Social Enterprise Summit: the challenge of engaging the private sector

From left to right: Paul Drechsler, Wates, Allison Ogden-Newton, SEL, and David Mills,
Guardian social enterprise network. Photograph: Felix Clay

In todays Guardian Social Enterprise Network forum Claudia Cahalane writes, The CEO of a major corporation which has worked with 32 social enterprises said on Wednesday that the sector is not visible enough to private companies.

Speaking at the Guardian Social Enterprise Summit, Paul Drechsler, head of construction company Wates, said he thought it made sense to work with social enterprises but he had underestimated how much effort would be needed to find them. In the 'How to get corporate organisations to engage with social enterprise' session, Drechsler said: "Two years ago, we put together a small, dedicated team to look at how we could engage but I was surprised that finding social enterprises would be the biggest challenge.

"We have had two people working full-time to research the social enterprise market and we have now contracted social enterprises on 100 projects," said the CEO, whose company turns over £100 million a year. "But less than one per cent of our spend is with social enterprises and if we want to scale that up it has to be easier to find social enterprises."

CEO of Social Enterprise London, Allison Ogden-Newton, said there needed to be an easier access point for corporates wanting to work with the sector. "Perhaps through one of the representative agencies of private companies," she suggested.

Speakers said that "getting in through the CSR door" could be a positive move but Ogden-Newton reminded delegates that some private companies would not be interested in social value.

"The message around social impact can be quite limited," she said. "If a company is ordering toilet rolls or handwash from one of our members, they often just want the right price. But it's good if you can get the CSR people to talk to the commercial procurement people and then you can tick several boxes with one gesture."

Nick Temple, director of business at Social Enterprise UK, was also on the panel. "Talk to them about how you can increase staff retention rates and reduce their costs," he said. "Working with a private company requires investment on both sides but the corporate sector is taking social enterprise seriously. Microsoft has a director of social enterprise, which demonstrates the commitment out there."

Peter Cousins, founder of Brighter Futures Workshop, which won the Guardian Social Enterprise Award on Wednesday, said he was struggling to get private sector interest.

"We have worked hard to enhance our profile and have won several big awards but we still haven't got corporate interest," he told delegates.

Guardian Social Enterprise Network: What's big in 2011?

FYI The Guardian has recently launched  its own social enterprise network, which is a real testament to the growth of interest in our meovement. Today they published a piece on what will be big for 2011 , which is well worth a read. My contribution was about message, but I particulalry liked Servane Mouazan from Ogunte’s emphasis on social enterprise and diversity and Nick Temple, from SSE, who gave us a QED to meet the challenge of Rob Greenland’s opportunities and lookalike poisoned chalices.  

Making friends in Merton

Today I chaired a social enterprise event in Merton. I really enjoyed it as the group the council had brought together were really on the ball. We had old hands like Nick Temple from the School for Social Entrepreneurs and some fresh faces from Merton based social enterprises like the inspiring Annys Darkwa from Vision Housing which works with newly released ex-offenders to find suitable, sustainable housing. The purpose of the meeting was to give the council a steer on taking their plan for social enterprise development on to the next level. James McGinlay, Head of Sustainable Communities at Merton Council opened the session and laid out his commitment to making Merton a place where social enterprise is making real impact. I was listening intently as SEL are about to publish a route map for local authorities to engage with social enterprise and achieve maximum return on investment.

As I keep saying, if you mean to do something then you are more likely to do just that. By the same vein, if Councils set about to grow social enterprise, they'll do it.

Much of what was said this aternoon underlined the 4 key pillars in the route map. These pillars are firstly to extend the right to request to all public services. This would encourage and enable public employees and community activists to spin off a given service, out of direct public management, whilst improving it. Secondly we are arguing for local and central government  to invest in developing a culture of entrepreneurship within communities through existing networks. My plea to all government is not to establish new support bodies but work through existing ones with a proven track record. Thirdly social enterprise creates jobs, it should therefore be a priority within every economic development strategy. Lastly procurement and commissioning guidelines should include social clauses, these will ensure the public sector gets the most from social enterprise and they in turn will have ample opportunity to demonstrate their social impact. With social clauses local authorities can get more bang for the buck.

All of these themes came up spontaneously  in the discussion today, which makes me think we are on the right track.

Finally I came home to two children that needed seperate costumes for their respective school plays tomorrow. Once again I seemed to have missed the memos. Sam needs to be a sort of Ali Baba character and Katie a punk rocker. After a lot of running around the house I think we have pulled something together. They both seem pleased.

Katie does counter culture

I am now going to sit down quietly avec a gin and read today's Guardian in which I alongside some of my friends in social enterprise are featured. Its all good stuff, a four page special on social enterprise put together by the lovely Patrick Butler. The timing is perfect, because now is exactly when we need to be asking ourselves the tough questions Patrick poses, namely where do we want to go and how do we plan to get there?