David Floyd
Social Spider CIC
25 Sep 2012

Hi Robert,

This doesn't surprise me at all. One thing that annoys me is that growing numbers of small social enterprises seem keen to cosy up to and associate themselves with corporate giants such as Deloitte and PwC but do everything they can to explain their morally defined disconnection from other people running small businesses in their local area.

Do people running small social enterprises really believe that the people running these small businesses are solely motivated by the pursuit of profit at all costs?

It's an interesting point the Peter raises about social enterprise chief execs and entrepreneurship. I think there's a very big question mark over whether the people running most of the UK's larger social enterprises, such as public sector spin-outs and housing associations, are entrepreneurs.

That's not a criticism, it's just a question about whether they run entrepreneurial businesses or business that are primarily dependent on competent management.

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Paul Winnan
Treasurer
Advantage Africa
24 Sep 2012

It seems that some members of the Not for Profit sector feel that they will be tarnished by association, just by being seen alongside organisations that are run for profit! In fact, I would argue that far from being tarnished they will show their true value when that happens, emphasising their difference, values and purpose.

Typically, a social enterprise will be run to either make profits that it can pass on to the charity it supports, or to provide services that meet the beneficiary community more appropriately than a commercial business would. In either case, they can learn from the other providers of those services, and benchmark what they offer against them. Where there is good practice that can help them, that should be cherry-picked and emulated to make themselves better, but where it compromises their social enterprise objectives, they should be adapted or discarded. This is not so different to what their “competitors” will be doing themselves!

I would encourage social enterprises to join local chambers of commerce or other small business groups, learn from them, and then hold up their social enterprise for comparison. They should be proud of what differentiates them, and that they can bear scrutiny!

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Chrs Dennis
Director
Community Accounting Services Kernow
24 Sep 2012

Since 'enterprise' is a synonym for business it seems that your attendee doesn't get what a social enterprise is at all.

Interestingly charities have been doing social enterprise for many years particularly those in the business of running shops alongside fellow members of the local chamber of commerce.

The government’s definition has it that a social enterprise is an organisation ‘with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners’.

So the government calls a social enterprise a business in its definition. A definition which doesn't mention the government's own share of the surplus in the form of corporation tax. Probably a subject worth a blog of it's own.

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