Cut the fluff and climb

Seeing a well established, NASDAQ-quoted carpet manufacturer on the list of On Purpose placements, one might be forgiven for asking if On Purpose has any clue what social enterprise is about. Yet after taking a closer look, the person could be shocked again to find out that there really are examples of corporations that are serious about placing “doing good” at the centre of their core business.

Since the early 1990's Interface, the carpet manufacturer, has been climbing Mount Sustainability. Long before green wash tide flooded billboards and annual reports, Interface launched its expedition to reach zero negative impact on the environment by 2020. And as the slopes became steeper closer to the summit, they started realising that there was a social element, too, and it would have an important part to play in getting to the sustainable top.

Working for InterfaceFLOR on innovations around social sustainability has been a great learning experience. It is refreshing to see a profit maximising corporation of a decent size and age being dead serious about its mission to become fully sustainable; to experience the culture of the mission, starting with visionary leadership and cascading down to the very bottom; to hear the chairman always focusing his speech on the long-term mission and to find out that almost every single employee has a clear opinion of what it is about and is proud to be part of it. Sounds nice, but still a bit old school, top-down way of steering things? Sure, that's the legacy. But Interface is slowly finding its way towards greater participation by employees and the general public as well. It understands its culture must become open and inclusive if its mission is not to be a joke.

The credibility of the culture is only reinforced by the company's strong push towards transparency and measuring impact, or, as their marketing department would say, “Cut the fluff” and show the product life cycle data. But it is not just the product impact data that they try to make transparent. Their reporting on their progress towards the 2020 mission might make some charities feel ashamed. So, has Interface found the holy grail of social enterprise: earning healthy profits by focusing on “mission first”? Well, no.

Interface comes from the profit making side of the line, and profit needs to be sustained. They are working hard to find the points of synergy where mission and profit reinforce each other, but it is tough and no one really knows how it actually works. In practice it means that whenever a new project proposal is assessed, there is a question about how it delivers on each of the two dimensions. And often it costs extra time and investment. Yet somehow, the money and effort spent on the mission seems to be coming back - in the good will of people and stakeholders, in employees' loyalty, and in the end in sales.

Interface has no doubt a long and tough climb ahead of them, and there might be only few in the expedition with a clear vision of the summit and beyond. Yet there is one achievement none can take away from them. However half blind, clumsy, and exhausted they might appear on the slope of Mount Sustainability, they have pulled up with them whole industries quite some way up from the lowlands of indiscriminate destruction. No, Interface is not a poster child of a social enterprise, but it is an example inspiring confidence that some corporations might actually become one day genuinely restorative to their human societies and more-than-human ecosystems. And that is what social enterprise should be about, isn't it?

HERA seeking a part-time Executive Director

HERA is seeking a part-time Executive Director (£20,000 pa) with London business networks and experience to scale up a charity and limited company that provides enterpreneurship training, professional mentoring, and grants for formerly trafficked and vulnerable women. Send a cover letter and CV to mail@alexandrhobbs.co.uk. See www.hera-web.org for further details.

An interesting looking social enterprise is hiring an MD

Giveacar is a social enterprise that organises the donation of cars to charity. Founded in 2010, Giveacar introduced the idea of car donation to the UK, opening up a new revenue stream for charities that previously did not exist. The company is looking to recruit a Managing Director to take it forward. They are looking for an ambitious, entrepreneurial person to lead a young social enterprise through an exciting stage in its development. The company is based in Fulham, London, and operates nationwide.

If you are interested, please email Tom Chance directly at tom@giveacar.co.uk.

Our friends at the Shaftesbury Partnership are hiring a COO

The Shaftesbury Partnership are hiring a COO to work as part of the senior management team - working directly to its two partners, Patrick Shine and Chris Mould.

They are looking for someone who can manage people and SP's internal processes to help them deliver their mission - to create and inspire trailblazing social reforms - as effectively as possible. The COO will be a key person in growing the business, and particularly in shaping what it is like to work at The Shaftesbury Partnership as the business enters an exciting new phase.

For more details click here.

On Pupose team goes bowling

Last Friday night the 2011 On Purpose cohort and its extended 'family' managed to get together for a whole evening of fun and informal mingling. Despite every one's busy agenda we managed to gather nearly 20 of us together and had the pleasure to have among us a couple of mentors, board members, 2010 fellows, friends and partners.

After our weekly Friday afternoon training session (this time covering customer segmentation and retention) at the Bain offices, we had a nice walk through Hyde Park to get to Queensway, our final destination for the rest of the day. We started with relaxed drinks at a pub's terrace, followed by a convivial round table Chinese dinner and topped the evening with two intense bowling sessions (where we took over half the alleys in the place!).

Many thanks to Jordyan and Tom E. for organising and to all of those who could make it! We hope to have many other occasions to keep sharing quality time with our team and friends!

ICT in the Social Sector

Since beginning my placement with Comic Relief's Future Media and Technology (FM&T) team in January, every day I discover more about the essential role that information and communications technology (ICT) now plays in the social sector. Whether it is charities adopting online fundraising tools to empower their supporters to raise money for them, or social enterprises directly engaging with customers and the general public through use of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, the message is clear: in the twenty-first century social sector organisations must get on the ICT bandwagon if they want to be sustainable. A plethora of research reports and case studies all point to the fact that strategic use of ICT tools can help organisations lower costs; raise brand awareness; attract, directly engage and retain supporters or customers, thereby raising or earning more money; and in some cases, reach more beneficiaries. For a couple of examples, check out CAF's report on new media fundraising and NCVO's ICT Foresights.

Comic Relief provides an excellent case study of an organisation (technically a charity but arguably also a social enterprise) that is seizing every opportunity to adopt, adapt, and develop new technology to continuously innovate their campaigns (their IT team is called Future Media and Technology, after all!). For Red Nose Day 2009 Comic Relief spearheaded a deal with mobile phone operators so that it could retain 100% of text donations. For this year's Red Nose Day, Comic Relief made a ground-breaking deal with Apple to be able to raise funds through its own iphone app. These and other examples of how Comic Relief is using technology strategically can be found Race Online 2012's Casebook for Charity Sustainability through Technology.

Information and communications technology is being used in the social sector to not only help organisations deliver their own solutions to whatever social problem they're targeting, but also to connect innovators, entrepreneurs and other creative thinkers to search for and develop new solutions to social problems. One example that I find incredibly exciting is Open IDEO, an online platform that enables people anywhere in the world to collaborate in order to inspire one another, develop concepts, evaluate these concepts, and design promising solutions to real social challenges. A challenge that I've recently been following is 'How might we better connect food production and consumption?' The aim is to better connect rural food production and urban food consumption to improve producer livelihoods, improve consumer health, enhance sustainability in food production, and even minimise waste and other environmental problems associated with the production, transportation and disposal of food. If you're interested click here to keep an eye on this challenge.

It's now obvious that strategic use of ICT tools can strengthen social sector organisations, potentially improving their impact in the communities in which they operate, and also better connect people who strive to find new ways to address existing social problems. The ongoing challenge for social sector organisations and individuals is to keep up with the continuous, rapid advances in technology that are occurring almost every day. It will be a difficult and time-consuming task but well worth the effort and investment.

v is recruiting

v is looking for a Commercial Relations Manager reporting to the Commercial Director (who is also an On Purpose trainer!).

v, the national young volunteers service, is an independent charity dedicated to helping young people volunteer in ways that matter to them. Their mission is to make volunteering opportunities so diverse, compelling and easy to get involved with that giving up time to help others becomes a natural lifestyle choice for 16-25 year olds in England.

For more info, see http://vinspired.com/about-us/jobs.

Thinking Big at VOICE11

Since I started on my placement with O2 in January, VOICE11 has been looming larger and larger and growing bigger and bigger, gaining momentum with every week.

O2 is proud to have been a principal strategic partner in delivering VOICE11 with the Social Enterprise Coalition. As an event it reflects O2's Think Big commitment to sustainability, communities and social enterprise and a brilliant opportunity to connect their people,customers and suppliers with social enterprise.

And Voice11 was massive, with over 1300 delegates and an exhibition of more than 130 social enterprises alongside a range of passionate and charged panel debates, followed by an awards ceremony recognising the best in social enterprise. Here Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition, explains the features and zones on the day. What became clear through the day was that VOICE11 had to be big to represent the variety and success of social enterprise. Simon Devonshire, General Manager of Small and Medium Business at O2, is sure “ Companies that deliver shared value are becoming more and more important to the economy."

The event was helpfully split into a number of different zones packed full of exhibitors, debates and masterclasses. The feeling that we are on the brink of a new era for social enterprise was evident throughout the day. Nick O'Donohoe is currently putting the finishing touches to a the roadmap for a "Big Society Bank," which he plans to reveal to the government in the coming weeks and which he suggested, during his Voice11 presentation, could be up and running by this summer. The bank, O'Donohoe suggests, will kickstart "a sea change in sentiment towards investing in social enterprise." Its main aim will be to help boost investment in social enterprise, something O'Donohue himself believes has greater opportunity now than even three years ago. Read more by The Guardian on the Big Society Bank.

Elsewhere, the Big Venture Challenge is offering a range of investment opportunities for 25 lucky winners. Voice11 saw the start of its search for 25 winning social enterprises, which will each win an initial grant of £25,000 before being able to apply for an additional seed investment of £150,000. The scheme is looking for enterprises which can "scale up quickly" and benefit from rapid investment. Launched by UnLtd, the Big Venture Challenge will be announcing its winners in September. Check out the Big Venture Challenge website for more.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley revealed an additional £10 million investment in the Social Enterprise Investment Fund to help deliver the Right to Provide scheme. This will enable staff across the NHS to set up as independent organisations to run the services they deliver. It's a bold move but an empowering one for those involved and a big boon for social enterprise. 7thSpace.com has a good write up on the details of the deal. The Social Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow held a series of events showing the work that they are doing in their communities supported by O2’s Think Big programme, from fashion shows to dance demonstrations

Over the course of the day a challenge was laid down. Social enterprise has been asked to provide a way of moving away from big banks and towards what, according to @e4educated, Ali Parsa called "a rebalancing of society" which has greater social ownership and consequently more social responsibility.

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable called for ideas around "unconventional finance" and suggested social enterprise could provide the model to deliver Post Offices.

So the sector had it’s biggest conference, evidenced more success than ever and received it’s biggest challenges yet.

See what the Twitterati had to say about Voice11.