Sam Conniff is a Social Enterprise Ambassador. (Thanks for the correction Nick) That means he talks about what it is like to manage a social enterprise. The funny thing is how much it is like running ANY enterprise.
He has just written a blog posting fuelled by his reflection s during the process of moving office after 7 years. As he sorts through the debris that has collected he realises how many of his (then spectacular) ideas were anything but. He recognises the values of patience, perseverance and flexibility as well as planning and insight.
He talks about how the private sector are beginning to catch on to the importance of the triple line ( i have blogged about this before – the dangers of the for profit sector recognising just how much money they can make when they provide valuable public services cost effectively and manage a motivated, enthusiastic and rewarded workforce). This reflection is particularly heartfelt for me as seem to have spent much of the last month working with third sector organisations that had slashed management overheads to the bone in the mistaken belief that this would somehow generate more value for the funders. In fact it generates a workforce that feels undervalued and exploited. Sure, cut ‘bad’ management out completely – but invest in good management because that’s the way to get high performing teams who love their work (social enterprise or not).
You can read the full, frank post here.
Hi Mike – I’d love Sam to be an ambassador for SSE, but we are only one partner of a consortium delivering the Social Enterprise Ambassadors programme (which is actually government-funded). SSE is co-ordinating the blogs, though…and delighted that some of the ambassadors are really taking to it and being so honest and direct.