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Social enterprise - What's in a name? 2

Finance | Robert Ashton | 28 Aug 2012

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as Shakespeare wrote. So why we are kicking up such a fuss about the trademarking of 'social enterprise', wonders Robert Ashton.

My late grandmother had a very practical approach to life’s challenges. Born in 1894 she’d seen the First World War strip the country of eligible young men. In the Second World War she had two young sons of her own. She worried that the war would last until they were old enough to fight. Luckily it did not.

She retained a very pragmatic view of conflict throughout her life. When I complained to her about playground spats, she’d offer this very simple advice: ‘sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt you.’ I wonder if we’re starting to lose sight of that simple truth in the social enterprise world right now?

I’ve followed the Salesforce conflict with Social Enterprise UK with great interest. Many sector heavyweights have joined the #notinourname campaign. But is using ‘social enterprise’ to describe a brand of software really going to destroy the identity of a business sector? I’m sympathetic to the anxiety, but not convinced by the argument.

There is no doubt in my mind that in every aspect of entrepreneurial endeavour, customers are won and retained using social media. It’s how we network, meet like-minded people and influence opinion. I’m old enough to remember when business development was very different. You researched prospects using paper directories. You wrote letters and made cold calls on the phone. The internet, or more specifically Web 2.0 has made enterprise very social, there’s no doubt about it.

Perhaps the real problem is that not all social enterprises choose to define themselves as such. I work a lot with housing associations. They trade, invest their profits in improving the lives of their communities of interest, but few in my experience feel the need to call themselves social enterprises.

My view, for what it’s worth, is that social enterprise can never really be defined. It’s as much a business philosophy as a process. It’s a way that organisations from all backgrounds can differentiate themselves by their positive social impact. It’s everything that greedy bankers and exploiting multi-nationals are not. It’s what everybody wants and one day, as social media increasingly drives consumer opinion, what everybody will have.

Who's Who: Robert Ashton