Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

Enterprise Week and Social Enterprise Day

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I’ve been tracking a few associated pieces about Enterprise Week (and Thursday, Social Enterprise Day). Today is of course, Women’s Enterprise Day (because the acronym is WED?)….anyway, here are some related bits of news:

– Jonathan Bland of SEC in the Society Guardian today saying what you’d expect, really: a rolling out of the 55,000 numbers and a rallying call on procurement

– A couple of slightly more critical responses from the Adam Smith Institute and the Daily Telegraph, the latter of which looks at whether government legislation has helped foster an entrepreneurial culture in the UK…and questions whether event days actually work

– …well, judging by the FT’s coverage, they don’t do any harm, as they have a series of interviews running all week, including some top tips for entrepreneurs (from John Caudwell and Sir Tom Hunter, amongst others)…although the FT is the official media partner….

– Gordon Brown applauds a renaissance of entrepreneurship and enterprise at the start of the week

– Check out the Trailblazers supplement as part of the campaign (via Social Enterprise Magazine)

– From a personal point of view there seems to be a little less going on this year (maybe, because there was SO much going on last year: awards, publication launches etc….), although there is a shindig at no.11 tomorrow (at which SSE will be rolex cinesi perfetti appearing, I believe….), the launching of the social enterprise plan, which will be pored over by us all, and the launch of a new venture from SSE Fellow James Greenshields’ Media for Development: Inside Job Productions

What’s most impressive about the day and the week are the organisations it brings together in one co-ordinated campaign, and that enterprise is promoted by all of those as a means to job creation, wealth creation and improving people’s lives in the round. If some greater focus is given to these issues as a result, then it can’t be viewed a failure: promotion and marketing is a key part to any campaign’s success….

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50 Green Entrepreneurs

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Greenlightbulb
Worldchanging (whose book you should be buying at a particular time on November 1st…about 4.11pm Uk time, I think?) points out Inc.com’s list of 50 Green Entrepreneurs: the Green 50. They are US-based, pretty much, but loads to inspire and inform here…from recycled toothbrushes to a zero-waste company. And natural burial, something I know a fair bit about from previous work: one green industry where the UK is well ahead of the pack.

All very timely given the Stern report and associated brouhaha. On the back of which, George Monbiot has a 10 step plan to save us….which seems remarkably plausible on this blustery Tuesday morning.

[via Doors of Perception]

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Bangladesh, North Wales, London and Beijing

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A few things to report in on this weekend; sorry to group such disparate things together….

– the first, of course, is Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microcredit; he’s had many plaudits (rightly: read Audeamus and Social ROI blogs, for example) which I don’t need to add to. Worth reading some articles about his work on the Global Ideas Bank, though; search for ‘Grameen’

– from Bangladesh to Wales…I spoke at a BLOC seminar in Betws-y-Coed the other evening, along with Francis Irving of the mighty MySociety, and Alan Harris of KnowNet. Will blog about this more soon (particularly the most amazing taxi drive ever…), but take a look at the BLOC site which is doing interesting things around promoting creativity, technology and enterprise across Wales.

– and across, more predictably, to London, for the launch of the Enterprise for All Coalition’s launch of its report "Progressing the agenda"; it’s an excellent piece of work, and very much accord with SSE‘s current thinking, so I will post up when it’s available for download. In the meantime, you can read the Times’ take on the report within this article

– and, finally, the SSE blog is off to Beijing to a Social Innovation conference; internet access allowing, I’ll be blogging from there over the next few days….

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Minipreneurs and trendwatching

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replica louboutin store, and its offshoot, Springwise, have long been worth a look now and again, if only to convince yourself that your finger is on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Or something.

The latest thing I spotted was Minipreneurs, which is kind of a mix of web 2.0, pro-ams and, well, grassroots entrepreneurs. Or as trendwatching puts it:

“We have dubbed this trend ‘MINIPRENEURS’:
a vast army of consumers turning entrepreneurs; including small and
micro businesses, freelancers, side-businesses, weekend entrepreneurs,
web-driven entrepreneurs, part-timers, free agents, cottage businesses,
seniorpreneurs, co-creators, mompreneurs, pro-ams, solopreneurs, eBay
traders, advertising-sponsored bloggers and so on.”

Over on the less webby, more social side of things, Robert Katz took up the theme (meme?) on Worldchanging and pointed out that “consumers turning entrepreneurs” is all the more powerful when ‘consumers’ is widened to ‘users’, meaning social entrepreneurs changing things with new models and ways of doing things emerging from the grassroots:

“First of all, minipreneurs aren’t new, so all the talk does feel a bit hyped-up. Microfinance 
organizations have been funding small-scale business ideas for 30-plus
years, and it’s generally acknowledged that entrepreneurs can be a
pretty good investment. They deliver development outcomes, too, by
providing lower-cost goods and services while building local human and
social capital. What are new are the tools and strategies available to
help businesses get started and continue growing – and that’s where the
real potential lies.”

Katz is very good on the need for a combination of flexible business models and methodologies with passionate, driven, engaged entrepreneurs. Whilst his focus, and his case studies, are centred in “low-income” countries, the same is no less true for poorer areas in the UK, US, Europe et al.

[Also of interest on WorldChanging is Jon Lebowsky on Nonprofit 2.0 and the Long Tail; Social Entrepreneurship 2.0 to follow ;0)]

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The Purpose Prize and silver social entrepreneurs

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Had you ever heard of the Purpose Prize? No, me neither. What a great name, btw. It is a prize for "Americans leading with experience", or, more prosaically:

The Purpose Prize awards $100,000 to each of five people over
60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. It’s for those with
the passion and experience to discover new opportunities, create new
programs, and make lasting change.

Which basically means they give £50k to five social entrepreneurs over 60. Check out the finalists here, or read a piece in the Wall Street Journal, which covers the prize and features four of the finalists. Inspiring people, inspiring change, as the SSE strapline would say.

What is interesting for me is that when politicians and our sector fellows talk about "encouraging new entrants" to social entrepreneurship and social enterprise, they talk (for 99% of the time) about young people, entrepreneurship in schools, marginalised groups and so on….so rarely have I ever heard anyone raise the issue of the ever-growing, talented, skilled and passionate older population who are entering retirement not to relax but often with a renewed sense of purpose. As the article in WSJ puts it:

"The prize highlights the emergence of innovative altruism among
older Americans. In a survey of 1,000 people age 50 to 70 that Civic Ventures
commissioned last year, nearly three in five of those in their 50s said they
wanted to use the next stage of their lives to improve the quality of life in
their communities."

Is the UK any different? No. SSE has several Fellows over 50 who’ve completed its programmes, and it is a trend I envision increasing. I look forward to the first Purpose Prize UK….

[info via Vancouver Social Enterprise Forum and the Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship ]

 

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