Friday round-up: capitalism, CICs, Camfed and collars

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Matthew Thomson, CEO LCRN
Quick pre-weekend round-up.

– I covered the Enterprising Solutions Awards earlier in the week, but there was also some good coverage in the Times which is worth checking out

– Whilst we're on awards, huge well done to former SSE Director of Learning Matthew Thomson (pictured left), who is now CEO of London Community Recycling Network. They won the Innovation award in the Third Sector Excellence Awards; congrats to all the other winners and nominees as well, including SSE witnesses and friends Craig Dearden-Phillips, Afrikids, Toby Blume and..er…Duncan Bannatyne.

– Amongst countless "we need a new form of capitalism….now is the time for social enterprise" speeches and articles (to which I will no doubt contribute at some point….), this one by Charles Leadbeater struck me as one of the more interesting/thought-through:

"For most people the next year will not feel like a search for a brave
new economic model: it will be more like hand-to-hand combat to keep
hold of what you have……In all likelihood we will get a mix of subdued capitalism, social capitalism and ugly capitalism, even within the same cities."

– Social Firms UK do consistent, high quality work under CEO Sally Reynolds, and this is a thoughtful piece by her about why the model is important, particularly in the current climate

– Another kick for CICs; in this case from Apprentice winner Tim Campbell…..

– Jeff Trexler is never short of strong opinions; see what you make of this post: "The social enterprise movement has yet to grasp the extent to which it is as much a
product of the bubble as subprime loans and credit-default swaps–it's
not just a coincidence that do-gooders started talking business when
business was good"

– Great article on Camfed in the Financial Times; Camfed was started by SSE Fellow Ann Cotton.

– Harvard Business School Global Business Summit Explores Future of Capitalism might be a title to send me running away, but there's some interesting stuff in here about what is needed to foster social entrepreneurship. Interesting to see business leaders still pushing venture capital and private equity models in this context as a route to solving social problems

– Lucy Bernholz, network queen of US philanthropy, has seen the future, and it looks like this

– I must mention Social Innovation Camp, to which SSE is a Community Partner: check out the site and send in your ideas…..deadline for submissions is coming soon!

– Lots of stuff being lined up for Global Entrepreneurship / Enterprise / Make Your Mark / Unleashing Ideas etc week (slightly confused branding, methinks…)……and SSE staff and representatives will be covering as much ground as possible: particularly on the 20th November which is Social Enterprise Day (coming just behind Christmas and birthday here, of course). Check out Unleashing Ideas for a sense of what's happening around the world.

– And finally, check out this story in the Huffington Post about how a book about "Green Collar" workers reached the bestseller lists. Just try not to wince when you read the bit about how revolutionaries are being replaced by "solutionaries", which must be officially the worst thing done to the English language this year….

Cheers!

US social entrepreneurship podcasts and SoCap08

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Starsandstripes
Busy week this week, but will hopefully get to a round-up later. In passing, worth drawing attention to some audio-visual material. New(ish) podcasts:

– The BeBold podcast which is from US social entrepreneur support organisation Echoing Green, co-hosted by prolific non-profit blogger Britt Bravo

– Also the PRI social entrepreneurship programmes (19 of these), as funded by the Skoll Foundation, are now also available through iTunes; worth noting the Skoll Foundation blog (see previous link) where I got that news from….

Over on the other side of the pond, the big recent news (apart from that little McCain-Obama stuff) has been the SoCap 08 conference. There is something about the language (SoCap, "at the intersection of money and meaning") which slightly jars with a UK sensibility, but there's been some interesting content. And much of it has been blogged about or can be viewed online: see Matthew Bishop's keynote on his new book Philanthrocapitalism below for example (you can find the book in the SSE store, though it's not released here till mid-November, presumably to tie in with Global Entrepreneurship Week; I've added Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism for balance)….Worth digging around the blogosphere to find more nuggets.See if you agree with Bishop's optimistic view of the current financial situation…and about the relationship between business and the social sphere.

Enterprising solutions awards 2008

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Phonecoopstage
SSE attended the Enterprising Solutions Awards last night at the V&A Museum, and despite our esteemed CEO being on the judging panel, we had no idea about the winners. Click on the previous link or read this article to see the full list. I was delighted to see Sunlight win an award (for best new SE), as I think they are a really credible organisation that delivers and has its values written through it; and was great to see lots of them enjoying the ceremony and the event to the full. The main winner, presented by new Minister for the Third Sector Kevin Brennan, was Phone Co-op, which is well deserved. I remember switching our broadband to them about 3 years ago, and they have our business on customer service and price as well as the added social value.

Most people around me were particularly taken with NMC Design and Print (check out the site) and they showed their entrepreneurial spirit by promoting themselves and their services wholeheartedly in the networking afterwards. Well done to Dan and Alan (who I chatted to for a while) and the rest of their team. They’re on our list for our next design and print job.

And, of course, well done to the team at SEC, especially Mamoona Shah who looked somewhat frenzied when we arrived (as is the nature of these things), but pleased and relaxed later on. The event went without a hitch pretty much, and there was a very good buzz at the networking afterwards. Difficult to get a dynamic energy going in such a grand, enormous hall, but the networking cut through the church-like atmosphere and the enjoyment took off from there (NB – this may be connected to alcohol consumption).  I stumbled across 3 SSE Fellows chatting away (and monopolising the hamburger canapes), chatted to the good people from the Westminster Children’s Society, and chewed the fat with several of the nominees and award winners. Also had great chats with Alex Bellinger of SmallBizPod and with Caryl and Vandna from Voice4Change.

Gossip was thin on the ground (though perhaps the after-party might have been more fruitful in that respect), but I was thoroughly delighted to be barely recognised by Liz from the OTS because I was wearing a suit…a definite compliment, I think.

SSE Residential: Day Four and return

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Dsc00309
So, the final residential blog post for another year….and it was quite a finale, with each of the ‘Dartington sets’ (groups made up of students from across different programmes and schools) doing a presentation based on their SSE, residential and own project experiences. It was a fantastic display of creativity, teamwork and lots of laughs….and I’ll try and get some video highlights up as soon as possible. The exercise is much more about the working together with new people, coming to consensus, allowing everyone to contribute etc. but the end products were great as well, with the winning presentation giving a unique SSE-themed twist to a classic formula (Dragon’s Den). Congrats to all for entering into it with such gusto.

The night before was open mic night and disco, and once the students had recovered from the horrific sight of some of the staff’s dance moves, it was a great evening. It’s always pretty inspiring to get a sense of the amazing talent people have, be it Liverpool’s choir (ably directed by Bernadette), or London’s acapella and dancing efforts. This could well become a fixture at future residentials….although the bar has now been set pretty high.

Personally speaking, as I mentioned briefly before, the highlight for me was the conversation with the set I was facilitating following Vaughan’s witness session. The points they were raising after having heard Tim Smit and Vaughan speak, and from learning from each other’s projects, demonstrated clearly to me the effectiveness of the expert witness approach. Each had taken something different that was relevant to them personally or to their organisation, and the respect they showed each other in listening and building on each other’s ideas left me on an absolute high. A slug of inspiration to see me through the policy documents that await!

Here’s a slideset of photos that tell a bit of the story of the SSE Residential 2008, and below that a video from the first night where each person says one word that defines social entrepreneurship for them.

SSE Residential: Day Three

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Dsc00270
As the week goes on here in Devon, and the breakfast:hangover ratio continues to rise, it’s been great to watch how the students from different programmes and different SSEs have been networking and building relationships with each other. Which, Eden Project + Dartington Hall aside, is really what these few days are about: sharing experiences, building networks and learning new skills and confidence.

Today’s witness session was from Vaughan Lindsay, the CEO of Dartington Hall on strategic planning, using Dartington itself as a case study. Always a great session not only because of Vaughan’s practical and pragmatic approach, but also because it provides such a useful counterbalance to the Tim Smit model of leadership as witnessed yesterday. Not to say that one is "better" than the other, but that there are different role models out there with different approaches to achieving success, creating momentum and making change.

I’ll try and get Vaughan’s powerpoint to share, but the key nuggets for me today were:

– the dangers of poor governance, and the importance of the relationship between a CEO and a Chair of trustees (or of the board)

– clarity is key for engaging and inspiring people to join you on a particular journey; if they don’t know where you are all heading, why should they come?

– process is for a purpose, not procrastination (when Vaughan joined Dartington, there were 42 different sub-committees that reported in to him….)

– the assumption that great ideas only come from the young should be resisted: the combination of wisdom and not caring what people think can lead to a new wave of "silver radicals"

– strategic planning can galvanise people, focus resources for most impact, and help gain clarity of mission

– talent is hugely important: one rule is to make the most ambitious appointment, rather than the safest

– consider governance, or a board, as a management task, rather than as an entirely separate entity outside day-to-day work

– engage with ideas that have nothing to do with the day-to-day job

What’s interesting to me is that though Tim Smit and Vaughan are incredibly different people, with different styles, there was much in their content that was similar:

  • both pointed to a good relationship with their chair
  • both talked of going outside the day-to-day (every 3rd invitation / engaging with other ideas)
  • both talked of the importance of people: of recruitment, of management, of mobilising and galvanising them (be it samba drums or clarity of mission)
  • both used positive and negative incentives to achieve change (future truths, scaring the board)
  • both talked about employing the best people possible (not being afraid of employing people better than you / making ambitious appointments)

And so on. Much for our students to ponder and reflect on, and apply to their own projects. Which, at least from the gorup that I was facilitating, led to some great conversations and insights.