Social Catalyst

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see the debate now “raging” between social enterprise bodies and the health secretary. Social enterprise is becoming a dogmatic cult that is insisting upon a particular definition in order to legitimise its very existence. Ok, maybe it’s not that bad…but, people are wasting time arguing about what is [...]

Turns out the new government wants to know what you and I think about cuts; where, how, and why should we/shouldn’t we.
I think the cutting is going to be the easy part. So I will pass on making a recommendation on them. I think Cameron and crew can cut 15% without affecting services; It may [...]

Social enterprises probably find it more difficult to translate what they are selling to customers. Why? Because, often times what you are selling is not a computer, sandwich, or care service. If you want to really connect with great customers and reach sustainability you need to take your business to next level and get out [...]

Ahhh! A new year. A time to restart the engines, refocus the efforts and grow your enterprise to support your mission.

We often talk about not being everything to everyone because you likely end up being nothing to nobody. What’s also true is that you can make your message to specific or focus too specific that [...]

Too often, I meet people who consider optimism some kind of childish or naive behavior. It is somehow established in the British psyche that skepticism is directly correlated to intelligence. Ha!I was happy to see a coherent explanation of why optimism is really a good approach to problems and not simply some delusional behavior. Please [...]

I just spent 24 hours (or nearly) with a collection (13) of the largest Development Trusts in the Yorkshire & Humber. I came away more energised about the movement. I was in attendance as a partner (The Camberwell Project), so it did feel a bit like crashing a wedding with many of the attendees catching [...]

Ok. It’s in the Independent, but it is the Association of MBAs. I hope that MBAs will find that social enterprise is also a way forward. The charity and ngo sectors have always attracted talent from traditionally private sector pools at top schools, but this kind of press may signal a broader movement to social [...]

I am always looking for ways to outsmart the big guys and that usually involves some form of clever bootstrapping. (I think this may be a particularly American phrase; it means to do more with less!) Readers might find the Bootstrapping blog helpful. I just ran across it, so I am not yet singing its [...]

Wow! I actually had a great time at a fundraising event last night. And it was one of those 200+ people gigs I blogged about earlier. Why was it good? Because Tim, Mike, Joe and the entire crew at the Lighthouse Group understood that sitting for 3 hours while a programme crawls forward through endless [...]