Happy ‘Social Enterprise Day’!

Today, Thursday 18th November, is Social Enterprise Day. I know, lucky I reminded you eh? What do you mean you don’t know what that is? It’s, well… social enterprise, it’s… good business, I guess.

In slightly more detail:

A social enterprise is a business with primarily social or environmental aims, and whose profits are ploughed back into the business or community.

Simple really. It’s not charity, it’s not in any way connected to Facebook, and it definitely isn’t a campaign to encourage the inhabitants of a Star Trek spaceship to get to know each other better.

It’s a company that addresses a social problem, and re-invests a certain amount back into the company without taking it all for themselves.

But this category is vague. BT help people communicate, and they re-invest large amounts of money in improving their service, particularly in remote areas. Ford make affordable, reliable cars. McDonald’s provide low-cost, convenient food around the world. Are these social enterprises? An old mole trapped under a bucket could see that they’re not.

The word ‘enterprise’, to me, conjures thoughts of cash – and lots of it. Making money where there was none before. But the basic definition is:

enterprise ( ) n. An undertaking, especially one of some scope, complication, and risk.

A bold and dashing sentence, and the words ‘scope, complication and risk’ are ones that I’m sure all entrepreneurs would agree they have faced in abundance. Linked back to social enterprise, these complications and risks are undertaken with a social mission in mind – for example, to tackle homelessness, or to help uneducated children to read. Social entrepreneurs take on complicated risks and work very hard, for a social good. Cool.

Vague and new the term might appear, but social enterprise is making a real difference – re-energising the business community and making a lasting social impact.

To name drop a few of the most famous so far:

• Fifteen. Jamie Oliver’s kitchen of fifteen young would-be chefs down on their luck is now one of London’s most popular restaurants, and has spin-offs in Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne.
• The Eden Project. Glass and metal spheres containing the world’s micro-climates and species, hot and cold, flora and fauna, in the rolling hills of Cornwall. All revenues and profits are given to the organisation’s charitable arm, The Eden Trust, and it has also injected over £800 million into the Cornish economy.
• TeachFirst. Placing talented graduates in challenging schools to the benefit or everyone involved, since 2002 this hugely successful social enterprise has placed 2,520 teachers and has changed perceptions of the teaching profession.

Even more exciting than these famous names though, are the hundreds of great ideas that are emerging in this sector – slowly transforming the way we travel, eat, work, donate, buy and have fun. Ideas born in places like The Hub, or shared in online communities like Escape The City; now, more than ever, people are pursuing their ambitious ideas to the benefit of thousands of people that their organisations end up helping.

It really is an age of new thinking – perhaps a response to the entrenched and out-dated practices of the 80′s and 90′s that established irresponsible and unhelpful consumption and financial behaviours for which we are all coming to terms with now. Though long-established, users are coming to terms with the true possibilities that the internet offers and are embracing the ideas it endorses by changing the way they live – consider the importance of Facebook on communication and Google on business. In austere Britain, social enterprises make sense – not just charities totally reliant on funding, but financially fit organisations that do good and pay their own way. The links with David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ are strong, and often mentioned by the Prime Minister, but don’t be fooled, social enterprise could survive without the Big Society, but the Government’s idea is very reliant on a thriving and successful social enterprise sector.

For every good idea there will be 50 duds, and another 49 that are great but don’t take off – but we must appreciate that people are having them, expressing themselves and thinking not just about the world they live in, but about the world they want to live in.

So in all likelihood, today will pass before you realise that it has any calendar importance other than ‘a day I wished was Friday’, but if you are interested in what Social Enterprise Day has to offer, check out http://bit.ly/13LsXQ – there’s plenty going on. Personally, I will be using it as a reminder that there’s a young sector, emerging internationally, working together and not afraid to share ideas, intent on solving social problems and, basically, making the world colourful where it appears grey.

So, happy Social Enterprise Day everyone. And don’t forget, only 37 shopping days left till Christmas…

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