 young people jobs in social enterprise, 69% of whom are no longer on benefits.

Social enterprise is all about making a difference, and that certainly is making a very big difference indeed.

I wish you all the very best for the holidays and a prosperous 2012, whatever it brings SEL will be there working tirelessly and creatively for you,

All the very best

Allison

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.

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Why social value is more important than 'social enterprise'

Allison Ogden-Newton finds that social entrepreneurs are relaxed about changes to Chris White's public services bill

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• Allison Ogden-Newton
• Guardian Professional, Thursday 20 October 2011 14.20 BST
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Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive of Social Enterprise London

If, like me, you have been referring to Chris White's public services (social enterprise and social value) bill as the social enterprise bill, after this week you will have to think of something else to call it. We now know that mention of social enterprise – that bit that many consider as the radical element of the proposed legislation – is to be removed, leaving only reference to social value, which strikes me as a touch of "don't mention the war".

I have to confess that Greg Clark, the minister for decentralisation and cities, told me in December that the government intended just such an amendment, so I was slow to realise that this was news. In truth, the bill is doing better than any of us dared hope and, as to be expected of all private member bills, it has been subject to extensive amendments – but a social enterprise bill that no longer refers to social enterprise has to be a joke, right?

To find out I spoke to June O'Sullivan of the London Early Years Foundation, an organisation that delivers early years services targeted at the most deprived families in five London boroughs. As ever, she cut to the chase. June told me, "What I want from any kind of bill is a level playing field. Local authorities are looking for the best service they can afford and while the social enterprise element of what we do interests councils, when we get feedback from successful contracts, it's all about the service we provide, nothing else."

I asked June what she would like from the legislation and she told me that anything that removed procurement barriers like a mandatory £20m turnover to tender, and added, "getting the concept of social value into their [local authority] heads wouldn't hurt".

This idea was echoed by Mark Sesnan of GLL, a company that manages 100 leisure facilities promoting community health and youth employment, making GLL probably the UK's most successful social enterprise delivering public services. Mark told me: "Having social enterprise in there was powerful, but removing it is not terminal. We welcomed the bill because it asked for government to look for more than just price in contracts. If it still does that then that's great, continuing to describe such activity as social enterprise would have been the icing on the cake."

Mark and June work closely with cuts-ravaged local authorities, which gives them a profoundly pragmatic view. Sarah Richards, director of sustainable environment and enterprise at Essex county council, told me, "We are really interested in social enterprise and its inherent social value and while we might have struggled in response to mandatory legislation, we genuinely welcome any support to our growing relationships with Essex's social enterprise community."

As for removing references to social enterprise, it is my view that as long as our community continues in its struggle to agree a definition of social enterprise, that was always going to be tricky. The impact of what we do, the difference we make to vulnerable people's lives remains the real show and, as for language, June said it best when she told me: "It's not a battle worth fighting; if we try, it will lose us the war".

Allison Ogden-Newton is chief executive of Social Enterprise London

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The Transition Institute asks: Where does social enterprise fit into the pensions debate?

Now is as good a time as any to ponder the question: where does social enterprise fit into the pensions debate? With parts of the public sector striking and the gap between what Government and many in the public sector believe to be a fair position widening, we ask, what does social enterprise bring to the party?

Snogging Ed Miliband

Today was a fun one.

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.

Big society – can we have spin-outs without spin? The chief executive of Social Enterprise London worries that presentational issues will get in the way of encouraging new models of public service delivery

As seen in the Guardian online today.....

"Big society" is big news. But what does it mean? If so-called spin-outs from the public sector are all part of this headline policy initiative, has big society helped or hindered?

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.