Ed Miliband clearly spent a great deal of time in preparation for this year’s Labour Conference. His style, delivery and content of the speech were clearly the result of plenty of rehearsal and refinement. Having met him on several occasions during my stint as Social Enterprise Ambassador, we finally saw yesterday a some of the real man and his “faith” (although I didn’t like the use of that word). He spent alot of time as we would expect reflecting on failures of this government and its approach to economic issues. Commentary and reflections from others I found interesting in general terms.
But what about Ed’s approach to social enterprise? Well whilst he was at the Cabinet Office and in discussions directly with him, I was struck by how he truly understood the need for social enterprise to be nurtured and supported. He visited a number of social enterprises in south west, including Cosmic of course. He was genuine is his appreciation and interest in various business models and the ways in which social impact can be achieved. He was keen to support the development of the Social Enterprise Mark
And his references to “One Nation”; a call-to-action for many, a re-branding of Big Society for others? What we absolutely need him to be clear about is that economic growth through substantial increase in social enterprise in this country is the way to “responsible capitalism”. For many the development of new ways in business – for existing ‘private’ sector and ‘public sector’ as well as delivery currently being driven from the voluntary and charity sector, is an imperative. Developments nationally and globally with “social business”, “corporate responsibility”, “creating shared value”, all hold the key to the success both in financial and economic terms, and in social and environmental impact. The big question for me and many others, is why is it taking so long – it really is the no-brainer of the century!
And finally, thanks to @bangyourdurm – the subject of this blog was suggested as a result of my call on social networks – “experimental approach to this weeks blog – what would you like me to write about?”. Another suggestion was that I could post about last night’s dream, but believe me at the moment with ongoing need for night-time pain medication, this is probably best left for a future date!