The School for Social Entrepreneurs

Guardian entrepreneurs

Another piece in the Guardian on Saturday about social entrepreneurs, one of which is current SSE student (soon to be Fellow) Simon Fenton-Jones (see StreetShine.com). SSE gets a mention but, as is legendarily the case with the Grauniad, they got our name wrong (+ reduced our scope), so we became "London's School for Social Enterprise", rather than the UK's School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Hey ho. Fortunately, we are the top result in Google for 'School for Social Enterprise' as well, so hopefully those who are interested will find us....

The omnipresent David Cameron also provides his support for social entrepreneurship in the latter half of the article.

Entrepreneurial leadership: leadership as relationship

Social Enterprise Magazine features a piece by the Chair of SSE, Charlotte Young, on the emotional dynamics of leadership, specifically 'entrepreneurial leadership'. Some interesting points about how entrepreneurs work, what drives them, how they can be assisted and supported, and so forth.

One key statement is that "leadership [is] better thought of as an active and purposeful relationship, supported by the activities which enhanced levels of motivation and focused direction so as to mobilise the enterprise's supporters towards a goal".

Leadership as relationship also reminds me of David Robinson's book, Unconditional Leadership, which is a worthwhile read for any budding social entrepreneur (or leader in any context).

Unlimited social entrepreneurship

So the big news on the social entrepreneurship front is the launch today of the Guardian/UnLtd awards scheme (see The Guardian Social Entrepreneurship Awards) which provides welcome media coverage and promotion for social entrepreneurs. Someone obviously had a eureka moment and made the link between the Guardian website's name (Guardian UNLIMITED) and the name of the erstwhile Foundation of Social Entrepreneurs (UnLtd*)...

Obviously the naysayers/whingers will say that it's just a rebranding of UnLtd's existing UK awards scheme, or that a link up with the Guardian will only attract/reach bleeding-heart, cappucino-sipping liberals on the left, or that it is misleading to have it promoted as a competition to win £500,000 (as it is on the GU homepage today) but they would be missing a couple of important facts. One is that any consistent media promotion of social entrepreneurship is welcome for all organisations working in the field, and the second is that the Guardian website actually attracts a far more diverse range of people than the newspaper, being the 263rd most looked at site in the world (ish), and the 24th most looked at site in the UK.

Certainly at SSE, as one of the founding partners of UnLtd*, and with many of their award-winners seeking out our year-long programmes of tailored support and development, we're all in favour.

Immigration and (social) entrepreneurship

A Nation Built on Immigrant Genes is an article by John Gartner in the Washington Post which argues that (in the case of the US, and beyond)  immigrants are far more than simply a source of cheap, unskilled labour. Rather, they are natural entrepreneurs and, as Gartner puts it, "the original venture capitalists, risking their human capital -- their lives -- on a dangerous and arduous voyage into the unknown."

He goes on to discuss how immigrants are, as a result of this entrepreneurial spirit, self-employed at a higher rate than native-born people (though the difficulty of breaking into traditional job markets must also play a part here?). And, most interestingly perhaps, says that "the rate of entrepreneurial activity in a nation is correlated with the number of immigrants it absorbs". He then extrapolates from that (via new business creation as a predictor of GDP) to the mighty claim that "Immigrants equal national wealth".

It served as a reminder to me of conversations we have had at SSE about the number of refugees/immigrants who have the drive and initiative to set up social enterprises against significant odds. People like Luljeta Nuzi and Rahma Abdalla, whose stories (and journeys) demonstrate their entrepreneurial characteristics (risk-taking, courage, prone to action) from the start, and how these entrepreneurial traits can then be blended effectively with a social conscience, or a commitment to helping others.

[Useful links:

• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
• UnLtd's Refugee Award Scheme
• Immigrant and refugee entrepreneurs
• JumpStart Fund (US) ]

Supporting social entrepreneurs: views and counterviews

Excellent thought-provoking piece by Craig Dearden-Phillips on his blog, titled "The Way We Let Down Young Social Entrepreneurs". A few quotes/interesting points:

- three things are a barrier to success: funding, expert support, and personal development (aka "looking after yourself")

- "becoming a social entrepreneur means half the pay, twice the hours and a lot less prestige than if you take a job at SEC, Unltd*, Business Link, Scarman, CAN or whoever"

- "The social enterprise support structure is diverting investment away from real entrepreneurs and has become self-serving"

- "I haven’t yet met anybody from the [social enterprise development] scene who has set the world on fire with their own social enterprise"

You can see my reply below the post, but to summarise, I think Craig has some fair points...and ones I agree with less. Craig's critique centres around the need for investment (different and more numerous forms of), but also points out the need for expert support (from people who understand what it is to set up something themselves, and who understand the sector) and the need for the individual to have personal support; to look after themselves, and not be isolated.

I don't really disagree with any of that. I question whether more investment would solve ongoing problems of isolation, personal development and expert support...and that programmes that address all of these are needed to help the entrepreneur and their enterprise flourish and make lasting change....

The Malteser audit

The papers are full this morning with the story of the NHS trust which has asked nurses to count the number of gifts they receive to assess patient satisfaction. Or, as Metro neatly summarises it this morning, 'Malteser audit fury' (or something).

Now obviously the story does have an air of nonsense about it...even if, reading between the lines, it sounds like this is a pretty informal count-up, with no form-filling to take away from patient time. Indeed, the BBC article above says that a Devon hospital has been doing this for a while. But is it so absurd to want to count the compliments as well as the complaints?

Interesting because, during our most recent evaluation workshop with the New Economics Foundation, we discussed the need to choose the right 'indicators'. One example of what might NOT be a good indicator is waiting lists....as it only measures one aspect of delivering healthcare. It could be one indicator in a suite (what is the collective noun?) of indicators, but there is a problem that it has become so central to how progress with regard to the NHS is judged. Waiting lists could be non-existent but the quality of healthcare might be dreadful.

And if you follow that thinking through, and think about what might indicate a good quality of healthcare, maybe the 'Malteser audit' isn't as silly as it sounds. Nurses being given gifts could, at least, be an indicator of how well the nurses are doing their job...if of limited use.

Shame the papers paid rather less attention to the axing of 12 NHS Direct call centres and the loss of 1,000 jobs. Although NHS Direct has probably been, on the face of it, a successful social innovation, though whether one of the top 10 of the last century, I'm unsure....

Adult Learners' Week

 

For those of you who didn't know, next week is Adult Learners' Week (20th-26th May)

Adult Learners’ Week is the UK’s largest celebration of learning. It promotes education and training for adults, provides access to information and guidance, motivates more and different adults to participate in learning and celebrates the learning achievements of adults.

Co-ordinated by NIACE, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, the Week is supported by the Department for Education and Skills and the European Social Fund with additional support from learndirect and Ofcom.

Adult Learners' Week is an opportunity for all organisations that offer any form of adult learning activity to either present a special promotional activity, or to label their existing learning activities as 'Adult Learners Week' activities.

The Adult Learners' Week planning guide gives you all you need to know about making your event a success, and can be downloaded from www.alw.org.uk.

Edge Upstarts....and Enterprising Solutions

SSE was at the Edge Upstarts Awards in London last night. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees: an impressive line-up, and some very well-deserved recognition. You can see the full list of winners here. Big winners on the night were Training for Life which was 'Social Enterprise of the Year', and their Hoxton Apprentice restaurant was named 'Social Enterprise Team of the Year'. Their chief executive Gordon D'Silva missed out on a clean sweep (the 'Social Entrepreneur of the Year' went to Safia Minney, the founder of fair trade fashion outfit, People Tree ) but, as I put it to him, in Oscar terms, Best Picture and Best Cast (OK, work with me here) was a good return, even if Best Director wasn't forthcoming...

Ed Miliband also made his first appearance as Minister for the Third Sector, and spoke well, particularly (as he acknowledged), it was only his third full day in the job. Full marks also to the team from the Edge Foundation, several of whom were there last night. Not only were the Upstarts Awards a rousing success, but they have also backed London for the WorldSkills games in 2011, which has indeed been won for the capital (and announced in a front-page ad in the Guardian this morning). SSE left filled with optimism at their determination to promote practical learning and skills, which mirrors our own belief in the importance of action learning / learning-by-doing.

Finally, just to mention that, as we move from one set of awards to the next, the Enterprising Solutions Awards are now accepting nominations....

Scaling your replicable pilot franchise

In the world of social enterprise, a consistent mantra is the need to replicate, franchise, scale up...which somewhat overlooks the fact that some social entrepreneur-led organisations and initiatives are fit to their particular sphere or community....and nowhere else. Some projects are best kept at a certain scale (a size or catchment they may have been shaped to) and, also, to a certain duration (has anyone thought through what happens if every new project is eternally sustainable?).

Couple of interesting things worth a look in this context.

- An online discussion about "Why you shouldn't scale up", in relation to E. F. Schumacher's seminal "Small is Beautiful" concept; particularly interesting is the concept of scaling up 'strategies or ideas', rather than necessarily scaling up organisations and organisational frameworks....

- CAN's new Pilot toolkit, which "takes you through three key stages of planning, monitoring and evaluating, providing the room and space for all the key players in your organization to contribute to its success"; you can download the Guide here and the Project Map here (both pdfs). It's an interesting tool which SSE fed into...and could be used in various ways. It came out of their Beanstalk programme, which was set up to focus on social franchising, but widened to more general replication.....

- Also see an article about a (UK) social franchise that failed in Stanford Social Innovation Review: An Enterprising Failure (pdf); [see here for a brief description of Paul Harrod, one of the founders of the social franchise, Aspire, running a seminar in Oxford recently]


This topic is of interest to SSE not only because we are a social franchise (for various reasons: to avoid re-inventing the wheel; to bring expertise and experience to bear; to create genuine partnerships with local and regional organisations; to avoid parachuting in people from outside the area; to create a strong and vibrant network etc.), but also because it is a question that many of our students and fellows face....how to have the greatest impact / be most effective? Lean and mean, large and powerful? Or small and beautiful....

Mapping the impact

As our evaluation process goes on with NEF, we've also been looking at some other ways of (literally) mapping the impact of SSE and that of its Fellows....I've been playing around with Wayfaring which is a neat tool (Platial is similar). I've trialled it by doing a map of where there are (or have been) SSE programmes in the UK. Check out the map.

It's quite an interesting tool, so I'm hopeful we can use it to do the same for Fellows / Students, so that we can see all the different places that a) they are based and b) they have an impact....