Recently in social enterprise Category
Peter Mason who I met yesterday took a year to build a social business
which now turns over 4.3 million pounds (it took me ten to do the
same).
Secure Health Care provides nurse-led health services to inmates at Wandsworth prison. His is the first outsourced health service in the UK and next he is tendering for four more. If successful he will have about 1000 staff and a urnover of 30 odd million.
So what is his USP? Peter offers a model which doesn't make a take profit out of healthcare and uses a model of employee ownership, a sort of John Lewis Partnership for health.
He is swimming with the sharks in that his private sector competitors (Serco for example) circle menacingly looking to legally challenge his use of public funds like Futurebuilders.
Social entrepreneurs don't come a lot bigger and better than Peter. He is operating at a scale most eschew and his capabilities and ambitions place him in the top tier.
I like meeting people like Peter because he reminds me that we do have serious players who can operate and win at scale who are also able to infuse what they do with the right values. This is a man who regularly gets on his nurses uniform to show people about what his vision means on the ground. This is real leadership, something people in the cynical, tired and institutionalised prison health sector can believe in.
Coupled to this is the business nous and ruthlessness to tackle competitors and poor quality.
I came away from our meeting refreshed. I would love to see Peter's story out there and for him to be on the platforms. But as he says himself, he is immersed in a business and that is where he is needed.
What started as a nurse in Rikers Island penitentiary in New York in the nineties will I hope end in health care system across in UK jails which is a quantum better than we have now. Then, he tells me, he will write his book, 'The Road from Rikers Island'.
Secure Health Care provides nurse-led health services to inmates at Wandsworth prison. His is the first outsourced health service in the UK and next he is tendering for four more. If successful he will have about 1000 staff and a urnover of 30 odd million.
So what is his USP? Peter offers a model which doesn't make a take profit out of healthcare and uses a model of employee ownership, a sort of John Lewis Partnership for health.
He is swimming with the sharks in that his private sector competitors (Serco for example) circle menacingly looking to legally challenge his use of public funds like Futurebuilders.
Social entrepreneurs don't come a lot bigger and better than Peter. He is operating at a scale most eschew and his capabilities and ambitions place him in the top tier.
I like meeting people like Peter because he reminds me that we do have serious players who can operate and win at scale who are also able to infuse what they do with the right values. This is a man who regularly gets on his nurses uniform to show people about what his vision means on the ground. This is real leadership, something people in the cynical, tired and institutionalised prison health sector can believe in.
Coupled to this is the business nous and ruthlessness to tackle competitors and poor quality.
I came away from our meeting refreshed. I would love to see Peter's story out there and for him to be on the platforms. But as he says himself, he is immersed in a business and that is where he is needed.
What started as a nurse in Rikers Island penitentiary in New York in the nineties will I hope end in health care system across in UK jails which is a quantum better than we have now. Then, he tells me, he will write his book, 'The Road from Rikers Island'.
I have spent the last week talking to bankers, VCs, donors,
millionaires, entrepreneurs and academics. I have also, of course, been
reading the papers and watching the telly.
What is abundantly clear is that we are in the middle of what will be looked back upon as a major change in our economic life and, arguably, the end of a particular kind of capitalism.
What is not clear yet, as the bullets fly and the shells explode is what the world will look like once calm resumes. While we are likely to see a far more regulated Eurozone-type financial sector, what will this mean for the `real economy' in places like the UK which, since 1986 have forgone a major manufacturing role in favour of financial services? What depth of recession are we going into? How many jobs will go? What will happen to houses and rates?
And, at a more granular level, what will this mean for third sector and social business organisations which, even durign the good times, were struggling to survive?Short-term, one sees the third sector and emergent social businesses as an expendable luxury, a bit like organic food. Great in the good times, cut back on the minute things get tough. There is more than a little truth in this. Charities and social firms will find their income down as people look to their pockets.
Longer term, the picture, I think, looks better. Taking aside the inevitable body-blow to social business in 2009-12, the concept of a better type of capitalism has never seemed more attractive. Indeed, has there ever been a moment before this when it has possible to ask, to insist even, that the single-bottom-line business model has seen its heyday?
Now, in this time of flux, I believe it is the perfect time to push for three things:
Even a year ago, there was no real appetite for most of this. Anyone talking about messing around with corporate law would have been brushed off as a socialist-interferer. Only CSR and other acts of voluntary partnership with the social sector were viewed as ways forward.
While we did see through CSR a lot of good progress and engagement (and Speaking Up is one major beneficiary of this), there is a strong argument that this does not run deep enough or wide enough to have a major impact on social problems. That the problems caused by certain company and bank activities far outweigh any useful outcomes from CSR.
This coming few years represents a great opportunity for the this deepening and broadening - and for it to be intitutionally embedded in law. The politics are are good now is they have been. Few beyond people like Sarah Palin now believe that unrestricted markets produce the best outcomes for people and society. Even the mainstream right in the US and UK acknowledge that the market needs stronger rules if it is to work properly - just like human beings need robust laws if they are to form successful societies. Indeed it is no accident that the most successful societies in terms of cohesion, interpersonal trust and personal opportunity tend to be capitalist ones - but where the extremities of the free market (income-inequality, a large underclass, poor life-chances, low social mobility) have been dealt with.
Arguably, it is countries like Sweden that have gone furthest in this direction though social solidarity there is expressed principally through a conflated state rather than an active civil-society. There, companies such as Nokia have a much stronger concept of corporate citizenship than, say Merrill Lynch or Lehmann Brothers ever mustered.
My own view is that social enterprise will develop from being a fringe activity at the edges of the third sector (protected by nebulous kite-marks etc), to a small but growing band of progressive businesses which currently are seen as mainstream corporates but are, in fact, changing quickly into something more balanced.
This crisis, if capitalised upon by lawmakers, will accelerate this trend so that within fifty years, we could end up with a corporate sector, underpinned by a sensible banking sector, which is as close to social business as I think we are going to get in this century.
What is abundantly clear is that we are in the middle of what will be looked back upon as a major change in our economic life and, arguably, the end of a particular kind of capitalism.
What is not clear yet, as the bullets fly and the shells explode is what the world will look like once calm resumes. While we are likely to see a far more regulated Eurozone-type financial sector, what will this mean for the `real economy' in places like the UK which, since 1986 have forgone a major manufacturing role in favour of financial services? What depth of recession are we going into? How many jobs will go? What will happen to houses and rates?
And, at a more granular level, what will this mean for third sector and social business organisations which, even durign the good times, were struggling to survive?Short-term, one sees the third sector and emergent social businesses as an expendable luxury, a bit like organic food. Great in the good times, cut back on the minute things get tough. There is more than a little truth in this. Charities and social firms will find their income down as people look to their pockets.
Longer term, the picture, I think, looks better. Taking aside the inevitable body-blow to social business in 2009-12, the concept of a better type of capitalism has never seemed more attractive. Indeed, has there ever been a moment before this when it has possible to ask, to insist even, that the single-bottom-line business model has seen its heyday?
Now, in this time of flux, I believe it is the perfect time to push for three things:
- Firstly, the
reform of all corporate law (not just for banks) to demand clear
publication of both social and enviromental bottom lines and extent of
adherence to ethical business practices.
- Second, the creation a new kind of PLC which makes explicit social and environmental aims that rank alongside its financial ones. Not a CIC, as the assets would not be locked nor profits capped to anything like that degree, but something much more balanced than the typical share-value driven company we see in the FTSE 100 today.
- Third, and finally, let's
have a Social Investment Bank, a wholesaler of finance to capitalise
the social economy. Never, in the era of the `bad-bank' has the case
for a `bank-for-good', been more profound.
Even a year ago, there was no real appetite for most of this. Anyone talking about messing around with corporate law would have been brushed off as a socialist-interferer. Only CSR and other acts of voluntary partnership with the social sector were viewed as ways forward.
While we did see through CSR a lot of good progress and engagement (and Speaking Up is one major beneficiary of this), there is a strong argument that this does not run deep enough or wide enough to have a major impact on social problems. That the problems caused by certain company and bank activities far outweigh any useful outcomes from CSR.
This coming few years represents a great opportunity for the this deepening and broadening - and for it to be intitutionally embedded in law. The politics are are good now is they have been. Few beyond people like Sarah Palin now believe that unrestricted markets produce the best outcomes for people and society. Even the mainstream right in the US and UK acknowledge that the market needs stronger rules if it is to work properly - just like human beings need robust laws if they are to form successful societies. Indeed it is no accident that the most successful societies in terms of cohesion, interpersonal trust and personal opportunity tend to be capitalist ones - but where the extremities of the free market (income-inequality, a large underclass, poor life-chances, low social mobility) have been dealt with.
Arguably, it is countries like Sweden that have gone furthest in this direction though social solidarity there is expressed principally through a conflated state rather than an active civil-society. There, companies such as Nokia have a much stronger concept of corporate citizenship than, say Merrill Lynch or Lehmann Brothers ever mustered.
My own view is that social enterprise will develop from being a fringe activity at the edges of the third sector (protected by nebulous kite-marks etc), to a small but growing band of progressive businesses which currently are seen as mainstream corporates but are, in fact, changing quickly into something more balanced.
This crisis, if capitalised upon by lawmakers, will accelerate this trend so that within fifty years, we could end up with a corporate sector, underpinned by a sensible banking sector, which is as close to social business as I think we are going to get in this century.
I slagged Nick Clegg off the other day for a fairly bland speech to
ACEVO members in Sheffield. However, this week he launched an excellent
new tax policy for the Lib Dems. Tax cuts and smaller government. He's
not the only one saying this. Alan Milburn, ex Health Minister, has
called for a cull of Whitehall of 25% of headcount.
The idea here is not to create a nasty 19th century state but to recognise that the state has had its day (well, its century actually) as lead agent in public service provison.
Life for me throws up regular examples of why Nick Clegg and Alan Milburn are right.
Last night I was Guest of Honour at the AGM of a growing charity called Out and About. Based in Suffolk, they deliver exciting options for young disabled people. Their CEO, Steve Allman is a fantastic young talent who wants to grow it from its current £1 million to a multi-million outfit working right across the Region. I am so excited about Steve that I have just agreed to mentor him during the next year or two. He really is that good.
After my talk, Steve showed me round the building which Out and About share with Connexions. Till a year ago, Connexions was an independent company, a bit like a social business, albeit state-funded. Then it was taken in-house as part of some warped idea that this would somehow achieve joined-up-ness with the rest of the Council's derisory offer to young people.
One of the most depressing outcomes of this forced-takeover (this has happened everywhere) was in the internet cafe or Infobar which is jointly run by Connexions and Out and About. Once a thriving place, this is now much quieter and less well used. Why? Because the council says its OK to go on most sites except...get this...Bebo, MySpace and Facebook.
Now, I am not particularly `down with the kids' but even I know that young people essentially live their lives through such sites. Apparently, Steve tells me, the council are worried about their liability if a kid ends up being groomed by a paedo on one of their PCs. Their concern about a `Kiddy Fiddler on Council Laptop' headline outweight all others. Even for the kids themselves who end up using other facilities, presumably with no limits at all on viewing. But this is OK because risk to the council has been eliminated.
It is this sort of specious logic that makes so many people want to stop paying so much tax to organisations that think its OK to behave this way. Yet this is what happens when you give the state the right to become a monopoly. It serves its own interests, not those of the people. Or the kids, in this case.
While I am sure you get a bit of this in the third sector, its not nearly so pervasive and the lack of monopoly means organisations not delivering soon get found out. And I know for a fact that Steve would lift this ban immediately were Connexions outsourced to Out and About.
Now there's an idea...
The idea here is not to create a nasty 19th century state but to recognise that the state has had its day (well, its century actually) as lead agent in public service provison.
Life for me throws up regular examples of why Nick Clegg and Alan Milburn are right.
Last night I was Guest of Honour at the AGM of a growing charity called Out and About. Based in Suffolk, they deliver exciting options for young disabled people. Their CEO, Steve Allman is a fantastic young talent who wants to grow it from its current £1 million to a multi-million outfit working right across the Region. I am so excited about Steve that I have just agreed to mentor him during the next year or two. He really is that good.
After my talk, Steve showed me round the building which Out and About share with Connexions. Till a year ago, Connexions was an independent company, a bit like a social business, albeit state-funded. Then it was taken in-house as part of some warped idea that this would somehow achieve joined-up-ness with the rest of the Council's derisory offer to young people.
One of the most depressing outcomes of this forced-takeover (this has happened everywhere) was in the internet cafe or Infobar which is jointly run by Connexions and Out and About. Once a thriving place, this is now much quieter and less well used. Why? Because the council says its OK to go on most sites except...get this...Bebo, MySpace and Facebook.
Now, I am not particularly `down with the kids' but even I know that young people essentially live their lives through such sites. Apparently, Steve tells me, the council are worried about their liability if a kid ends up being groomed by a paedo on one of their PCs. Their concern about a `Kiddy Fiddler on Council Laptop' headline outweight all others. Even for the kids themselves who end up using other facilities, presumably with no limits at all on viewing. But this is OK because risk to the council has been eliminated.
It is this sort of specious logic that makes so many people want to stop paying so much tax to organisations that think its OK to behave this way. Yet this is what happens when you give the state the right to become a monopoly. It serves its own interests, not those of the people. Or the kids, in this case.
While I am sure you get a bit of this in the third sector, its not nearly so pervasive and the lack of monopoly means organisations not delivering soon get found out. And I know for a fact that Steve would lift this ban immediately were Connexions outsourced to Out and About.
Now there's an idea...
Its been a week since I last blogged. Not been feeling that well.
Feeling ground-down by one of the million bugs I seem to pick up from
the kids. I used to get a cold a year. Now I feel lucky if I remain 100
percent for more than a week at a time.
Last week was one of those workaday-weeks when I struggle to remember a single thing I did. But straining hard, I recall a trip to Sheffield to meet commisssionerş, a meeting about strategy with Jon Sparkes (CEO of Scope) who is one of my Trustees and a day spent at the Social Enterprise East England conference at Newmarket where I was speaking.
First Sheffield. We run a few services up there. Like a lot of northern cities, there is a clannish element to the way Sheffield works. Not being local means you have to be very good indeed to stand a chance of being commissioned.
My take on the local market in advocacy services is that it is moribund and we should, by right, clean up. However, things are seldom that simple and I suspect we will make steady but slow progress. My big hope there is Josie Bennett who leads learning disability services up there. A proper leader she ain't scared to put her neck out and I sensed that out of the roomful of people we met she was the one who really engaged the most.
Sheffield a long day as my meeting with a Lincoln commisssioner cancelled once I arrived there. Diary bungle. They v v apologetic which assuaged my usual visible irritation-borderline rage.
Social Enterprise East conference held at the splendid Rowley Mile venue at Newmarket. For those not in the know, Newmarket is capital of the UK racing industry. Its green courses and 'gallops' dominate the town. Traffic stops here to let the horses - ridden by young stable lads and bedecked in the liveries of their stables
- cross the road.
I bought my first house in Newmarket and grew to like the place a lot. It brings to mind an older England. Its social structure is somehow behind the times. Lots of poor underpaid people who keep the racing scene going and a large group of wealthy people who employ them without much in the middle. As a young middle class non-horsey professional I felt v much a foreign coin in the social currency of Newmarket.
Onto the conference. I spoke quite badly I thought due to a cold and lack of adrenalin. People liked it though which was good.
The event had been very well planned by the excellent Michele Rigby and her young team. Michele brings something very fresh to the scene. Though now heading an infrastructure organisation, she is bloodied in the field having founded Pack-IT which was one of the pioneers of social enterprise in the nineties.
The event itself was populated by the usual eclectic mix at regional events. Quite a few older types - this sector seems to get people later somehow - a fair few mavericks and eccentrics and the odd brilliant person you can't believe isn't really well known.
Got to Friday with some relief. Met Jon Sparkes who, in effect, is a vice chair of Speaking Up. Jon is something of a superstar. Appointed Acting CEO of Scope at 38, he is now well into a massive turnaround there after the charity hit well publicised financial problems in 2005. Problems, of course, going back years.
Jon always good to talk to about people (he is ex HR) and strategy. His view is that we have the next two to three years to show that Speaking Up has potential to be successful in lots of locations. How well we manage to transplant ourselves from one to five places will tell us whether it can be done in fifty.
Our biggest strategic challenge, he says, is to be the organisation everyone thinks of (and naturally turns to) for services, advice and policy around Voice for excluded groups. That is the big prize. Quite right too. We feel a long way from that but it was good to have a trustee framing things so well.
My weekend dominated by Ruby and Wilf. I am feeling very close to both of them at the moment but particularly Wilf. Compared to Ruby, I have seen less of him and been a lot busier since his birth. For this reason, it has taken longer to feel close to him.
Decided recently that enough was enough and that I needed to spend more time with him. Which of course makes all the difference. Apparently, Dads in the 70s only spent 20m a day on average with their kids. Now its two hours. This has to be better for everyone.
Looking back, the time I spent going to football wth my Dad probably saved our future adult relationship, given the strains placed upon it by events. When I compare this to my brother - who didn't really have much one to one with Dad - and now barely speaks to him- I feel fortunate by comparison.
On Sunday my cold gets me an hour or two off where I catch up with the Observer and Speccie.
I always turn first to Andrew Rawnsley who writes so well and is not nearly so good on telly. Ditto Rod Liddle in the Spectator which is my 'guilty pleasure' at the weekend.
Liddle is one of funniest and most talented writers around today and never fails to make me laugh out loud. This weeks piece on 'How to Get Stabbed' was no exception.
The weekend lifted by the amazing men's final at Wimbledon which was a classic. My strongest Wimbledon memories are of listening to Borg McEnroe finals on the radio in my Dads car en route to Tenby or Great Yarmouth.
This final with its parallels of talent, tension, records-at-stake and mental head-to-head took me right back in time. But actually went one better. Sport doesn't get any more classic than this. And the young pretender won the mental battle.
Had the bleakest Monday for some time. Rain soaked the day. Energy levels lower than ever just as I sensed I had beaten my lurgy off. Went to the office and felt my grim mood was all too transparent. Just couldn't raise a smile.
Ended the day with a particularly dour meeting with my excellent COO Kathleen Cronin. I was all doom and gloom while she patiently listened to my angst about deficits and losing contracts in the future. She is a very stable and centred person compared to most I know in the sector. The only bad thing about being 'mercurial', as I am, is that the mercury is, now and then, very low in the glass.
Today woke up at four am and resolved to take a day off this Wed to try to recover from this lurgy. If possible it will be a day of fruit smoothies, Get Carter and an afternoon nap. Plus probably, my piece for 'Social Enterprise' this month. I am down to 350 words there now which is quite a discipline.
Going to speak to a load of commssioners today in Norwich. I have 15 mins on the main stage which makes it feel like a major schlepp.
Will wear my new dark suit to fit in with my mood. I have to be careful not to be too rude about public servants as they pay my staffs wages. But they wear bloody awful clothes, on the whole. Especially the men.
Just signed a letter to a major investor pledging to stay as CEO for two years. Though this definitely my plan, feel strangely empty and distressed having done so. Perhaps its the feeling that I now can't just walk away if I choose to. Or that entrepreneur thing about not wanting to feel owned.
Been thinking a lot about my options as 40 hurtles towards me. Broadly I have three. One is to make SU my lifes work. Fine if it continues to excite me and I can do other non Exec work on top plus writing. Downside is if it just doesn't develop as quickly as I need it to. Second is another business growth job. This would need to feel very special though. The third is to set up on my own as a consultant, writer, speaker etc. Occasionally this feels like the way its all going anyway - I am good at all three - but a lot of the reason I enjoy it all so much is the break it gives me from feeding the machine. Don't particularly want this fun stuff to become the machine.
Well its nearly time to get up. Half a nights sleep is better than none. A travail!
Last week was one of those workaday-weeks when I struggle to remember a single thing I did. But straining hard, I recall a trip to Sheffield to meet commisssionerş, a meeting about strategy with Jon Sparkes (CEO of Scope) who is one of my Trustees and a day spent at the Social Enterprise East England conference at Newmarket where I was speaking.
First Sheffield. We run a few services up there. Like a lot of northern cities, there is a clannish element to the way Sheffield works. Not being local means you have to be very good indeed to stand a chance of being commissioned.
My take on the local market in advocacy services is that it is moribund and we should, by right, clean up. However, things are seldom that simple and I suspect we will make steady but slow progress. My big hope there is Josie Bennett who leads learning disability services up there. A proper leader she ain't scared to put her neck out and I sensed that out of the roomful of people we met she was the one who really engaged the most.
Sheffield a long day as my meeting with a Lincoln commisssioner cancelled once I arrived there. Diary bungle. They v v apologetic which assuaged my usual visible irritation-borderline rage.
Social Enterprise East conference held at the splendid Rowley Mile venue at Newmarket. For those not in the know, Newmarket is capital of the UK racing industry. Its green courses and 'gallops' dominate the town. Traffic stops here to let the horses - ridden by young stable lads and bedecked in the liveries of their stables
- cross the road.
I bought my first house in Newmarket and grew to like the place a lot. It brings to mind an older England. Its social structure is somehow behind the times. Lots of poor underpaid people who keep the racing scene going and a large group of wealthy people who employ them without much in the middle. As a young middle class non-horsey professional I felt v much a foreign coin in the social currency of Newmarket.
Onto the conference. I spoke quite badly I thought due to a cold and lack of adrenalin. People liked it though which was good.
The event had been very well planned by the excellent Michele Rigby and her young team. Michele brings something very fresh to the scene. Though now heading an infrastructure organisation, she is bloodied in the field having founded Pack-IT which was one of the pioneers of social enterprise in the nineties.
The event itself was populated by the usual eclectic mix at regional events. Quite a few older types - this sector seems to get people later somehow - a fair few mavericks and eccentrics and the odd brilliant person you can't believe isn't really well known.
Got to Friday with some relief. Met Jon Sparkes who, in effect, is a vice chair of Speaking Up. Jon is something of a superstar. Appointed Acting CEO of Scope at 38, he is now well into a massive turnaround there after the charity hit well publicised financial problems in 2005. Problems, of course, going back years.
Jon always good to talk to about people (he is ex HR) and strategy. His view is that we have the next two to three years to show that Speaking Up has potential to be successful in lots of locations. How well we manage to transplant ourselves from one to five places will tell us whether it can be done in fifty.
Our biggest strategic challenge, he says, is to be the organisation everyone thinks of (and naturally turns to) for services, advice and policy around Voice for excluded groups. That is the big prize. Quite right too. We feel a long way from that but it was good to have a trustee framing things so well.
My weekend dominated by Ruby and Wilf. I am feeling very close to both of them at the moment but particularly Wilf. Compared to Ruby, I have seen less of him and been a lot busier since his birth. For this reason, it has taken longer to feel close to him.
Decided recently that enough was enough and that I needed to spend more time with him. Which of course makes all the difference. Apparently, Dads in the 70s only spent 20m a day on average with their kids. Now its two hours. This has to be better for everyone.
Looking back, the time I spent going to football wth my Dad probably saved our future adult relationship, given the strains placed upon it by events. When I compare this to my brother - who didn't really have much one to one with Dad - and now barely speaks to him- I feel fortunate by comparison.
On Sunday my cold gets me an hour or two off where I catch up with the Observer and Speccie.
I always turn first to Andrew Rawnsley who writes so well and is not nearly so good on telly. Ditto Rod Liddle in the Spectator which is my 'guilty pleasure' at the weekend.
Liddle is one of funniest and most talented writers around today and never fails to make me laugh out loud. This weeks piece on 'How to Get Stabbed' was no exception.
The weekend lifted by the amazing men's final at Wimbledon which was a classic. My strongest Wimbledon memories are of listening to Borg McEnroe finals on the radio in my Dads car en route to Tenby or Great Yarmouth.
This final with its parallels of talent, tension, records-at-stake and mental head-to-head took me right back in time. But actually went one better. Sport doesn't get any more classic than this. And the young pretender won the mental battle.
Had the bleakest Monday for some time. Rain soaked the day. Energy levels lower than ever just as I sensed I had beaten my lurgy off. Went to the office and felt my grim mood was all too transparent. Just couldn't raise a smile.
Ended the day with a particularly dour meeting with my excellent COO Kathleen Cronin. I was all doom and gloom while she patiently listened to my angst about deficits and losing contracts in the future. She is a very stable and centred person compared to most I know in the sector. The only bad thing about being 'mercurial', as I am, is that the mercury is, now and then, very low in the glass.
Today woke up at four am and resolved to take a day off this Wed to try to recover from this lurgy. If possible it will be a day of fruit smoothies, Get Carter and an afternoon nap. Plus probably, my piece for 'Social Enterprise' this month. I am down to 350 words there now which is quite a discipline.
Going to speak to a load of commssioners today in Norwich. I have 15 mins on the main stage which makes it feel like a major schlepp.
Will wear my new dark suit to fit in with my mood. I have to be careful not to be too rude about public servants as they pay my staffs wages. But they wear bloody awful clothes, on the whole. Especially the men.
Just signed a letter to a major investor pledging to stay as CEO for two years. Though this definitely my plan, feel strangely empty and distressed having done so. Perhaps its the feeling that I now can't just walk away if I choose to. Or that entrepreneur thing about not wanting to feel owned.
Been thinking a lot about my options as 40 hurtles towards me. Broadly I have three. One is to make SU my lifes work. Fine if it continues to excite me and I can do other non Exec work on top plus writing. Downside is if it just doesn't develop as quickly as I need it to. Second is another business growth job. This would need to feel very special though. The third is to set up on my own as a consultant, writer, speaker etc. Occasionally this feels like the way its all going anyway - I am good at all three - but a lot of the reason I enjoy it all so much is the break it gives me from feeding the machine. Don't particularly want this fun stuff to become the machine.
Well its nearly time to get up. Half a nights sleep is better than none. A travail!
Whatever you think of Tesco, they run their business around the things
that matter to their customers: Full shelves, clear aisles, good value,
helpful staff.
The whole thing, from top to bottom, is built around these four basic customer-pleasing ideas. But how many charities and social enterprises can claim to be run around customers or users? Can yours?
Mine can’t. Well not 100% anyway. The truth is that we, like most charities put a massive proportion of our efforts into pleasing not our end-customer but the Gods of Commissioning. Because that who provide the financial life-blood of our organisations' work.
The Gods of Commissioning are, of course, not real Gods. Typically they are very committed blokes and women in local government whose job is to `shop’ for services on behalf of thousands of disabled people.
Needless to say (and there are always exceptions) they aren’t that good at it. The state is a notoriously poor shopper. Things always go wrong, a bit like when you used to send your Dad out to Top Shop for a pair of skintight jeans - the chances were he’d return with a XL fleece from Matalan and a Carpenters CD.
For disabled people, however, the Gods of Commissioning are no joke. Their bad decision is your care home-from-hell.
But a quiet revolution is underway. `Personal Budgets’ are the brainchild of Simon Duffy, a social entrepreneur. His idea was to take the money from the Gods of Commissioning and put it straight into the pockets of disabled people. Because they know best what is right for them.
Simon’s ideas have swept across Government like a brushfire in recent years. I predict we’ll see personal budgets in education, healthcare and welfare services too.
What is wonderful about personal budgets is that the market is doing what years of exhortation about `listening to users’ never achieved. Going forward, providers will increasingly have to listen – or go bust.
And instead of looking upwards to the Gods of Commissioning provider will have to turn their loving gaze to the disabled customer and come up with our own versions of `clear aisles, full shelves, good value and helpful staff’.
All this will take years. There is a certain view that this will accelerate rapidly and all be over by the Olympics. I predict a slower path following the Early Adapter through to Mass Market cycle with a tipping point coming in about five to seven years time.
For while, certain Councils will blag that they have `personalised' services by pretending people have choice and control when none have been actually offered except the social care equivalent of a view through a shop window as you pass on the bus.
These councils will play a numbers game in the first few year to hit ambitious central targets while the real work will go on with smaller numbers that slowly build.
It is my belief that it will be people-power not council-power that will prove the most effective delivery method for personal budgets. The really smart councils know this and instead of just doing the numbers game are already building partnerships with community-connected organisations like ours. I sense these are a minority. But they won't be for long.
The whole thing, from top to bottom, is built around these four basic customer-pleasing ideas. But how many charities and social enterprises can claim to be run around customers or users? Can yours?
Mine can’t. Well not 100% anyway. The truth is that we, like most charities put a massive proportion of our efforts into pleasing not our end-customer but the Gods of Commissioning. Because that who provide the financial life-blood of our organisations' work.
The Gods of Commissioning are, of course, not real Gods. Typically they are very committed blokes and women in local government whose job is to `shop’ for services on behalf of thousands of disabled people.
Needless to say (and there are always exceptions) they aren’t that good at it. The state is a notoriously poor shopper. Things always go wrong, a bit like when you used to send your Dad out to Top Shop for a pair of skintight jeans - the chances were he’d return with a XL fleece from Matalan and a Carpenters CD.
For disabled people, however, the Gods of Commissioning are no joke. Their bad decision is your care home-from-hell.
But a quiet revolution is underway. `Personal Budgets’ are the brainchild of Simon Duffy, a social entrepreneur. His idea was to take the money from the Gods of Commissioning and put it straight into the pockets of disabled people. Because they know best what is right for them.
Simon’s ideas have swept across Government like a brushfire in recent years. I predict we’ll see personal budgets in education, healthcare and welfare services too.
What is wonderful about personal budgets is that the market is doing what years of exhortation about `listening to users’ never achieved. Going forward, providers will increasingly have to listen – or go bust.
And instead of looking upwards to the Gods of Commissioning provider will have to turn their loving gaze to the disabled customer and come up with our own versions of `clear aisles, full shelves, good value and helpful staff’.
All this will take years. There is a certain view that this will accelerate rapidly and all be over by the Olympics. I predict a slower path following the Early Adapter through to Mass Market cycle with a tipping point coming in about five to seven years time.
For while, certain Councils will blag that they have `personalised' services by pretending people have choice and control when none have been actually offered except the social care equivalent of a view through a shop window as you pass on the bus.
These councils will play a numbers game in the first few year to hit ambitious central targets while the real work will go on with smaller numbers that slowly build.
It is my belief that it will be people-power not council-power that will prove the most effective delivery method for personal budgets. The really smart councils know this and instead of just doing the numbers game are already building partnerships with community-connected organisations like ours. I sense these are a minority. But they won't be for long.
It is that sort of week in some respects. Two major `pitches' to
potential social investors will determine how much of a success 2008
will be for me as CEO. Sometimes things really are that simple. Get the
money and and we can develop Speaking Up to double what it is now in
the next four years. Fail and I could be losing certain posts by the
end of the financial year.
One of the tricksy things about having a bit of `success' and the accompanying PR is that the world assumes you're in clover when you're actually just as near the stinging nettles as everyone else. Nearer in fact because when you're growing you are exposed to a lot more risk and `unknowns'.
Also, funders and investors can occasionally pass over you, assuming you don't really need them any more. This happened sort-of recently, from the most unlikely source. Truth was never has our need been greater. But unfortunately I couldn't get physically in front of people to tell them this.
The Tories have launched an excellent policy paper on the `Civil Society' sector as they are calling it. It is crisp, well-argued and perhaps most surprisingly quite centrist in tone with references to strange fruit such as `Conservative Co-operatives'. Can't quite imagine what Sir Keith Joseph would have made of it. But I think that's the idea. Its about them convincing the sector that it is viewed as a serious player, that the Conservatives have a social vision and heart.
Overall I think the public sector may have more to fear than our sector were there to be a change of government. The Tories see us as part of the `society-led' solution to social problems, as opposed to what they see as Labour's more centralist approach. I can identify a bit with this as our own big tranche of Government funding comes with a wodge of paperwork and agreements that match any used in a public agency.
So, yes I am impressed that the party of the Right has bothered to do this. It shows we probably have little to fear from them and that they are serious about tackling social problems. But the cynic in me remembers similar promises from opposition parties in the past.
Events. Its been a busy week outside pitch-preparation. Highlights have been a Masterclass delivered for 12 eager people at DSCs Charity Fair. Did a mock up of Dragons Den which people absolutely loved. Especially the judges. Its quite a trip having someone pitch to you, even in make-believe.
Also met my mentee Matt Stevenson-Dodd who is now CEO of Young Enterprise North West having just moved on from Unique social enterprise which he founded. Myself and Matt hold a lot in common and we connected very quickly when we met on the first day of the Ambassador programme last year. He's inherited an organisation in mid-life (it was founded in the 1960s) with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses.
He's got a big change agenda and he's making all the right moves. Half-believe he doesn't really need me that much but he's really satisfying to work with on issues. His style is to be open and very matter of fact with people - but he has an integrity which is what enables him to still take people with him. I have no doubt that Matt will be one of the leading lights in the sector in less than 10-15 years time.
Yesterday saw me leave the house at 7am not to return till 10pm after a work dinner at which one of my senior team gently reminded me that I need to remember to take care what I say about individuals and orgs on my blog (having trashed the business model of one of our large customers last week). Missed the kids both ends of the day. Often this does my head in but, for once, I felt OK about it. Relieved to not be leaving today till 9am. The ritual of getting them up, making their breakfasts and dressing them is part of a Good Day for me and I am looking forward to the cries from next door that will come in exactly 41 minutes time.
We are tossing around whether or not to move to a quieter area while the market is still low and spent part of the weekend looking at houses. Suffolk, unlike most of Essex, Herts and Cambs, still has large areas of rural tranquility only three or four miles from its main towns.
While this is all under threat from the crazy idea that we should cover S England in concrete and `Eco-Towns, it is something I'd like to enjoy while it lasts. Although I am as far from a hippy as it is possible to be, I find trees and greenery incredibly soothing and spirit-enhancing. I want to live in the seasons and walk out of my house onto muddy paths, not an A road.
One of the tricksy things about having a bit of `success' and the accompanying PR is that the world assumes you're in clover when you're actually just as near the stinging nettles as everyone else. Nearer in fact because when you're growing you are exposed to a lot more risk and `unknowns'.
Also, funders and investors can occasionally pass over you, assuming you don't really need them any more. This happened sort-of recently, from the most unlikely source. Truth was never has our need been greater. But unfortunately I couldn't get physically in front of people to tell them this.
The Tories have launched an excellent policy paper on the `Civil Society' sector as they are calling it. It is crisp, well-argued and perhaps most surprisingly quite centrist in tone with references to strange fruit such as `Conservative Co-operatives'. Can't quite imagine what Sir Keith Joseph would have made of it. But I think that's the idea. Its about them convincing the sector that it is viewed as a serious player, that the Conservatives have a social vision and heart.
Overall I think the public sector may have more to fear than our sector were there to be a change of government. The Tories see us as part of the `society-led' solution to social problems, as opposed to what they see as Labour's more centralist approach. I can identify a bit with this as our own big tranche of Government funding comes with a wodge of paperwork and agreements that match any used in a public agency.
So, yes I am impressed that the party of the Right has bothered to do this. It shows we probably have little to fear from them and that they are serious about tackling social problems. But the cynic in me remembers similar promises from opposition parties in the past.
Events. Its been a busy week outside pitch-preparation. Highlights have been a Masterclass delivered for 12 eager people at DSCs Charity Fair. Did a mock up of Dragons Den which people absolutely loved. Especially the judges. Its quite a trip having someone pitch to you, even in make-believe.
Also met my mentee Matt Stevenson-Dodd who is now CEO of Young Enterprise North West having just moved on from Unique social enterprise which he founded. Myself and Matt hold a lot in common and we connected very quickly when we met on the first day of the Ambassador programme last year. He's inherited an organisation in mid-life (it was founded in the 1960s) with all the inherent strengths and weaknesses.
He's got a big change agenda and he's making all the right moves. Half-believe he doesn't really need me that much but he's really satisfying to work with on issues. His style is to be open and very matter of fact with people - but he has an integrity which is what enables him to still take people with him. I have no doubt that Matt will be one of the leading lights in the sector in less than 10-15 years time.
Yesterday saw me leave the house at 7am not to return till 10pm after a work dinner at which one of my senior team gently reminded me that I need to remember to take care what I say about individuals and orgs on my blog (having trashed the business model of one of our large customers last week). Missed the kids both ends of the day. Often this does my head in but, for once, I felt OK about it. Relieved to not be leaving today till 9am. The ritual of getting them up, making their breakfasts and dressing them is part of a Good Day for me and I am looking forward to the cries from next door that will come in exactly 41 minutes time.
We are tossing around whether or not to move to a quieter area while the market is still low and spent part of the weekend looking at houses. Suffolk, unlike most of Essex, Herts and Cambs, still has large areas of rural tranquility only three or four miles from its main towns.
While this is all under threat from the crazy idea that we should cover S England in concrete and `Eco-Towns, it is something I'd like to enjoy while it lasts. Although I am as far from a hippy as it is possible to be, I find trees and greenery incredibly soothing and spirit-enhancing. I want to live in the seasons and walk out of my house onto muddy paths, not an A road.
Cambridge. Nottingham. Bury St Eds. Barnsley. York. Bury St Eds.
Nottingham. This has been my week. Blatted from one point on the map to
another. And back again. Needless to say the effect on my head has not
been great. While I owe a lot to the inventors of mobile wireless
technology, there are limits to this, as I sit here at nearly one am
trying to catch up with what happened at work while I was pinging
around the country. What I want to know is `Who is the Wizard?'
However, it has been an interesting enough week. Visit to our operation in South Yorkshire on Wed was a success. We have a very turned-on, ambitious leader there who was refreshing to hear from. So often when I visit places I get bombarded with woe and leave feeling like I need a couple of fast pints. Not that day though. Took all the team to lunch and before the grub arrived did a Q & A in which people were forthcoming - but in the right way. Wetherspoons in Barnsley also delivered surprisingly good food. I may even go there again.
My Barnsley afternoon continued with a trip to see the CEO of Barnsley and two of his senior team, the lead on adult social care and their partnerships lead. I could register their disinterest on the Richter scale at the beginning but this soon seemed to evaporate.
We met in this amazing glass goldfish bowl of a room which looked out over the town. The council here is very keen to put itself in the limelight which they have done with their stunning performance getting people onto personal budgets. Being next door to Leeds and Sheffield seems to be a big motivation for these guys.
Learned that Barnsley is fairly `tight' in terms of existing voluntary sector partnerships but that there is probably room for Speaking Up if we show ourselves to be useful in pulling in new resources.
The strategic agenda here, like all councils, is on personalisation. This means, in effect, an end to public sector Stalinism. I wonder how councils will really do this as it means, in time, them kissing goodbye to their own provider role - if this is done properly. But I don't sense that is quite on the cards yet. Not in Barnsley anyway.
The afternoon ended with a quick meeting with super-blogger Rob Greenland, a social entrepreneur from Leeds. I enjoyed meeting Rob as much as I have relished his blogs. He brings a lightness of touch to the serious business of social enterprise - and a much needed realism to the discussion.
He deliberately works at the pointier end of the sector and provides frequent reality-checks to a movement which, frankly, can see a bit up itself at times. We discussed doing a Barnsley event in September which I found myself feeling quite bright about.
Stayed overnight in Hull with my friend Rob from University days. Like many people I know with extremely high intelligence, Rob has struggled to find his way in life and at 38 is still `at sea' - working for some dreadful Government quango but hating it, living alone, not particularly fulfilled.
He's wonderful company however and as the years slip by I feel increasingly the comfort of old friends. I like new ones but they are harder to find and it is somehow harder to get to the points of intimacy one managed quickly and easily as a 21 year old.
Today I visited one of our services in a secure unit near Hull. These places are pretty awful, you wouldn't want to be banged up there I can tell you. While newly built, like some new estate, they are understaffed and sort-of built on the idea that if you did something wrong in 1998, you need two seven foot skinheads following you around all day and jumping on you if you get a bit arsey. Of course, I am being frivolous but `overkill' does, now and again in these places, actually kill people. If the food doesn't first.
Our staff are in a funny position here. Inside but not part of the Machine. Its a strange role being an advocate here. I don't envy them. And I'm not sure how good it is to do the job for too long as there's a basic unhealthiness to the place that you need a skin of iron not to be touched by somehow. I am always glad to be in my car and away.
The final slam of the ball today and I am back in Bury St Edmunds. Ruby is glad to see me despite a 48 hour absence and gives me a fantastic hug and makes me carry her for the next half an hour till my arm drops off. Wilf smiles too and I give him his tea. These moments are all the sweeter when I've been away.
Once they are in bed and I've cooked the tea I settle down to work. There's all sorts of semi-stressful stuff to think about and I do OK until I realise its half past bloody twelve and I need to be fresh for a talk to a group of CAB managers tomorrow morning in Nottingham.
PING!
However, it has been an interesting enough week. Visit to our operation in South Yorkshire on Wed was a success. We have a very turned-on, ambitious leader there who was refreshing to hear from. So often when I visit places I get bombarded with woe and leave feeling like I need a couple of fast pints. Not that day though. Took all the team to lunch and before the grub arrived did a Q & A in which people were forthcoming - but in the right way. Wetherspoons in Barnsley also delivered surprisingly good food. I may even go there again.
My Barnsley afternoon continued with a trip to see the CEO of Barnsley and two of his senior team, the lead on adult social care and their partnerships lead. I could register their disinterest on the Richter scale at the beginning but this soon seemed to evaporate.
We met in this amazing glass goldfish bowl of a room which looked out over the town. The council here is very keen to put itself in the limelight which they have done with their stunning performance getting people onto personal budgets. Being next door to Leeds and Sheffield seems to be a big motivation for these guys.
Learned that Barnsley is fairly `tight' in terms of existing voluntary sector partnerships but that there is probably room for Speaking Up if we show ourselves to be useful in pulling in new resources.
The strategic agenda here, like all councils, is on personalisation. This means, in effect, an end to public sector Stalinism. I wonder how councils will really do this as it means, in time, them kissing goodbye to their own provider role - if this is done properly. But I don't sense that is quite on the cards yet. Not in Barnsley anyway.
The afternoon ended with a quick meeting with super-blogger Rob Greenland, a social entrepreneur from Leeds. I enjoyed meeting Rob as much as I have relished his blogs. He brings a lightness of touch to the serious business of social enterprise - and a much needed realism to the discussion.
He deliberately works at the pointier end of the sector and provides frequent reality-checks to a movement which, frankly, can see a bit up itself at times. We discussed doing a Barnsley event in September which I found myself feeling quite bright about.
Stayed overnight in Hull with my friend Rob from University days. Like many people I know with extremely high intelligence, Rob has struggled to find his way in life and at 38 is still `at sea' - working for some dreadful Government quango but hating it, living alone, not particularly fulfilled.
He's wonderful company however and as the years slip by I feel increasingly the comfort of old friends. I like new ones but they are harder to find and it is somehow harder to get to the points of intimacy one managed quickly and easily as a 21 year old.
Today I visited one of our services in a secure unit near Hull. These places are pretty awful, you wouldn't want to be banged up there I can tell you. While newly built, like some new estate, they are understaffed and sort-of built on the idea that if you did something wrong in 1998, you need two seven foot skinheads following you around all day and jumping on you if you get a bit arsey. Of course, I am being frivolous but `overkill' does, now and again in these places, actually kill people. If the food doesn't first.
Our staff are in a funny position here. Inside but not part of the Machine. Its a strange role being an advocate here. I don't envy them. And I'm not sure how good it is to do the job for too long as there's a basic unhealthiness to the place that you need a skin of iron not to be touched by somehow. I am always glad to be in my car and away.
The final slam of the ball today and I am back in Bury St Edmunds. Ruby is glad to see me despite a 48 hour absence and gives me a fantastic hug and makes me carry her for the next half an hour till my arm drops off. Wilf smiles too and I give him his tea. These moments are all the sweeter when I've been away.
Once they are in bed and I've cooked the tea I settle down to work. There's all sorts of semi-stressful stuff to think about and I do OK until I realise its half past bloody twelve and I need to be fresh for a talk to a group of CAB managers tomorrow morning in Nottingham.
PING!
My Blackberry buzzed on the short walk from Bury St Edmunds station to
my home. The message said `Futurebuilders'. Ah, the email rebuff, I
thought. But no, they want me for their Investment Committee, just what
I wanted too. I felt as elated as I have for a while, a bit like when a
major deal comes in. I so want to be near the action in social
investment and, after all I have learned from the Impetus experience, I
have something very real to offer.
Got home, heard all about how Ruby had done her first business on the potty and my good news was lost amid the family `high' about this key milestone in the life of my two year old. Lost to me too, I have to say. That's the wonderful thing about coming home to young children. Win, lose or draw, their world is bigger than yours.
The day started with a check-in call with Mark Griffiths, one of my mentors. Mark runs Ideal Word, a brand consultancy and his power with words and ideas helped shape the message of Speaking Up and, later, my book.
As usual he was juggling several projects, from a new brand of powder for bodybuilders to a new product for the gay market (he wasn't specific). And as ever, he was reassuring and resourceful about the loss of 75k of venture funding which, by this morning was hanging over my head like a tequila-hangover.
The 0856 train to Liverpool Street from Bury is, I believe, one of the better train journeys to be taken in the UK in 2008. You get on when the train is virtually empty and thus have your choice of seats. It is clean, calm and nearly always on time. People join down the line but the carriage only gets full near to London when the loud hordes of Essex (with their unbearable accents) all pile on and ask if the seat next you is free - or demand you move, as happened today. The mobile phone signal is good all the way and there are no tunnels to chop up your call. You arrive in London at half-ten feeling almost human.
My morning meeting was with Matthew Smerdon, who is an extremely bright lad who I first met doing the Living Values project in 05. He's now working for David Cutler at Barings, running a grants programme ranging from global warming through to parents with disabilities. We spent some time discussing the debate about the third sector and public services (the more I talk to people, the more I believe that most sensible people think the same thing) and then I pitched some ideas for Barings' latest programme on strengthening the sector.
Our kids are about the same age so we finished off comparing how outragiously early our children rouse us in the morning and swopping tricks on how to keep them in bed as long as possible. For the chicken-clock trick, Matthew, THANK-YOU.
Lunch with Helen Warrell from Third Sector Magazine... Helen is expanding their social enterprise news coverage and is very sensibly building contacts and getting a sense for where the stories are coming from.
She made the very good point that there is very little critical reflection about anything to do with social enterprise at the moment and that this cannot be a good thing. I agreed with her saying that there has probably been a reluctance in the sector to `talk ourselves down' after waiting so long to receive the political backing we have. Now, I agree, its time for a bit more in the way of real investigation of what's good and what's not in the sector - for its own good really.
Like all of the sector journalists I have met, Helen is very well informed, has superb contacts and is actually very positive about the sector and its potential. Its easy, I find, to trust her and open up. We will, I think, be working together on a few things this year, which I know I will enjoy...
The train back was the reverse journey in every sense. We were relieved of Essex within the hour and I could get down to some proper work for the remainder of the trip. Had a very useful call with Vik Anderson of CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) who has this amazing network that spans all the sectors. We discussed how she might be able to help us to address any gaps left by the venture-fund-that-wasn't which was incredibly helpful.
At Stowmarket I get switch trains and phone the office. My part-time PA who also does admin has gone on the sick and sounds like she won't be coming back. She was a temp so we're getting another in tomorrow.
I briefly mourn the loss of my old PA, Anna, who moved to another part of the UK. With a Board meeting next week, I try to avoid thinking about what isn't being sent out in good time to our Trustees.
A bright Suffolk sun cheers me as I step onto the local train for the final leg home.
Got home, heard all about how Ruby had done her first business on the potty and my good news was lost amid the family `high' about this key milestone in the life of my two year old. Lost to me too, I have to say. That's the wonderful thing about coming home to young children. Win, lose or draw, their world is bigger than yours.
The day started with a check-in call with Mark Griffiths, one of my mentors. Mark runs Ideal Word, a brand consultancy and his power with words and ideas helped shape the message of Speaking Up and, later, my book.
As usual he was juggling several projects, from a new brand of powder for bodybuilders to a new product for the gay market (he wasn't specific). And as ever, he was reassuring and resourceful about the loss of 75k of venture funding which, by this morning was hanging over my head like a tequila-hangover.
The 0856 train to Liverpool Street from Bury is, I believe, one of the better train journeys to be taken in the UK in 2008. You get on when the train is virtually empty and thus have your choice of seats. It is clean, calm and nearly always on time. People join down the line but the carriage only gets full near to London when the loud hordes of Essex (with their unbearable accents) all pile on and ask if the seat next you is free - or demand you move, as happened today. The mobile phone signal is good all the way and there are no tunnels to chop up your call. You arrive in London at half-ten feeling almost human.
My morning meeting was with Matthew Smerdon, who is an extremely bright lad who I first met doing the Living Values project in 05. He's now working for David Cutler at Barings, running a grants programme ranging from global warming through to parents with disabilities. We spent some time discussing the debate about the third sector and public services (the more I talk to people, the more I believe that most sensible people think the same thing) and then I pitched some ideas for Barings' latest programme on strengthening the sector.
Our kids are about the same age so we finished off comparing how outragiously early our children rouse us in the morning and swopping tricks on how to keep them in bed as long as possible. For the chicken-clock trick, Matthew, THANK-YOU.
Lunch with Helen Warrell from Third Sector Magazine... Helen is expanding their social enterprise news coverage and is very sensibly building contacts and getting a sense for where the stories are coming from.
She made the very good point that there is very little critical reflection about anything to do with social enterprise at the moment and that this cannot be a good thing. I agreed with her saying that there has probably been a reluctance in the sector to `talk ourselves down' after waiting so long to receive the political backing we have. Now, I agree, its time for a bit more in the way of real investigation of what's good and what's not in the sector - for its own good really.
Like all of the sector journalists I have met, Helen is very well informed, has superb contacts and is actually very positive about the sector and its potential. Its easy, I find, to trust her and open up. We will, I think, be working together on a few things this year, which I know I will enjoy...
The train back was the reverse journey in every sense. We were relieved of Essex within the hour and I could get down to some proper work for the remainder of the trip. Had a very useful call with Vik Anderson of CAF (Charities Aid Foundation) who has this amazing network that spans all the sectors. We discussed how she might be able to help us to address any gaps left by the venture-fund-that-wasn't which was incredibly helpful.
At Stowmarket I get switch trains and phone the office. My part-time PA who also does admin has gone on the sick and sounds like she won't be coming back. She was a temp so we're getting another in tomorrow.
I briefly mourn the loss of my old PA, Anna, who moved to another part of the UK. With a Board meeting next week, I try to avoid thinking about what isn't being sent out in good time to our Trustees.
A bright Suffolk sun cheers me as I step onto the local train for the final leg home.
He stood out a mile did Vlado Krystovski. He was one of two hundred or
so people at a conference in Brussels all about reducing social
isolation for disabled people. As the Eurostar pulled in, I knew an
interesting time awaited me an event that included Beyond Welfare of
Iowa, the Finnish Association for Disabilities and the Bulgarian
Stammerers Association.
At lunch, I met Vlado, a young social entrepreneur from Macedonia. After running refugee camps in the Balkan civil war he studied social work. Today, his organisation – Poraka – or MESSAGE in English – helps young disabled people and their families plan for the future. Vlado is working with big numbers with little money, a dodgy government and a society that kept disabled people banged up till a few years ago. Yet here he was: eager, keen to share and learn. Not bitter. No sense of entitlement. In sharp contrast in fact to the po-faced miserabIists I frequently encounter in the UK third sector (and, now and again, in my own organisation).
This event was interesting for me personally as it brought disability-inclusion and social enterprise together. This is only just starting in the UK, where people like me are a bit of an oddity next to the recycling businesses, eateries and employment specialists. By contrast, in Eastern and Southern Europe, everyone in the disability rights sector is a social entrepreneur. They have to be. If they don’t act entrepreneurially, they can’t survive.
One effect of not being spoon-fed by the state is that people get creative. Some of the work Vlado is doing is streets ahead of many UK organisations I know with big grants and well-paid staff. What the guy lacks in money he makes up for in his openness to learning, his amazing networks and his ability to inspire support locally and globally.
Which brings me onto sustainability. In this country, we think of sustainability mainly in financial terms. Vlado’s story shows us that sustainability is principally about resilience. Which you build by being entrepreneurial, clear on your values and close to your supporters. Indeed, UK social enterprises at risk often lack Poraka’s type of resilience as much as they lack hard cash.
So the next time you’re facing a `crisis’, don’t just look at the figures. Think resilience. And ask yourself what Vlado would do…
At lunch, I met Vlado, a young social entrepreneur from Macedonia. After running refugee camps in the Balkan civil war he studied social work. Today, his organisation – Poraka – or MESSAGE in English – helps young disabled people and their families plan for the future. Vlado is working with big numbers with little money, a dodgy government and a society that kept disabled people banged up till a few years ago. Yet here he was: eager, keen to share and learn. Not bitter. No sense of entitlement. In sharp contrast in fact to the po-faced miserabIists I frequently encounter in the UK third sector (and, now and again, in my own organisation).
This event was interesting for me personally as it brought disability-inclusion and social enterprise together. This is only just starting in the UK, where people like me are a bit of an oddity next to the recycling businesses, eateries and employment specialists. By contrast, in Eastern and Southern Europe, everyone in the disability rights sector is a social entrepreneur. They have to be. If they don’t act entrepreneurially, they can’t survive.
One effect of not being spoon-fed by the state is that people get creative. Some of the work Vlado is doing is streets ahead of many UK organisations I know with big grants and well-paid staff. What the guy lacks in money he makes up for in his openness to learning, his amazing networks and his ability to inspire support locally and globally.
Which brings me onto sustainability. In this country, we think of sustainability mainly in financial terms. Vlado’s story shows us that sustainability is principally about resilience. Which you build by being entrepreneurial, clear on your values and close to your supporters. Indeed, UK social enterprises at risk often lack Poraka’s type of resilience as much as they lack hard cash.
So the next time you’re facing a `crisis’, don’t just look at the figures. Think resilience. And ask yourself what Vlado would do…
