Social Business in Escher
What a week it has been. Social entrepreneurs are still the negative (white) space in an Escher symmetry drawing. We saw an investment project go to an investment panel, returning to the panel actually, having achieved all that was asked of it and a bit more for good measure - including reducing the costs by 35%. We saw Barclays transfer risky debt of £12bn to 40+ former employees in the Cayman Islands, and give them £40m a year to suffer through the management of it using money loaned from Barclays to purchase it from Barclays. (Confused? You should be). We saw what appears ...
Regeneration | Rethink
People have been working to regenerate areas of Britain for decades; most acutely since Thatcher took power. Thatcher came along, with the promise of the free market to make our world better. Reagan more aptly described it as trickle down economics. Trickle being the operative world. What ensued, in fact, is the fastest climb to the most economically divided society; where 90% of the wealth was shifted to 5% of the population (or numbers to that effect). This is the stage. The play, is a decades long commitment by the government and its servants (consultants, voluntary groups, quangos, etc.) to ...
CIC needs to Change
The CIC needs to change. That's community interest company to the uninitiated. Simply really. We need to change it one simple way for two reasons: How? The asset lock needs to look like the dividend cap. Some portion of the asset needs to be available for private asset appreciation. Why? 1. Social Entrepreneurs need to be fairly compensated for creating value for social benefit. We aren't talking about anything close to traditional Entrepreneurs and yet the social entrepreneur often leaves a larger legacy. 2. Investors need to be enticed to put capital into social businesses in the form of equity. This is only really ...
Why do we do it that way?
? A question has been swirling around in my head for weeks now. I can't seem to answer it or even utter it to those who might listen. It would be like swearing in church or wearing shorts to a formal wedding; you sometimes want to, but you know the response from the crowd will be instant rejection. What is this question(s)? Why do we spend so much money, time, and resources on asking what communities want in their neighbourhoods? And why do we only do this in disadvantaged areas? And finally, does all of this ...
Entrepreneurial Leadership, not Bureaucratic Paradigms
Social Enterprise Business is currently being led by 45 person boards of coalitions and 1,720 quangos. Is this a real movement-a new way to do business- or is it simply a place to park some government funding? When the Times and RBS give out social entrepreneur awards to CEOs running charities...we have surely lost the plot. The folks mentioned in the awards are highly qualified and delivering high social value. But, I would argue that incorporation as a charity is not really social entrepreneurial. (yuck! I sound like some ranting fool in the corner.) *Footnote: I did not apply ...
Measuring impact. oh really?
Ok. So you are social entreprenuer. Your business works (congrats you are now in the top 10% of SEs) and you want to increase the scope of your impact. You now need additional outside investment. Problem: how do you prove that you are already making an impact?! 1. You provide a myriad of case studies. (anectdotal) 2. You point to your output list from the original grant portion used to start the biz. (vutually meaningless; it's likely your outputs are quantities, but aren't they the same ones that were achieved by the last bunch in the 90's?) 3. You contrast a video,picture, survey of ...
Design
Designing for People and Change
I have been thinking alot about design lately. Not in the classical sense, but rather...
Why do we do it that way?
? A question has been swirling around in my head for weeks now. I can’t seem...
Recession Busting @ Shine
Our social enterprise, Shine, is looking at ways to help small businesses in this...
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Risk
Risk | For a Job
If you know a few 20 somethings, you probably know people frustrated and looking...
Social Business in Escher
What a week it has been. Social entrepreneurs are still the negative (white)...
Failure!
An interesting conversation is happening over at the Skoll Social Edge portal regarding...
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Social Business
Regeneration | Rethink
People have been working to regenerate areas of Britain for decades; most acutely since Thatcher took power. Thatcher came along, with the promise of the free market to make our world better. Reagan more aptly described it as trickle down economics. Trickle being the operative world. What ensued, in fact, is the fastest climb to the most economically... [Read more of this post]
CIC needs to Change
The CIC needs to change. That’s community interest company to the uninitiated. Simply really. We need to change it one simple way for two reasons: How? The asset lock needs to look like the dividend cap. Some portion of the asset needs to be available for private asset appreciation. Why? 1. Social Entrepreneurs need to be fairly compensated... [Read more of this post]
Entrepreneurial Leadership, not Bureaucratic Paradigms
Social Enterprise Business is currently being led by 45 person boards of coalitions and 1,720 quangos. Is this a real movement-a new way to do business- or is it simply a place to park some government funding? When the Times and RBS give out social entrepreneur awards to CEOs running charities…we have surely lost the plot. The folks mentioned... [Read more of this post]
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Measurement
Measuring impact. oh really?
Ok. So you are social entreprenuer. Your business works (congrats you are now in...
It’s the people. Period.
So many entrepreneurs query support organisations for help and in return get asked...
Difficult, But Worth It
I often say that anything worth doing is usually difficult. But Seth Godin uses...
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Innovation
fashinistas pt 2
the second half did not disappoint. a mixture of african influence and 1950’s....
fashionistas in beeston
blogging live from the myCatalyst fashion show at Hillside in Beeston. Wow! some...
Outlier updated
I shouted about the new book by malcolm gladwell this morning (Outliers), promising...
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Todd Hannula
Coming Soon!
I have taken some time off from blogging (again!) to figure out the focus of socialcatalyst. I am now clear on what I will be talking about here: inspiring and instigating those outside the movement to join and those inside the movement to take big steps and actions towards changing the world around them. of course, the action and subsequent change... [Read more of this post]
Convergence
What’s missing? True Convergence. What does this mean? No single sector has the answer to a productive economy. While pendulums swing wildly from left to right side economic theory, the centre point is ignored. Why? Probably because it ain’t sexy and it don’t sell newspapers or draw eyes to web pages. I am talking about learning... [Read more of this post]
Finally! Let the work begin.
I waited up until nearly 3am yesterday morning to see history pronounced. But, the networks were too timid to make the call (not a bad idea since they got it wrong in 2000 and 2004). I went to bed thinking some crazy rug pulling exercise was going to make my 5.30am wake up routine a nightmare. Relief. Joy. Elation. No rugs were pulled. No ridiculously... [Read more of this post]
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About Todd
Todd Hannula was a self-confessed “corporate boob”, before moving to Yorkshire and making things happen. He is the IOD Yorkshire's Young Director of the Year 2009 and a co-founder and co-director of Leeds-based social enterprise consultancy Camberwell, which helps transform deserted buildings and spaces into centres for social enterprise and community life. Camberwell also works with public bodies to secure and invest funding for social benefit.