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Jan

24

Global Interest in Recent CIC Changes: Better Does Not Yet Mean Good

January 24, 2010

I recently wrote an article for Third Sector magazine on Community Interest Companies (CICs) for Third Sector Magazine. Since then I have received numerous calls from parties here in the UK and abroad asking about this corporate form and my thoughts about them–and if they have changed in light of the Governmental reforms. There are now three things I think about CICs: First, they are better than before. Second, they are still not very attractive. Third, the Government is doing a great job of marketing the idea and has tapped into an international interest in coming up with something for social businesses and enterprises (SBEs).
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Jan

7

Social Enterprise Tetchiness: Not a Helpful Trait

January 7, 2010

Yesterday I read a blog posted recently by Patrick Butler of the Guardian about the Novas Scarman Group, a Social Enterprise which had seen its CEO resign, amid what Butler describes as “one of the most inglorious chapters in the recent history of social enterprise”. I took instant umbrage. Whatever the issue at Novas Scarman, why did Butler have to bring its organisational form up at all? Of what relevance was it? When a conventional firm is, like the Novas Scarman Group (NSG), accused of “alleged cronyism, nepotism, bullying and mismanagement”, according to a report in the Telegraph last July, does it become an indictment of capitalist organisations? Was it not like mentioning the ethnicity of an alleged murderer? As I prepared to react, I realised Butler had actually done the sector a favour, and that we deserved being singled out in this way–why? Allow me to make a few observations but first make clear that the remainder of my comments in no way apply to NSG but to the sector in general.
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Jan

6

Announcing ClearlySo in Romania: Why do we do these Mini-Blogs?

January 6, 2010

Recently we posted a new mini-blog on the ClearlySo site; ClearlySo in Romania. We were privileged to have an exceptional intern–Romanian-American Sandra Barbosu, and she worked on the five posts which have just gone up earlier in 2009. Romania is a very poor country that is nevertheless a recent member of the EU with excellent soil, breathtaking views and a rich and interesting history. I had the good fortune to do a tour of the country myself in 2006, just before it became an EU member, and felt two things profoundly. First, it had enormous potential, but second, there was a great deal needed to be done as a result of the decades lost during the Ceausescu era. I will leave you to read Sandra’s pieces and consider the lessons she has learned. I thought to write to explain why on earth we do these things?
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Jan

1

Are Social Enterprises Different When it Comes to Industrial Relations?

January 1, 2010

Towards the end of last year I wrote about industrial action by the labour union Unite against the HCT Group, a company I advise (let me get that disclosure right out of the way). I challenged the contention, made by officials at Unite that HCT was getting “fat on basement level wages for its workforce”. David Floyd, commented on my blog post and, to his credit, admitted that he did not think the getting fat quote was Unite’s finest hour, but raised a very substantial question in his comment (which I reprint in full below) that he was, “dubious that the claim that the fact that a company exists for public benefit in itself changes the relationship between workers and management”. Or, “are social enterprises somehow different, when it comes to industrial relations (my quote)”, the title of this blog post. This is something worth discussing at length, I thought, and a good meaty question with which to begin the year on the ClearlySo Social Business Blog. I do not know in what capacity David Floyd wrote his comment, but I am grateful nonetheless. And my reply refers to social enterprises in general, not the HCT Group.
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Dec

31

Arise Nigel Kershaw, Officer of the British Empire (OBE)

December 31, 2009

I had not intended to post again this year, but scanning the Honours List this year, stripped marvellously of most of its bankers (all but one, apparently) was a name I recognised, that of Nigel Kershaw, who is listed as Chairman of the Big Issue, but is better known recently for his work in building Big Issue Invest, a specialised lender to social enterprises and the trading arms of charities. I am delighted for Nigel, as I am sure this recognition means a great deal to him, but I also think this is a wonderful way for the decade to end for the social enterprise sector. In the past ten years we have gone from being a puzzling eccentricity, requiring 30 minutes at the start of every conversation with an “outsider”, to being a core part of our economy and our economic future. Nigel, together with the late Anita Roddick, who earned an award some years before her untimely death are exquisite representatives of our sector.
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Dec

24

HCT Group and the Hollowness of the Old Battle Lines

December 24, 2009

I recently enjoyed an article in Social Enterprise magazine, written by my friend Dai Powell, the CEO of the HCT Group, a social enterprise which engages in the community transport sector in the east of London (based in Hackney, as its name was once Hackney Community Transport), which has expanded elsewhere in London and into Yorkshire. It has recently been the subject of a strike by the union called Unite, who, according to the article, accused HCT of “getting fat on the backs of our workers”, in the course of the industrial action. Powell’s going public on this issue is courageous–he points out that as HCT is a social enterprise, and nobody is getting fat–all profits are reinvested back into the community, for the benefit of the community or given away in the form of free or discounted services to community groups in need. I was struck by how odd and out-of-place the Unite “line” vis-a-vis HCT sounded. The capital versus labour line does not quite apply in the context of a firm which exists for public benefit.
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Dec

22

Social Business Spotlight: ClearlySo.tom meets Zoe Wangler at the Ecological Land Co-operative

December 22, 2009

If you’re looking to buy affordable residential small-holdings for ecological agriculture in England and Wales we have some extremely good news.

The Ecological Land Co-operative (ELC) purchases degraded agricultural land and obtains planning permission for it, dividing it up into small holdings. It then leases the small holdings out to people who can afford them, and ensures they manage the land in an ecologically responsible way.

Zoe Wangler is its Managing Director and she knows, like you, that cost is a key barrier to buying and managing land ecologically in the UK. There’s no shortage of people who can manage these lands – and want to do so - but there is a shortage of affordable sites, so she founded ELC in 2007 to address this issue.

With a first cash injection of £100,000 ELC made its first land purchase in July 2009, a property of almost 22 acres in Devon featuring 2 arable and two pasture fields on which they are looking to put three small holdings and a micro-generator. They are improving the land fertility while the planning applications go through and fully expect their first application to be refused - they’ve even factored this into their business plan - but they expect to appeal the decision and win permission. However, if there is no joy with the planning application they will sell the land to finance another purchase. I talked to Zoe and found out more.

Dec

21

So Now Tony Blair is a Social Entrepreneur!

December 21, 2009

The Sunday Times wrote a devastating piece this week, entitled “What Tony did Next: Tony, the Globetrotting Messiah Making a Mint”. This was picked up in the FT (”Blair Defends Lucrative Life as a Social Entrepreneur“) and the Guardian (“It’s Not True That No One Likes Me“) today. It’s hard to know where to begin to respond to the original piece or the follow-ups, but as this is a blog on social business and entrepreneurship, let me offer an opinion on his claim to be a social entrepreneur. He most certainly is not a social entrepreneur, something we have also commented on before, in our post “Philanthrocaptalism and Davos Make Me Sick“. Our opinion has not changed but, as the details emerge of the life of Tony Blair since Government, is most definitely strengthened.
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Dec

7

Dysfunctional Parents, Self-Reliance and Social Enterprise

December 7, 2009

I attended an intimate dinner last week, hosted by a bank (I will not name them, but I invite them to name themselves if they so desire), and the guests, aside from staff at the bank, were commentators from the social business enterprise and investment movement. The subject, as it inevitably does, came to politics. A debate ensued regarding whether or not social enterprise would be an electoral issue next year (a UK general election will be held in 2010) and what the policies of the two major political parties would be. Some argued that we were going to see a major change, others thought there was little difference in the likely platforms of the two major parties. I suddenly felt myself feeling a sense of despair. Here we were, as ever, looking to government to see what it would do in order to solve social problems or accelerate the growth of our sector.

In many ways this seems normal. Our leaders are responsible for us, in the same way that parents have a moral duty to look after our interests, so looking to our chosen leaders is as predictable, in a time of crisis, as looking to our parents. Yet I believe it to be very unlikely that our political leaders will lead us out of this crisis; which they contributed heavily to causing. I see them rather as the bad parents in a seriously dysfunctional family. The textbooks say they should love us unreservedly and look after our interests (parents, anyway) but many children are unfortunate enough to be born to couples who are incapable of acting responsibly. They may be self-absorbed to the point of neglect, or in extreme cases abusive, but absolutely cannot be relied upon to make things OK for us. To me this feels an apt description of our political leadership.
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Nov

18

ClearlySo Expands Internationally: First Stop, Canada

November 18, 2009

Now ClearlySo is truly the “first global marketplace for social business & enterprise, commerce and investment”, with a non-UK local presence.

Since launching ClearlySo in March, we have received numerous enquiries from parties all over the world expressing interest in working together. These have come to fruition this week, as Julie McDowell, CEO of ClearlySo Canada, will be making the formal announcement at the Third Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise sponsored by the Social Enterprise Council of Canada.

Two questions readers could ask. First, why go global–is the UK not a big enough challenge? Second, why Canada?
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