Conscious Employerism

The launch of the RBS Social Enterprise 100 Index was a glitzy affair - and rightly so. Lots of awards to high-performing social enterprises around the country in a variety of categories.

Doug Richards, of Dragons' Den and School 4 Startups fame interjected in an interesting way. In his usual engaging and assured way, he called for the Anti SE 100 Index. He looks forward to the days when rather than counting the best social enterprises we are counting down the last 100 enterprises that can afford not to be a social enterprise. The ultimate main-streaming of social enterprise throughout the econonmy.

Whilst this is a vision that I applaud, I also wonder how it is going to happen. Doug's argument seemed to rest, at least implicitly, on consumer power: ultimately, consumers won't buy goods and services that are not delivered by social enterprises. This is a powerful lever and initiatives such as the Social Enterprise Mark are tugging at it with all their strength.

It is worth remembering though that 'conscious consumerism' is not a new phenomenon. Fair Trade, for example, has been with us a long time and is going well - many reports acknowledge that such products are remarkably recession proof. Similarly, campaigning NGOs have for decades been mobilising consumers to boycott this company or that product. In the big picture though, much of this movement is relatively confined in its demographics and so is still relatively niche.

I believe there is another, much overlooked mechanism for changing the way companies operate: employees. Companies don't only respond to their costumers and shareholders, they are also themselves made up of people; interested, ever-more socially motivated and keen to make a difference - not only to the share price but also to the world they live in.

Changing business models, finding disruptive technologies and growing into new markets (such as those at the 'bottom of the pyramid') will occasionally be prompted by consumer pressure; sometimes (as in the case of banning CFCs from fridges) governments can legislate; sometimes new challenger brands such as the Body Shop help change an industry. In the end though, I believe that most innovation will come because employees are excited by more than creating shareholder value. They want to create new social business models and so find more fulfilment on what they do - those companies who cannot find ways of accommodating this will, ultimately, lose talent and fare poorly. Those who can embrace it will not only attract and retain the most exciting talent but also launch the most resilient and innovative offerings.

Here's to 'conscious employerism'!