Corporate Conundrum

During my placement at O2, I thought about how both Social Enterprises and more traditional businesses can benefit most from working together.

What do big organisations want?

Corporations work hard and spend a lot of money to find out what their customers are thinking. In addition to understanding what services their customers need now, corporates are trying to predict the needs their customers will have in the future to help them design and improve their products and services.

The UK government is starting to act and move resources to the idea that communities can be better agents for change than government acting on their behalf. Insight and knowledge of community is a valuable and expensively acquired resource for private and public business, but Social Enterprises have geographic, social or ideological communities at the heart of what they do. This understanding of their communities is a tremendous asset.

What is the opportunity?

Corporates are big, very big. They have huge reach and potential to unlock resources. However, corporates are feeling the financial crisis too. Investing in innovation and producing new products is expensive and large companies can often be restricted in what they can do without risking their share price. Even fierce competitors are using collaboration and partnership to provide what customers want without betting the farm.

Social Enterprises can add value to corporates because they have insight and practice that other businesses need to improve their services. Social Enterprises do the responsive, community focused thinking and doing that corporates find very difficult everyday.

In return, corporates can provide the exposure and reach that Social Enterprises need to grow and increase their impact.

What not to do?
Don't assume that, because it's a corporate, they will have a lot of money to spend. Much of their spending will be tied up in untouchable budgets promoting their current products/services.

Don't assume that the social benefits your organisation delivers alone will ensure a partnership. Your aims may align with their CSR policy and with their brand image, but they will receive lots of partnership offers that may do this and more.

What to do?
Corporations are always looking for new ways to add value to their traditional offers. A few ideas are to:

• Design a new product just for them. Elvis and Kresse are experts at this, as evidenced by their work with Apple and Brompton Cycles
• Offer to work in partnership with them; don’t ask for sponsorship. Corporates have spent a long time building their business, and they didn’t do that by giving money away. Work out a way to help them to make money while contributing to your aims.
• Help make their staff happy. Replacing staff is a costly business. Lots of people in big companies wish that they could be doing more. Find opportunities to give these intrapreneurs access to the great stories and results you create.
  

If it doesn’t work out this time?
Don’t despair, keep trying and remember to help the people that have helped you! If you have got a meeting in a corporate, it’s most likely because of someone working within that organisation who believes in what you are trying to achieve. The chances are they will be taking a risk/doing a lot of work to get your voice heard.

There are many reasons why large organisations don’t do things. It may be nothing to do with your offer or the work you and your advocate have done.

Stay positive and stay in touch; you may get another chance at a different time.