Welcome to SHINE!

(As producer for this year's SHINE, I was asked to write and present a quick handover between the policy events and the unconference true. I'm posting it here because.. well, it's not bad. This is what you can expect if you're heading to SHINE: the Unconference for Social Entrepreneurs this Global Entrepreneurship Week..)


From here the SHINE Unconference launches full force into a packed two days of activities from keynotes to conversations, one-to-ones to panel discussions, pitching for cash to wandering through the social enterprise marketplace.

To name just a few of our amazing contributors, we’ll be hearing from:

Pamela Hartigan, Executive Director of the Skoll Centre at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, who will be talking about creating entrepreneuring teams..

The infamous Liam Black; co-founder of Wavelength, author of “There’s No Business Like Social Business”, and co- founder of the Social Enterprise Coalition, will be telling us how not to screw up our ideas..

Drawing from experience in both the corporate world and conflict zones worldwide, Mark Walsh is here to advise us on staying sane while staring up..

Mark Walton will warn us of the dangers of drinking by sharing his story of how a couple of beers in the pub lead to the creation of start up with a mission to create a 21st century commons..

We’ll hear from former professional motorsport driver, Trudy Thompson, who dramatically changed her career and lifestyle in 2001 when she started adapting to a low carbon lifestyle and taught herself eco building..

And Nick Jankel, former rural African science teacher, come writer for The Guardian and Financial Times, will be sharing how to use Hollywood storytelling techniques to engage investors..

What’s more!

We have panels on the next generation of social entrepreneurs, the debate over diversity, money!: do you need it and how to get it, what we can learn from women in social enterprise, whether social media promotes activism or just slacktivism, and how the fashion industry can play a huge part in better social and environmental conditions for all..

And, don’t forget, we have the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, in the mastermind chair ready to take your questions!

And that’s just what we’re doing. I wont begin to assume I can predict the amazing connections and ideas that will come out of the conversations over lunch or a beer.. so on that note, welcome to SHINE and grab yourself a drink!

Social Entrepreneurs Needed!

If you're running a Social Enterprise and can spare 30mins to contribute to Chloe's, LSE-based, postgraduate study - please see the call for interviewees below..

"Participation needed for an LSE-based postgraduate study exploring social enterprise and the varying tactics and connections utilised to carry out development practice. If you are directing, helped found or are setting up an enterprise and are interested in being involved for a short (in person or via skype) interview please get in touch. A copy of the final transcript is offered to participants which can hopefully provide a useful resource;   bringing together development, social interest and the rise of social entrepreneurialism, and a point for comparison with other enterprises"

CONTACT: Chloe Last, MSc Urbanisation and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Global Entrepreneurship Week: A new website and a very busy week…

We launched the Midomo Bracelet microsite a week last Sunday, just in time for the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

On the Monday of GEW, during a 'Good Deals' panel debate, ex-Dragon and exemplary entrepreneur Doug Richard called a commercial break. In this interlude, to our delight, he presented Julie Devonshire of One Water with a Midomo Bracelet. He then called on others to visit our website and buy one too!

The following days were a flurry of networking, speaking (Amanda), pitching, selling and generally 'seeing and being seen'. Then on Saturday, when we were attempting a recovery, the bracelet was featured in the Financial Times ‘How to Spend it’ Christmas Supplement! The excitement continues…

So you should probably check out our new website… www.midomobracelet.org

Blog Action Day 2010: The Worth Of Water.

There is a saying that states, ‘We never know the worth of water ‘til the well is dry,’ and isn’t it true?

I think for many of us, the particular pressures of modern Western life; excelling in work assignments, arranging fun times with friends, or even deciding which dress is the most stylish, leave us overlooking the marvel that is this clear liquid that descends from the tap when I turn it, and into my glass.

However, what if that seemingly infinite supply of clean water should suddenly become inaccessible to me? I probably wouldn’t care so much about my outfit. I certainly wouldn’t be able to concentrate on work. It’s most likely I would be too unwell to go out with my friends. It is an often-heard cheerful truism that ‘water is the building block of life;’ but without it, we cannot aspire to much more than basic survival.

This is the reality for almost 1 billion people in the world. More people die from drinking contaminated water than from all forms of violence and war. 1.5 million children die every year from water-related diseases; a higher death toll than that from AIDS, measles and malaria combined. In Africa, women and children spend up to 10 hours per day collecting water, meaning that -even if they manage to remain healthy- education, play, work and self fulfilment are all but out of the question.

Blog Action Day is about drawing attention to these facts. Hopefully, the sheer number of both high-profile and relatively unknown blogs inspired by blogactionday.change.org will raise awareness of a global, and preventable, problem. Most importantly, it might inspire people to action.

Of course, the aims of Blog Action Day also run parallel with the purpose of Red Button Design. The founding statements of the company were to design, produce and supply products for the humanitarian market, products that address the problems faced by the Developing World outlined in the UN’s Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).

Red Button prioritised our water solution ‘Midomo’ as we recognized the basic fact that without water to drink, the remaining MDGs; even shelter, sanitation, education and gender equality, all become secondary.

We are not martyrs. Red Button Design is not a charity, but a social enterprise that seeks to make a fair market profit in direct correlation to the benefit we can provide. For us, humanitarian goals, financial aspirations, and the proven utility of our products are all inextricably linked. After all, if we are not profitable our ability to effect sustained and meaningful change is severely capped.

Our ‘Midomo Bracelet’ Christmas campaign - a limited edition piece of jewellery by Alex Monroe that covers the cost of sending a Midomo to Africa- embodies this position. We are not about self-denial or guilt, but believe that modern and considered business models can mean that you ‘don’t have to change your life to change someone else’s’.

For me, the point is not that I shouldn’t worry over where the best night out is, the minutia of my grammar in an essay, or even the height of a heel on my shoe. However, I should absolutely remember that I am in a privileged position where I can take the basics of survival for granted, and that I have a duty to others who are not.

For that reason, my ‘blogger action’ shall be to ask for a Midomo Bracelet for Christmas. It will celebrate the fact that I have aspirations, give credence to an emerging, ‘win win’ model of enterprise and, by giving the most basic gift of safe, clean water to another person, it will enable that person to have aspirations too.

Sophie Orbaum,
Red Button Design,
U.K

Red Button Design's Midomo Bracelet - Social Vision 2010

Red Button Design's newest venture The Midomo Bracelet needs 2 mins of your time!

Please Click Here to submit your email voting for us in the following competition..

Triodos Bank, the Social Enterprise Coalition and the regional social enterprise networks of England are working together to run Social Vision 2010: business at its best – the annual national social enterprise photography competition. (Our submission is the thumbnail above.)

The amazing prize on offer is:
• £750 cash
• an entry ticket for two people to Voice 11.
• a year's free associate membership to the Social Enterprise Coalition
• a year's free subscription to Social Enterprise magazine as well as £1000 worth of print advertising in Social Enterprise magazine

..all of which would be really important for us. But to get there, first we have to win the London heat. So please:

VOTE NOW!

The deadline for voting is 11:30am on Monday 11 October.

Human Nature, Social Enterprise & Business Models..

Last week, from the comfort of lying prone in the grass on the sun baked Highbury Fields, I Tweeted a few ethereal thoughts on social enterprise business models. These were widely ignored ;) but a few people commented and so I decided it was worth expanding on, if only to clarify my original musings...

The original Tweets, responses, and my narrative clarification:

@RedButtonDesign:
Recent human meddlings aside, Nature is the perfect system.. But how does everything "get done"? Does Mother Nature have a to do list? ;)
.. or .. 1) when whatever happens is good.. nothing truly needs to 'get done'.. 2) or when things do what they do because of what they are..
..then whatever happens is a direct result of the actual nature of things. It's an honest system in the sense that there's no should/ought..
Pondering how #socent can build on the real nature of people .. (assuming we think humans are basically good well meaning creatures)..
..to create biz models that are more natural, less 'work' .. if we're basically good, the systems allowing us to act on this and *do* good..
..should be simpler? Or have we overworked our nature??
// Today's ramble brought to you by #zenhabits #socent & sunny day in the park.. ;)

Responses:
@Ghww: Re @RedButtonDesign multitweet: I warn against seeking 'natural' solutions. Capitalists have always done this. & nature has no should/ought.
@RedButtonDesign: RT @ghww: "nature has no should/ought" that's my point, a system that relies on discipline of it's agents to uphold the system will fail things will inevitably act according to their nature, therefore you have to adapt systems to human nature, not human nature to systems. Problem is we've forgotten what our real nature is, so we need to get that back ..
@curtistim: @RedButtonDesign so, a truly 'social' enterprise that treats humans as persons rather than functional, fictional commodities?
@Adilabrar: @RedButtonDesign come again?

So, some confusion...
Let me clarify.

Premises:
- Nature is a self organising, self perpetuating system
- Humans are basically good.
- Social Enterprise endeavours to be a self organising, self perpetuating system which allows Humans to act upon their natural instinct to be good.

Problem:
Current Social Enterprise business models do not appeal to our natural desire to do good, they appeal variously to our sense of obligation, guilt, commerce or vanity. All of which are strong enough drivers to promote action, but none of which are sustainable as they lack a certain authenticity of motive.

Argument
Nature works as a system because the system is simply the sum of the given behaviours of the elements within it. As soon as you try to force nature to act against these impulses.. (want seasonal fruits all year round, want forests here but not here, more of these creatures and less of those..) you disrupt the system and it acts out, or fails.

Humans vainly like to think of themselves outside this system, But the fact is, we have a set of characteristics which are inbuilt and though we may very successfully train ourselves to repress and control these characteristics, we aren't doing anything more than that. They're not going away.. we're just learning how to displace them.

Interestingly, one of the things that many societies have done, is suppress the desire for equality by suggesting (falsely) that achieving a higher status is actually beneficial. Capitalism and clever advertising have systematically manipulated our natural instincts until we have a situation where hierarchies, not communities, appeal to our evolutionary instincts to protect ourselves and our families. It's not as simple as desire. We create safety (or an illusion of) by having more .. more money, more food, more power, more weapons.."more". Where as traditionally it was understood that the best thing for an individual and their offspring was to be within a community of equals.

Only now are we beginning to gain perspective and see more clearly that this is fallacious. Brilliant works like The Spirit Level clearly demonstrate that inequality doesn't just cause more suffering to those at the bottom of the scale, but verses an equal society, inequality actually causes suffering to those at the upper end of the scale to.

So, my thoughts were that rather than create a system of business models and structures for social enterprise which are then implemented based upon the inequality we have mistakenly promoted: to create models based on the natural sense of equality and species protection that we diverged from, prior to this. To build the new system upwards from the last healthy point of development.

If you do that, and look at the way we naturally wish to express goodwill and philanthropy - it isn't from a distance. It isn't by signing a direct debit to a high-brand charity in return for receiving their end of year report. It is by having a human interaction, a human, emotive response to the act of helping another. Doing good makes us feel good, current models of Social Enterprise disconnect the act from the primary benefit of the act. Much in the way that Milgram's famous study allowed people to act more cruelly than anyone imagined when they were divorced from the effects of that cruelty, bringing people together to face the effects of their kindness will, undoubtedly, promote them to act with a generosity beyond that which we currently account for.

Conclusion:
Social Enterprise needs to be a force which enables the reconnection of our naturally good nature with the pleasure of doing good. The only way for this to happen is for the "models" to build upwards from true human impulses, not to build backwards or sideways from the capitalist mess we have created.

Shine 2010 Fink Club: What I meant to say was....

May 13-15th saw the great and the good of social enterprise (and a few people I think must've snuck in the back door) gather for Shine 2010.
The original unconference upped the anti for it's 3rd year. One of the bolder ideas in a fantastically crafted, inspiration packed event, was the Friday night, not Fight Club but "Fink Club"..

"A boxing ring, 4 opposing positions, 4 pugnacious and opinionated social entrepreneurs refereed by the legendary Liam Black of Wavelength. The gloves are off. You decide who wins"

Oh yes...
Rod Schwartz, investor, serial entrepreneur and founder of Clearly So.
David Barrie, regeneration consultant, film-maker and founder of The People's Supermarket.
Saeeda Ahmed, Social Enterprise Ambassador, SSE Fellow, founder of community regeneration company Trescom

and .. Me. Literally, they couldn't get anyone better ;-)

My rallying cry in the face of calls to man up, become more commercial and attract more equity finance was, surprisingly, for social enterprise to "stay young, stay hungry & stay innovative" ..
Well, there was definitely hesitation, and repetition, as well as language Russell Brand and Wossy would have blushed at (sorry mum) but here's what I planned to say, the PG version..

---

"What is the most important contribution that social entrepreneurs can make to our society now?"

The most important contribution we can make to society, is to recognize that whilst the sector we have created is good – it is not the holy grail and it cannot and should not attempt to “do it all”.

Social Entrepreneurs are not like other entrepreneurs. We aren’t here in the ruthless pursuit for money, power and influence, we are here because we have organisations addressing the fundaments of human nature. Problems which are not new to society but, thanks to us, are now being approached with a new hunger and a fresh creative spirit.

This is a sector that is still dominated by early stage new start organisations. It’s fantastic! Young organisations are special. They’re cash strapped, they’re resource limited, they’re geographically and sector focused; they have to be responsive and single-mindedly motivated to create impact, they've a childlike desire to prove themselves in the wider world.

And as soon as you begin to shepherd them along the well trodden path towards traditional commerce, towards the status quo, you lose these characteristics.
The stability afforded by bountiful capital and regular contracts tempers the hunger, it introduces a fear that hinders innovation, what was once youthful and unafraid to make mistakes becomes risk adverse and unresponsive..

We must resist. We should not be swayed down a path of complacency by political buzz words and the all too common belief that if we throw enough money at it, it’ll somehow get better.

Yeah,
It *is* tempting to think that we can change the way investors think. But investors have a mandate to maximize profit. Do you??

I’m not anti-commercialising socent per se, for goodness sake, if we create anything of any real value the commercially minded will come right in and “monetize” it anyway whether we like it or not! I’m simply suggesting we don’t do their job for them.
It’s not the place of social entrepreneurs to fit our round sector into their square boxes

No. The SINGLE greatest contribution we can make right now is to harness the sectors majority; the youthful, hungry and innovative majority and focus our efforts for impact, continuing to innovate where innovation is needed most.

Stay Youthful.
Stay Hungry.
Keep Innovating.

Lessons from OxfordJam (then promptly back to business..)

I am very aware that we're well overdue a thorough update on Red Button Design's progress. A lot has happened in the first quarter of 2010, much of it good, some significantly better than good (!) and I am genuinely eager to speak about our achievements. Rest assured, all has not stagnated - as you'll see in my next post..

Meanwhile, I'm re-calibrating after OxfordJam: the social enterprise unconference/phenomenon that I mentioned last month I was involved with launching. Broadly speaking it came to be that I was responsible for websites, wikis, social media, a little bit of planning, pr, promotion, design-for-print work and first port of call for all manner of tech and digital fitzjiggery while the event ran Wed-Fri last week. (14-16th April, 2010).

True of all the best things, I found it very difficult to limit my involvement with OxfordJam by the amount of time I had available. Rather, I wanted to limit my involvement by the amount I felt I could usefully contribute. As the amount I felt I could offer greatly exceeded the amount of 'spare' time I had, (and I hasten to add this is mainly by virtue of having little time vs. being vastly talented in this arena!), I had to make the decision to displace some of my non-essential functions at RBD in order to benefit from the experience of helping make concrete something I believe our industry needed. Controversial, perhaps, but I am glad I did. I feel like I gained a lot from the process and I wanted to share with you some of my learnings.

I cannot comment much on the content from a delegates point of view, but suffice to say that feedback so far has been abundant and extremely positive. We'll be collating all this on the OxfordJam website. Meanwhile:

10 things I learned from OxfordJam
..and think apply to all entrepreneurs and small business owners, alike..

1) If you have 'the big vision' don't sweat the detail. It's easy to get hung up on the little things, but act with the vision in mind and the details will align themselves accordingly.
2) Stay flexible. Be willing to re-evaluate everything and anything, even at the very last minute, if doing so will make a positive difference.
3) The strain of long hours and high stakes can be mitigated by working with amazing people.
4) Understand that ultimately what you're creating is not yours, it's the delegates'/customers', and be prepared and willing to let go.
5) Resist the temptation to oversee other people's work. Get good people and trust them to perform accordingly.
6) Tea. Lots and lots of tea.
7) Good communication is the lynchpin of an effective team. Have a protocol for keeping everyone updated with the latest developments, allow disagreements, and have an open line of dialogue for when things get tough. Achieving the latter is by far and away the most difficult.
8) Smart crowds can usually self-manage, and will naturally weed out their own bad seeds if you let them.
9) A little bit of praise, when deserved, goes a long way when things are stressful and spirits low.
10) There is absolutely no substitute for genuine enthusiasm. Not contacts, money, prestige nor a perfect résumé.

A tough but worthwhile experience and great lessons learned. Better still, I do not believe that OxfordJam is over simply because we're no longer gathered in The Jam Factory! I hope to continue working on the project (though at a much more manageable pace) and will propose to help the contributors and delegates build a living, open, resource that will grow alongside our learning and understanding, and that this could also provide a platform from which to begin the discussions next year* As well as proposing this, I'd like to suggest perhaps a regular virtual conference or twitter-based chat in the vein of Ashoka's #SocEntChat and perhaps even the occasional 'tweet up' for us folk for whom London is fairly accessible...

So if that sounds of interest, or for more on OxfordJam, please check out the OxfordJam blog and Twitter feed, both of which are also manned by me.

And the next time you hear from me here (very soon!) it will be with a concrete and informative post about Red Button Design's progress.
Promise! :-)

* and yes, for good or ill, one by one, the OxfordJam team and attendees all gave up saying "if we do this again" in favour of "when we do this again"!

'Twelve Lessons' - the run down

... Obligation,
commitment, brevity, advisers, business plans, delegating, tenacity and faith, actions, flexibility, people, priorities, caution and providence ...


I have my favourites, both to have learnt and to have written, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the series. So, if you've been reading, drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts - whatever form they may take

All the best,
Amanda.x

#1: A favour given isn’t necessarily a favour owed.
#2: You can’t half-ride a bike.
#3: Brevity is good.
#4: Too much love will kill you.
#5: Schrödinger's cat.
#6: If you want a job done well..
#7: Be an emotional starfish.
#8: A speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
#9: Scrap that...
#10: Net-works
#11: The Cobbler's children
#12: Caution caution

Dates for your diary: OxfordJam, 14-16th April '10

Not for one moment forgetting the remaining posts of the 12 Lessons series, or indeed my very important birthday wish, but I did just want to have a quiet word in your ear..
In the spirit of Lesson #10 and gift economy, let me share with you a upcoming social-enterprise event on which I've been fortunate enough to do a bit of moonlighting..

Running 14-16 April 2010, parallel to the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, OxfordJam is a co-created, pay-what-you-can event for the nurturing of social economy and social finance projects the world over.

Instigated by Ben Metz, OxfordJam isn't going to be your average conference, or even your average un-conference. OxfordJam is a conference 'in relief' asking you to: "Invert everything you have experienced at any vanilla flavoured conference, however inspiring.."

But if that's a little too 'down the rabbit hole' said Alice, worry not.
The basic premise is strikingly simple:
⇒ Take the breaks “in between” normal conference programming and fill them full of inspiring TED style “talking heads”
⇒ Take the programmed time of a normal conference and empty it out immediately after each of these very short talks
⇒ Allow the inspiration borne from the talking heads to fill this space
⇒ Let the conversations and encounters go where they will…

The plan is to provide the space and the inspiration, alongside the tools and games to facilitate. That’s it, nothing more.

We're like your favourite Auntie; we'll let you loose in the toy box, you can stay up past bedtime, and we're genuinely eager to see what you create!

Yes, much to my delight and exponentially increasing interest, OxfordJam is becoming quite something other. Huge thanks to those who willed it into existence and adoration to the growing list of participants.
Tickets (free/by donation) will go live this week, so do check it out. Such a series of amazing people, coming forward with this level of conviction and energy, is not to be missed. Better yet, it is still yours to influence so get involved:*

Follow @OxfordJam on Twitter..
Check out the website..
Join the facebook group..
Subscribe to updates via RSS..
Contact the organisers
Comment below!

*Really, do volunteer to get involved... Else I fear, if left unchecked, the food and sexy metaphors may get the better of us..

Why Making The Poor Pay, Pays Off

(a.k.a. The blog in which I purport to argue that the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet should be charged for life-saving products and services)

This blog was originally written and posted on the UnLtdWord Blog as part of the 'SHOUT OUT for Social Enterprise' series.

---

For almost 9 centuries we have, in the UK, nurtured the idea of charity as an honourable activity that will win you respect from your neighbours, help you sleep soundly at night, enhance your CV and earn you kudos with the guy (/ girl / folks) upstairs. As a formalised notion it is viewed as a self sacrificing gift from the better off to those less fortunate, bearing the cost of providing otherwise unobtainable goods or services.

But, like any gift, donations are dangerous when they become expected and often not what was really wanted in the first place. For too long our love of charity has blinded us to the emerging realisation that the current donor/gift model is often no more appropriate a method to effect sustainable change in developing countries than relying on the novelty jumper, two sizes too small, sent by your great aunt at Christmas would be a wise provision for your long-term clothing needs. The jumper may be hideous (though she means well, of course) but since you politely say thank you and drag it out to wear it once a year when you see her, she never finds out how much you loathe it. Seemingly satisfied, she’s going to send you another next year..

So, for all the smiling images of African children receiving our gifts of aid I want you to hold in mind this alternative reality, because when the cameras go away and the charities have enough footage to satisfy their donor community, that novelty jumper goes straight to the back of the wardrobe.

Don’t take my rich, western, word for it either, take the following quote from one of my favourite articles on the matter:

“When free American maize turned up in Kenyan schools in 1984, thanks to Bob Geldof and USA for Africa, it arrived in gunny bags and presented itself at school dining tables: steaming yellow, not white like the maizeflour we knew as a staple [...] I must confess that I hated school food, anyway, and that yellow maize porridge tasted not that much worse than everything else we were forced to eat. But our speculation was powerful. It is American animal feed. And it started tasting a bit too earthy. It has been treated with contraceptive chemicals. And it started to taste metallic. It was sent to us because it has gone bad already. And it started to smell funny.
Soon, in the Njoro High School dining hall, vast amounts of yellow porridge went directly into the bins. Our teachers, normally violent fascists in matters of discipline, looked the other way. We had food fights with the porridge every evening, and the floor would be littered with the clumpy remnants of America's love.

("Pure Product" written by Binyavanga Wainaina for Harpers Magazine, June 2007 )

The inevitable reality is, be it food, water, fuel or mosquito nets, aid is managed most effectively where there is a price associated with it. Free is worthless and even ‘beggars’ will be ‘choosers’.

Ask yourself: so long as it doesn’t cost you anything to receive unwanted gifts where is your incentive to stop accepting them, and how do I know when to stop giving?

A fundamental truth of human nature demands autonomy; so much so that this will even be expressed to our own detriment. 35% of Sub-Saharan Africa's improved water sources are out of service at any given time, mainly due to poor maintenance. If the community had paid for that pump, had elected to install it and had invested time and money in it – do you think this figure would be so high?

Demanding a user pays a nominal fee for a product or service encourages autonomy, it becomes opt-in marketing and it’s far more valuable to all involved. Without it you create a market with no feedback loop. A charity works on a top down model, e.g. they look at a situation, evaluate the problem, raises funds from donors, procure a solution and deliver.

Done correctly, commerce and free market forces unavoidably establish communication channels. It is a more honest, empowering and, I would assert, cost effective model if an enterprise looks at a situation, evaluates the problem and offers up a solution; then, if no one purchases/contributes, modifies the offering until something of true value gets made.

If the enterprise can’t sell the product, they can’t evidence its desirability and they won’t break-even as neither end users nor those who provide any subsidy will back something that can’t be sold. Inevitably, if they don’t break-even the business goes under and natural selection weeds the offering out of a market that doesn’t want / need it. If a charity is similarly failing and doesn’t break-even – they raise more donor funding and remain in the market despite forces saying they should be gone.

If you want real world experience of why user buy-in is an absolutely essential modification to the traditional charity methodology, try this:

This Christmas it personally costs you to receive each gift, 10% of the gifts value. If you don’t pay, the gift goes back to the store and you get the cash.
I’d venture it’d cost less in total, reduce waste and more effectively provide what you really wanted.

(Almost) Everyone benefits if we allow market forces to empower the poorest populations to take responsibility for their own welfare. Those who don’t benefit don’t deserve to monopolise a multi billion dollar industry with ineffective product or service offerings simply because no one knows better (yet).

---

Please feel free to comment below or, even better, join the full debate at UnLtdWord!

Red Button Design feature in the first ever Social Investment Almanack

The first ever Social Investment Almanack, which features a double page spread on Red Button Design's flagship 3-in-1 water purification product, was launched today by third sector minister Angela Smith.

You can find us in the chapter entitled "Shiny and New" (and how I do love that title) on pages 86 & 87.

The following excerpt is taken from from the Social Enterprise Live webiste:

"The first ever Social Investment Almanack was launched today by third sector minister Angela Smith.

Good Deals 2009: the Social Investment Almanack is published by Social Enterprise magazine and supported by the Office of the Third Sector and NESTA.

Speaking at the City Seminar on Social Investment at Mansion House, Smith said:

'This is an unprecedented collection of think pieces and case studies that aims to build knowledge and inspiration among those investment space as well as those looking in with curiousity from the outside.'"

You can download the Social Investment Almanack here

How Do We Define 'Community'?

Charmian Love got me thinking this evening when she asked members of the Twitterverse to share their definitions of "Community". Hers is here but, not exactly known for my brevity *ahem*, I doubt I could even have asked that question in a Twitter-friendly 140 characters, let alone answered it too!

My characteristically rambling answer to Charmian's question is, therefore, below ;-)

1) A community is a number of individuals connected by the spirit of belonging to something synergic, or (to steal a phrase) greater than the sum of it's parts. To me the word 'community' evokes the notion "we're stronger together."

2) My conceptual community has an established set of core values shared by all members and, of which, the maintenance is equally and autonomously the responsibility of each individual. So the community is, therefore, self governing.

3) There is an established culture of co-operation to resultant mutual benefit which allows for the creation of a creative space to cultivate and grow ideas.

The definition I have settled upon is 621 characters long. Interestingly, it happily suits 'virtual' and 'cyber' communities as well as neighbourhoods and, I would assert, is the foundation for the happiest families I know.

It is also, I have just realised, pretty damn close to the definition of Anarchy .... oh well ;-)

Think you can do better? Go tell her yours!

Thought for the Day..

Today I was wondering.. how do you know when you've got a "good deal"?
What makes a deal desirable and how does it differ in different types of business?

These are my instinctive thoughts on the matter...


In traditional enterprise the definition is both parties thinking they got the better deal.

In ethical enterprise it's both parties thinking each got a fair deal.

In social enterprise it's both parties thinking each received non-financial benefit from the deal.



So, think i've nailed it? .. Needs work?
Or am I talking utter rubbish again?
Feel free to discuss, below or on Twitter

Shine 09 & Web 2.0

Well I have just about come down from the high of "Shine", the Unconference for Social Entrepreneurs, which ran Friday & Saturday last week. As I briefly blogged on the Friday, Shine represented a thoroughly enjoyable, inspiring, buzz of ideas, enthusiasm and (critically) caffeine.

According to The School for Social Entrepreneurs:
"The four partners started the event because they felt there was a need for an accessible, affordable, practical, well-networked, dynamic event that was less about long powerpoints and plenary speeches, and more about one-to-one support and moving your business on."
And I have to say I agree with both the premise and the execution of the idea.

I was particularly interested in how well this event translated itself to Twitter. You only need to browse through the Hashtag #shine09 to see how actively the event was reported by UnConference delegates and followed by those unable to attend. Increasingly I am coming to the conclusion that a good Twitter following can make or break an (un)conference and I had similar discussions at the highly Twittered Engage Invest Exploit Conference in Edinburgh last month (Hashtag #eie09).

For example, on the Saturday of Shine I hosted a scheduled, round table, discussion bearing the rather grand title "'Real & Perceived Barriers to UK Investment for Global Projects". I was asked to do so after a conversation which sprung up around my Tweet "Fed up of the misguided & labored notion that a social enterprise worth UK funding has to have beneficiaries within the UK"

It was advertised (optimistically in my nervous opinion!) as being an opportunity for 'provocative conversation' though I need not have worried. A brilliant hour or so was spent exploring common problems and barriers to investment, not only by the 15 or so people present in the room but, as some of us were Twittering, we had followers and contributors from the global Twittersphere! Most notably @cliffprior and @jameselliot chatting with me and @davedawes.

Furthermore it looks as if the roundtable discussion produced an idea that is going to translate to a longer, larger discussion on Ning and result in a sort of democratic, crowd sourced, crowd funded, international, endowment investment fund (!) inspired by the likes of Kiva, Zopa and MyFootballClub

....Oh I feel a web 2.0 / Social Entrepreneurship Blog post coming on! :)

It'll have to wait though, I'm off to the NLS Awards tonight. Wish me luck!

Social Enterprise - Powered By Coffee!

In the run up to the NLS Awards on Tuesday I am in London having a crazy-busy few days networking, chatting, collaborating, debating, generally drinking loads of coffee with young, cool, like minded social entrepreneur / innovator types :)

I can only hope that my enthusiasm comes across loud and clear as I will find it difficult to expressly articulate just how much fun I am having and how much great business is being done!

The fun started yesterday when I had the absolute pleasure of chatting to Ian Wallis head of Entrepreneur TV for cmypitch.com over a coffee in Adam Street and continues in full force today at "Shine" the Unconference for Social Entrepreneurs.

There is far too much of interest going on just now for me to blog about it all but check out the action on Twitter! (Hashtag #shine09 !)

How Bank of Scotland & The Sunday Times got it so wrong.

Today is the deadline for the Bank of Scotland £6 million, Social Entrepreneur Awards in association with the Sunday Times.

Some months ago, amongst a flurry of PR, and a hum of excitement from the Social Enterprise Community, BOS & The Sunday Times announced with open arms that "Whether your organisation is a charity, voluntary organisation, church or any other not-for-profit organisation, large or small you are eligible for these awards"

Hang on ...
any other not-for-profit organisation?

I have long been of the unwavering opinion that so·cial en·ter·prise (n.) is responsibly-profitable enterprise* and that as long as that organistaion is dedicated to creating social value, its structure is unimportant. A quick check with the Social Enterprise Coalition and Social Enterprise Magazine indicates the consensus falls firmly on my side.

I, however, don't have £6 million to donate to the cause and, sadly, those who do at Bank of Scotland are only recognising the social benefit of what is described in their Ts and Cs as:

"not-for-profit organisations, meaning organisations which are not capable of distributing profits generated by the organisation or capital back to shareholders, members or other participants in the organisation;"

A short sighted approach if ever there was one. Non-profits, as the definition above testifies, cannot release capital. This, you might speculate, would put off investors and you'd see a 5x ROI on that guess. Not being able to raise finance through investment leaves non-profits on the scrounge. So in this sense I see the appeal of offering millions of pounds in prize money to an organisation that can't raise it's cash any other way. BUT, and here is the point that so often gets missed, how sustainable is this? What happens when th organisation needs more cash down the line? Just how scalable are non-profits and are they really going to contribute to the growth of the economy in the same way that a Social Enterprise producing equal social value, only constituted in a way that makes them eligible for investment capital, would?

Whether structured as non-profits or for-profits, social enterprises should be measured by their ability to tackle pressing problems with innovative solutions and their capacity to grow and scale whilst exponentially improving the status quo.

Are bank of Scotland supporting scalable Social Enterprise?
No.

Are they likely to discover and finance the next "Divine Chocolate" or "Big Issue"
No.

Both Divine Chocolate (Enterprising Solutions "Social Enterprise of the Year" 2007 ) and The Big Issue (John Bird, Ernst & Young "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" 2008) are incorporated as Limited Companies and are therefore capable of "distributing profits back to shareholders". Consequentially this would render them both ineligible for qualification as a "Social Enterprise" under The Bank of Scotland / Sunday Times definition.

It is extremely disappointing to see that the UK is still so backwards in its thinking regarding Social Enterprise. If we are ever to take a lead in this vital sector it needs to be universally recognised that Social Enterprise is not a synonym for non-profit, and there is no difference between social value created by donor funds and social value created with internally generated surplus.

Social Enterprise Day 2008

It's Social Enterprise Day today. Possibly the most exciting day of enterprise week (biased? us?) because it celebrates businesses which are effectively combining commerce with social change. Companies who are, quite rightly, earning a profit from doing good in the world.

We are forever explaining to people that Red Button Design is not a charity, we’re a Company limited by shares. Why? Well we believe that the charity model works excellently for relief efforts and disaster response (think Tsunami) but for long term development projects it is an unreliable, unsustainable source of income.

By running a successful for-profit business in the humanitarian sector Red Button Design, and thousands of other social enterprises being celebrated today, can stimulate competition leading to the reliable development of more effective product and service offerings to benefit some of the world’s most under-served communities.

I'd like to share the following UNICEF video, it's only 2 minutes long and explains far better than I ever could why James and I decided to found the world's first exclusive humanitarian design agency and bring to market the "ROSS".

Can entrepreneurs change the world?
We think so.

Change The World

Following on from my previous post regarding the Make Your Mark event, I would like to share my goodie bag with you!

Well, not literally. I'm afraid that would be a logistical feat not even James could overcome, recently qualified though he is. But I wanted to mention one of the most interesting gifts, a book I have been meaning to buy myself entitled "change the world for a fiver".

This book is part of the "we are what we do" movement promoting the completion of simple actions, which have very little impact on your life as an individual, but when combined will effect significant social and environmental change.

As well as being a fantastically simple concept, beautifully executed, they have a great website. So rather than talk about them here too much, i'd suggest you have a look over here if you're interested. And you should be! The book, one of several they publish, is full of excellent suggestions that will improve your life, the health of this planet, and society as a whole.

You can buy the book below but why wait 'till it arrives to start the good work. Sign up on the website and challenge yourself to complete an action! Today I am carrying around a thermos and getting coffee shop baristas to fill that up for me instead of using their disposable cups. With my incessant coffee drinking I alone may save the planet with this new action! ;o)

Change the world.

"Good Deals" Conference a Great Deal for Red Button

Last month James and I attended and spoke at the ‘Good Deals’, social investment conference held by the Office of the Third Sector in partnership with NESTA. It was held at St Lukes Church in Islington which is a lovely venue on an absolutely gorgeous summers day.

I had been meaning to review the event myself but in the interim a number of interesting articles have come to my attention so i shall refer to the 3 links below. The first of which is affiliated with www.socialinvestments.com and I am pleased to say features us rather favourably! The second is the 'offical' review and the third an interesting article from social enterprise magazine, mainly about Sir Tom (but also mentioning our good selves). Between them these three links present a better balance of the day than I could. I will say however that it was a very productive and interesting day and meeting Sir Tom Hunter was a pleasure indeed (pictures below)

The Social Business Blog

Hunter Inspires Social Investment Through Example

Cabinet Office Debrief