“Do you want to buy my beetroot?” she asked.<\/p>\n
“I would love to” I said, “but tell me, what should I do with it when I go on holiday?”<\/p>\n
“That’s not\u00a0 a problem – just put it in a bag and take it with you!”<\/p>\n
“Ok. How much is your beetroot plant?” I asked sensing that she had not really grasped my holiday concerns.<\/p>\n
“\u00a31”<\/p>\n
“And do you know how much profit you will make if I buy your plant for \u00a31?”<\/p>\n
“Yes, about 80p.”<\/p>\n
Sold – in so many ways!<\/p>\n
The event was wonderful – not withstanding the slightly tired and dated environs and buffet of the Holiday Inn.\u00a0 Some great speakers including Magic Man John Hotowka<\/a>, Beermat Entrepreneur Mike Southon<\/a> (“some people become entrepreneurs because no-one else will give them job – like my mate Mike Chitty over there”<\/em> – thanks for that one Mike!), Make Your Mark Ambassador Sabirul Islam<\/a> (check him out) and Nick Bowen<\/a> inspirational head teacher of St Benet Biscop RC High school and advocate for Benet Enterprise<\/a> – a school owned social enterprise into everything from professional theatre production (from scriptwriting to travelling productions) and event management to video making.\u00a0 They are tapping into the current (and I suspect temporary) rich veins of public funding for all things social enterprise and turning over hundred of thousands each year raising significant funds to improve facilities at the school.\u00a0 Apparently more skeptical members of staff\u00a0 ‘were soon won over when they saw the laptops and other kit that the ‘surpluses’ from Benet Enterprises were able to supply<\/em>‘.\u00a0 Setting aside the issue of using unpaid pupils and adults paid by the state to compete with local businesses for a minute they are doing some remarkable work.<\/p>\n Mercifully not a Dragon, Failed Apprentice or (not so) Secret Millionaire in sight.\u00a0 (I have no problem if they bring real substance and experience and engage fully, ‘Yorkshire boy done good’ Carl Hopkins<\/a> is a great example of this – it is when they just bring their ‘celebrity’ and a carefully honed sales pitch for their latest book\/consultancy\/educational board game\/business development workshop that I struggle.)<\/p>\n But the star attractions were the students working (and I mean WORKING) an exhibition space that felt more like a Mediterranean souk than a fusty business exhibition.\u00a0 As soon as I got my wallet out to exchange my pound for my beetroot I was beset by passionate sales executives hawking fair trade chocolate, handmade wooden signs (“any design, any wood you like”) and glassware. Young people selling with energy and passion, plants, books, woodwork, plastics, ‘stone’ plant troughs made from polystyrene.\u00a0 Young people who clearly loved their businesses and their products.\u00a0 Contrast this with the (almost uniformly) sombre, conservative and impassionate business exhibitors at the Chartered Institute of Housing a few miles up the road in Harrogate.<\/p>\n I have no doubt that work of the Enterprise Ambassadors from Education Leeds and the hard working pupils and teachers who make these things happen will lead to a much more business literate generation in the future.\u00a0 And that matters.<\/p>\n However there is more to excellent ‘enterprise education’ than business literacy and great teamwork.<\/p>\n It is about understanding passion and potential whether that lies in ‘business’, ‘ballet’, ‘beatboxing’ or ‘beetroot’.<\/p>\n It is about belief in ‘self’ as an active agent in shaping the future and building a better life, society and world.<\/p>\n It is about the power of education and the development and realisation of potential in whatever Ken Robinson<\/a> refers to as your ‘Element’.\u00a0 And the point of engagement for that, indeed the vehicle for the fulfillment of that, might not be ‘business’.<\/p>\n So it is time for a broader conception of the enterprising student.\u00a0 It is not about the next generation of entrepreneurs but about the next generation of cellists, authors, policemen and women, nurses, gardeners, mathematicians, politicians and bankers.\u00a0 About the next generation full stop.<\/p>\n Everyone should have the opportunity to become ‘business literate’ by the time they leave full time education.\u00a0 But primarily, fundamentally and at their very heart they need to be enterprising, creative, innovative, bold and self confident – and this might have little or nothing to do with entrepreneurship and business literacy.<\/p>\n As I write this sat at my kitchen table I am looking out the door at my beetroot plant in its brightly hand painted pot.\u00a0 There is a part of me wondering about their costings and worrying that, like so many social enterprises, they have missed or chosen to hide, some of their real costs of production.<\/p>\n But there is a much, much larger part of me that hopes and prays that the young ‘sales executive’ has learned much more than just how to spot opportunities to turn a profit.\u00a0 That she has learned more about herself and what she could become.\u00a0 About her self interest and her power<\/a> to realise her potential and how she might really be able to make the difference that she wants to see in the world.<\/p>\n It is these lessons that we enterprise educators should be teaching.<\/p>\n Share this Post<\/strong><\/p>\nI am a freelance trainer, consultant, thinker, speaker and writer on the subjects of enterprise, entrepreneurship, management and leadership<\/a> If you would like to work with Mike then please get in touch.\u00a0 mikeatmichaelchittydotcodotuk<\/h6>\n
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