Social Enterprise: Rosie Jolly of Social Enterprise Network

• by Our Correspondent, The Liverpool Post
• Jun 7 2012

WHEN it comes to social enterprise, rhetoric, spin and obfuscation abound.

Listen to the politicians, the talking heads of the social enterprise sector and the legions of experts and you’d be convinced that social enterprise is going to single-handedly rescue the economy, create full-employment and be the panacea for our ailing public services.

With such a fanfare it’s no surprise then that the sector is growing rapidly, with around 100 new social enterprises being established each month nationally. But do these would-be social entrepreneurs know what they are getting themselves in to?

Contrary to popular belief, setting up a social enterprise does not open the gates to a sun-lit upland of free money.

As we say at Social Enterprise Network: “If you just want grants, don’t do social enterprise”.

So let’s place our feet firmly back on the ground and focus on what social enterprise is really all about.

Like any business, a social enterprise is subject to the forces of the marketplace, and it is the most successful social enterprises that utilise market solutions to solve social problems.

Social enterprises such as the Big Issue or Can Cook Studios are the most vivid demonstrations of this approach.

By developing a saleable product as part of a strong sustainable business model, these social enterprises have the freedom and independence to campaign on behalf of their chosen social cause and to bring about real change.

All too often social enterprise tends to be encouraged not because it makes enterprise more socially responsible, but because it puts the enterprise into social.

This raises important questions around the current public service reform agenda.

It is envisaged that 1m public sector staff will transfer to mutuals or social enterprises by 2015.

Is social enterprise really the most appropriate model for public sector reform or are we likely to see social enterprises muscled out of the way by the private sector in a few years time?

It may be salient to lower our expectations of what our sector can achieve in this arena.

Of course, at Social Enterprise Network we have a very clear idea of what defines social enterprise and we are working very hard to challenge misconceptions and misrepresentation of the term.

We want to clear the mist that shrouds the term social enterprise and bring some clear eyed objectivity to the debate. Debate will naturally remain about what constitutes a true social enterprise, but perhaps JM Keynes got it right when he said: “It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong.”