Category Archives: Social Entrepreneurs

Debates on the blogs

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Who said Xmas was a time of winding down? Hundred things to finish by the 23rd….and being bombarded with tweets about Rage Against the Machine and snow. Grrrr.

So, a brief post to point to a couple of great debates / conversations that have been happening on a couple of different blogs of late:

– More on Call Britannia: when is a social enterprise not a social enterprise?  on the BSSEC blog which is an interesting-ish debate about the old definitions chestnut, but made more interesting by the organisation all the commenters were talking about entering into the fray….

– Some final thoughts from Bangladesh is a slightly unpromising title for a great post by Liam Black which prompted quite a few comments and a healthy debate underneath. Perhaps because of the following line: "I will probably punch the first whinging social enterprise type I run
into back home who starts complaining about [government] cuts. Just build a fucking
business that can make money and help people. If you can’t do that go
and work for the council or a bloody RDA."

Both well worth reading, as they cover issues like scale, business models, government reliance, impact, ownership etc etc. Some of the healthiest, most interesting stuff I've read this year.

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Social media (twitter) tactics for social entrepreneurs

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Not claiming I had anything to do with this. Kudos to Chad Norman at Blackbaud for what is a great slideshow of social media tactics (and tools) that non-profit organisations, or mission-driven organisations, can use. If you're wondering why/how twitter, facebook et al could be important and how to start, here you go.

50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits

View more presentations from Chad Norman.
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Learning from the week (other people’s wisdom)

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Startupchecklist It's been one of those "always in a meeting" weeks for me here at SSE. Quite a few of them useful and productive, but occasionally frustrating also (see 'patience' and 'exhaustion' on the left). But we are a learning-by-doing organisation, so thought I would share a few bits of learning + wisdom from the week. Hopefully these are of some interest, if slightly random.

– Total Place is becoming a much bigger deal / much more real on people's agendas: featured in two very different meetings this week, but its 'whole' area approach to public service delivery will become increasingly important as budgets get devolved to local authority level; particularly for social entrepreneurs / social enterprises who deliver multiple cross-cutting outcomes…more here

– From SROI's excellent Measuring Social Value conference (well done Jeremy et al), I took away the following: transparency leads to credibility which leads to trust which leads to support (hat tip to Daniela at the Impetus Trust)

– Someone else at the same event (my notes don't reveal who!) pointed out that it took 100 years for commercial business to arrive at the current set of metrics they use….which are still far from perfect; so we shouldn't beat ourselves up about it in the social sphere

– from Nina of FRC, talking about why measurement is important: "Are you busy with the things that matter….or just busy?"

– Campbell Robb of OTS at the same event: "At the heart of smarter government is a government that buys better"; he followed that with "there is no excuse for not having a go at proving your impact….and the organisations that put this at the heart of their business will be the successful organisations"

– (from Julie Harris at the Ambassadors meeting): 60% of people searching online are looking for video content [hope I got that statistic right]

– Leeds has the best value office space in European cities; Oslo has the least pollution; London is low down the list for both. From the fascinating (!) European Cities Monitor

– Also, did you know that: "Over 750,000 SMEs are based in London, making up 99.8 per cent of all
London businesses. With annual turnover exceeding £360 billion, this
sector also accounts for almost half of all employment in London." (see here for more) Which came up at the LDA meeting re. getting social + ethical businesses inside their economic development strategies…..

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Social Enterprise Awards 09

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Brief note to say how enjoyable the Social Enterprise Awards were last week. Congratulations to all the winners (the full list of which you can check out here), but special congratulations to Bikeworks
 which won the Best New Social Enteprise Award, and which was co-founded, and is jointly run by SSE Fellow Dave Miller. Well done to Jim, Dave and all the team at Bikeworks, topping off what has been an amazing year for them. There's a press release about the event here as well.

The event itself was served well from being a little more understated this year: a short, focused ceremony; David McQueen was a great host (and put up with both being called Steve during the event, and with me spilling my drink all over his tie); a fond farewell from Clare Dove to Jonathan Bland, thanking him for his contribution; and there were genuinely moving moments from two of the winners: Pack-IT Promotions and Brighter Future Workshop, both of whom reminded us of the social mission that drives and underpins this work, and of how much it means to be recognised for that work. Anyone who tells you awards aren't important should have been there to see John Bennett from Pack-IT step up on stage in recognition of what he's achieved over the last 21 years, and fight back the tears (as the audience did also). Kudos to "Queen of Events" Mamoona and team for organising, as ever.

After that, there was drinks aplenty, with a hardcore carrying on into the night at a local hostelry. In what has been a tough, transitional year for many (including those at the Coalition), some letting-of-hair down was only fair enough. Celebrations all round.

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Top 10 podcasts for social entrepreneurs

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Confusioninformation
Following on the back of the top 10 blogs for social entrepreneurs, I thought I might add to that with some podcast links. I've been travelling a bit of late (currently on my way to Leeds) which, in addition to the commute, has meant a fair amount of podcast listening. I'm retreading a bit of previous ground here (see Podcasts + Pendolinos, Recent Social Enterprise podcasting, and Podcasts and  Audio Links), but there have been some decent additions to some old favourites….so here goes:

1) First up has to be Peter Day's World of Business which is consistently interesting about all aspects of business. And, when you consider that the last three episodes have featured employee-ownership, biofuels and entrepreneurship advice, it is also often of considerable relevance to social entrepreneurs

2) More specifically of this world is Social Innovation Conversations which is a US-based podcast affiliated to Stanford Social Innovation Review; mostly it is downloadable episodes of panels / speeches from events, but they are usually high quality people talking about relevant issues, so definitely worth a look through the archive

3) Evan Davis is best known for hosting Dragon's Den here, but I think his Bottom Line radio programme is great. Simple format (3 CEOs, 3 different companies, discussing few specific topics) and doesn't outstay its welcome. Has featured Divine Chocolate's Sophi Tranchell and Anne MacCaig of CafeDIrect previously.

4) SmallBizPod is the leading small business specific podcast, and Alex Bellinger does a terrific job with it, meeting entrepreneurs and raising issues that you don't find elsewhere. You can find a social enterprise specific section on the website with interviews from events and leading social entrepreneurs.

5) Echoing Green has been supporting social entrepreneurs for 20 years or so, and is one of the few support organisations to have ventured into podcasting. Its Be Bold podcast is about careers and is obviously pretty US-centric, but there's some good stuff here regardless: about people's motivations, about supporting oneself, about personal development and so forth.

6) Staying in the US, PRI do an occasional social entrepreneurship podcast, usually focused on international development work, and usually quite brief; but decent-enough

7) For a more cerebral take, and cutting-edge business thinking, try HBR's IdeaCast. Occasionally tiresome when it's just Harvard authors plugging Harvard books, but it's a good place for prompting new thinking and new ideas.

8) I've recently got into the Business podcast from the Guardian, which is pretty good + snappy about current business events + news; occasionally features ClearlySo supremo Rod Schwartz as well….

9) Some decent enough bitesize intro podcasts from Enterprising Non-profits in Canada (planning, value, what is social enterprise etc)

10) Brand new is the Ashoka Tech podcast, which has started with an episode on World Toilet Day (insert joke about starting at the bottom here….); bodes well, but too early to tell: one to keep an eye on.

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And if that's not enough for you, see our bookmarks for more, or check out the 100 best small business podcasts, although if you;ve got time to listen to all of those, then the business is probably going down the pan :0)

Working up the courage / energy to do twitter lists (twists?) at some point soon….

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