First Impressions Are Made to Last

Ever wondered what it would be like to make the leap from the commercial world into social enterprise? One of On Purpose's 2012 Associates, Isabelle de Morlhon shares her thoughts on Shaftesbury Partnership's blog about what she has learnt in her few first weeks of her placement there.

First impressions are made to last…and I hope they will. After 7 years working in brand management I joined the social sector in January as an associate at OnPurpose, the 1-year leadership programme for professionals starting their career in social enterprise. I am spending the first half of the year applying my business and marketing skills to support social innovation at the Shaftesbury Partnership.

Three early observations from a newbie to the social sphere:

The diversity and passion of people is fascinating.

Here at SP I am surrounded by a talented team covering a huge range of experiences (teacher, nurse, entrepreneur, business owner, public sector senior manager, banker and more…), with an impressive combined expertise. What brings everyone together despite these very different profiles and styles are shared values, a common purpose, and a passion for innovating and creating social change. 

Bridges between the business world and the social sector are strengthening.

Going well beyond the out-dated, one-way “cheque-writing” approach there is now a well-spread recognition of the benefits for both worlds to work together. This collaboration is taking various forms - partnerships, sharing business expertise or employee time, developing appropriate commercial products and services... Business collaboration is particularly key for the Shaftesbury Partnership as a vehicle for scaling our ventures and accelerating social impact.

There has never been a time with more opportunities for the social sector to grow and scale the impact it’s already proven to have.

The economic crisis has uncovered the limits of capitalism as we knew it, and is opening the space to develop and innovate with new models. Risk-takers who accept the possibility of failure will be the ones creating successful social innovation in this incredibly fast-changing environment.  

Passionate people, bridges between business and social sector and a time of opportunities are very compelling reasons for young professionals to move their careers to the social space. I am glad to be part of it!

Author: 

Isabelle de Morlhon

People On Purpose

This is the first in a new series of regular blogs, profiling social sector leaders.  Do let us know if there is anyone you would like to see profiled in People On Purpose!

TOM RIPPIN

Tom Rippin founded On Purpose in 2009 after a career spanning such prominent organisations like Comic Relief, McKinsey & Company and (RED).  Tom is also the Chairman of Spice, a time banking social enterprise.  On any given day, Tom can be seen cycling around London meeting up with interested supporters, giving talks, providing training and supporting the growing number of On Purpose Fellows and Associates.

1. Why do you do the job you do?

Because I believe that social enterprise will change the way that society thinks about and does business and because I love working with smart, motivated people. I also believe that getting the best people to work in social enterprise is the best way to help social enterprise fulfill its promise. 

2. What are you most proud of?

The Associates that On Purpose has attracted and the fact that they are not only motivated, interested/ing but also genuinely nice people!

3. What keeps you awake at night?

Trying to remember not to drop any balls - of which there are many. Luckily I have recently been throwing many of them at my new colleague Kate Richardson

4. What were you doing 5 years ago?

I was just leaving management consultancy, looking for places where I could do work that used commercial dynamics for good. I was lucky to end up first at Comic Relief!

5. What do you expect to be doing in 5 years' time?

With any luck, On Purpose might have done itself out of a job... if not, we're planning that On Purpose will be working across the UK and internationally too - I'm told Barbados is nice.

6. If you were Prime Minister for the day, what would you do? 

I'd get every FTSE100 CEO to swap jobs for a day with their counterpart from the 100 most exciting social enterprises in the UK.

7. Why are you involved with On Purpose? 

Editor’s note: Tom is the founder of On Purpose and needless to say has 101 reasons (maybe more) to stay involved. 

Stuck in a corner: Fair Finance, exclusion and a room full of women

On becoming an On Purpose Associate I made a simple promise to myself; take advantage of each and every opportunity I am presented with.  I see this year as a chance to explore new horizons, take a dip into the unknown, and push the boundaries a little. It was with this new found motivation that I recently attended a Women Advancing Microfinance (WAM) talk by Fair Finance on ‘Addressing Financial Exclusion in the UK and East London’. Such was my enthusiasm for making the most of my On Purpose year, it was only when I found myself as the only male in the room that I realised the talk was in fact part of a women’s networking event. 

I was however invited to stay, and I am happy to say I did as the talk provided a great insight into what it means to be financially excluded in the UK.  In particular, Fair Finance’s talk highlighted for me two significant issues in our society - financial exclusion and over-inclusion.

Financially excluded individuals are those who simply cannot get ‘into the system’. They don’t have a utility bill, they don’t have any assets, they don’t have a financial history, and as a result they don’t have a credit score.  These people are usually exploited by payday loan providers and credit merchants, taking advantage of the current economic environment and charging them interest anywhere from 300 to 4,000% for loans.  Fair Finance supports these financially excluded individuals by working closely with them to provide personal and microcredit loans at much more manageable rates.

The talk also highlighted the problems caused by financial over-inclusion, people having too much access to credit. In November 2011 total UK personal debt stood at £1.45bn, with average household debt amounting to £7,900.  In such circumstances it is clear that a more personalised approach to financial wellbeing is required to help people get back on track.

The WAM event was one in which I could have been excluded myself, by not meeting the most basic of criteria. However, the warm welcome I received reinforced to me the importance of giving everyone, including financially vulnerable people, a second chance.  Fair Finance’s bad debt rate of just 8% reinforces that there are benefits and a growing demand to revolutionise personal finance in the UK.  Perhaps this is a space for greater social enterprise growth?

David Bartram

@DavidBartram100

Financial Instruments On A Mission

During my first week as an On Purpose associate I was lucky enough to be one of the 15 people attending a talk by Paul Cheng of CAF Venturesome on the role of financial intermediaries in the development of a social investment market. This was particularly interesting for me given my previous life as an investment banker.

Paul highlighted the stark contrast between the wide variety of ways that corporates can raise capital and the limited selection of funding mechanisms currently available in the social investment market, largely represented by grants and donations.

During my career I've seen the design of financial instruments driven by a number of factors, unfortunately these are not always for social good. Consider for example the role that complex credit derivatives have played in perpetuating the current debt crisis. Hopefully by ensuring that positive impact is the primary goal of social investment markets we can avoid the pitfalls of the traditional financial system.

On Purpose is in a great position to be part of this exciting field, with associates at Bridges Ventures and Big Society Capital you're sure to hear much more from us on the subject.

The On Purpose 2012 Associates are out of the starting blocks....

Welcome to 2012 - London’s third Olympic year and the third year of On Purpose. And, like the Olympics, On Purpose is getting bigger and better with a record eighteen Associates in this year’s cohort.

For those of you who still don’t know, On Purpose is a one-year leadership development programme which combines two paid six-month work placements in the social enterprise space with weekly training in professional, commercial, social and personal development topics.

I have to admit that I have sometimes been confronted with blank looks when I try to explain On Purpose to others. I think it comes down to the fact that a lot of people are still unfamiliar with the term ‘social enterprise’. However, I like to think that this is a diminishing problem. This week I read YouGov research that showed that a third of people have never heard of social enterprise. My first reaction was that this means that two-thirds of people have heard of social enterprise! Does anyone agree with me that two out of three people ain’t bad?

The 2012 programme kicked off last month with two days of induction (stay tuned for the next blog to learn more about this), led by founder, Tom Rippin, and Programme Manager, Kate Richardson. Day one of induction felt a bit like day one at uni combined with episode one of The Apprentice. I surprised myself by learning the other 17 names almost immediately (see here to learn more about them).

I am now in week 3 of my first placement at the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) and am really excited to get things rolling. The SSE is an established and respected provider of action-learning programmes, and has eight schools in the UK, two in Australia and one in Canada. 2012 is shaping up to be a busy and exciting time, with a new partnership between the SSE and Lloyds Banking Group helping the SSE to reach more entrepreneurs than ever before.

As an On Purpose Associate, I know that my challenge is to have a direct, positive impact and add value at my placement right from the beginning – and I wouldn't have it any other way. The learning curve is steep and will involve me asking my new colleagues at the SSE lots of questions, and so far they have dealt with my queries very patiently. It will also involve me taking advantage of the strong support network that On Purpose builds around us. As well as being able to discuss our placements with our coaches, mentors and buddies, we can, of course, get a second opinion, a third opinion and a seventeenth opinion by talking to each other.

One of the 2011 Associates, Jordyan, said in a previous post on this blog “The other associates are like close colleagues without the competition.” And I feel lucky to be in that position.

One exercise we have been asked to do is write down our goals for the year, and one of mine is to enjoy the year, simple as that. I have a good feeling about that one.