It is a bitter sweet moment as I today announce that Inspirate Community Interest Company is going into hibernation. Believe it or not, this is an active decision taken in the best interests of my #socent minded career, family plans and (ultimately) the wider #socent movement. I am leaving my employment at Baker Tilly and going to work in industry at Moody International (a multinational technical inspection services company working mainly in SHOCK! HORROR! the oil industry). Why am I doing this?
Scale
There are many good people doing good work on excellent projects in the #socent sector, but most are operating on a limited scale. As a charities tax specialist working in an accounting firm my influence on social enterprise will always be small, especially when consistently working with small social enterprises. I enjoy and am inspired by the few social entrepreneurs I have encountered and mentored, but they have a long way to go.
There are many arguments for small-is-good and locally based solutions and I don’t intend to go into them here; suffice it to say that my aims for my life are to operate on a large scale.
My aim is to be the Finance Director for a multinational renewable energy company/co-operative. Or a locally-owned regional utilities company (thanks to both Tim Smit and Welsh Water at previous Voice conferences for that inspiration). Or to operate a co-operative train operating franchise.
To become that person I (and the sector) need some more skill.
Skill
In my experience there is simply not enough commercial business knowledge in the #socent sector (this is clearly a general statement and I know there are many people with commercial business experience, but they are still not enough of them). At the same time, social enterprise is being encouraged to go after bigger contracts on a larger scale, through consortia if necessary. The sector whines about Serco, BT and the others always getting the contracts but it conveniently forgets that one of the reasons this happens is their experience & knowledge at delivering the objectives the Government wants, which the commissioner can rely on.
(Next time your charity is complaining about a contract appearing to go to one of the entrenched big players, ask yourself why you’re still buying audit services from the Big 4 accounting firms and not trying someone like me who actually cares.)
There are huge public-service orientated contracts and services being delivered by anonymous multinational corporations and to compete with these organisations the social enterprise sector needs to have the skills & experience to know how to operate in those markets. I have significant accounting and tax knowledge built up from my time in a Top 10 accounting firm but I do not have the practical experience that I need to run a renewable energy company finance department. I do not have experience of raising £2B on the capital markets to invest in water mains and sewers (like Welsh Water did).
There is only one place I will get this experience and that is by working in the industry I am trying to emulate.
Sleeper Agent
I am becoming a sleeper agent. I am going to work for Moody International and I will spend my days thinking up clever ways to reduce their tax charge and make them more money. In the short term one could argue this is against my ethical principles, but I am taking the long term view.
In 5 or 10 or 15 years time I will have the commercial sector contacts & expertise to go to the capital markets with an ethical friend or two and raise our first £1B to tender for an upcoming community-owned train operating franchise.
I will always be a friend of social enterprise and I will change the world. Just not today.
Alastair Irvine @InspirateCIC
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/alastair-irvine/17/55b/431
August 3, 2010 at 8:42 am |
A familiar feeling Alastair, that of the third sector not willing to support each other.
August 4, 2010 at 12:51 pm |
Hi Alastair
We’re losing a soldier for a while, look forward to your comeback as a general!
Seriously though, its a key point, is the third sector entrepreneurial basin too small? I think probably so, part of my passion for CICs is that they can be used to bring in new skills and experience.
Good luck Alastair, hope to see you down the road somewhere
John
August 4, 2010 at 6:34 pm |
I know how it feels to be pushed into a corner financially and in other ways We’re in survival mode with myself unwaged. To top that I was diagnosed with leukemia a couple of months ago. Fortunately with low overheads, some savings and an income trickle from a holiday home in my garden, can continue to fund our advocacy for abandoned disabled children in Ukraine.
Last year, I’d spent considerable time preparing a bid for BBC Village SOS including a skills development and business incubation centre. I discovered today that concept is being re-presented by the people that brought you Big Society:
http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/section/news/community/20100804/whirlwind-interest-%E2%80%98lablets%E2%80%99-support-social-enterprise
If it turns out with us receiving royalties for our IP, I promise to spend generously among CICs.
Some hope
August 5, 2010 at 10:15 am |
Ironic isn’t it Jeff. I spent 3 years at Action for Blind People working in a social firm incubator as part of a ESF funded project. It is what ‘converted’ me to social enterprise. I choose to be half-full — at least someone has finally recognised the value of the idea.
John – thanks for the support. I think the social enterprise sector (maybe even SEC) needs to operate a secondment facility. Trainees / Graduates / MBA students in the private sector should go work for a socent for 6 months to learn about it whilst the socent person goes into Big plc to learn similarly. Both sectors have much to learn from the other.
See you at a conference sometime, I’ll still be online I expect.