Why should we be thinking beyond the ‘better business’ message?

In a few weeks we are holding our Beyond Better Business conference in Manchester.  It will be preceded by a drinks reception, which Andy Burnham will be attending the night beforehand, showcasing and celebrating local social enterprises.   

This theme is very pertinent and current in many ways, but particularly whilst the actions of business are increasingly being put under the spotlight following the allegations at the CBI, a body that purports to represent the wider business world in good practice and leadership.  

‘We failed’: read CBI president’s letter to members in full https://t.co/pcLc7eb4mW

— Guardian Money (@guardianmoney) April 24, 2023

Whenever I have communicated with the CBI we seem to have been on a very different wavelength and it’s a constant source of frustration in many business fora that social enterprises are not understood or somehow seen as ‘not proper business’ because we put our stakeholders before financial gains for shareholders. We are often marginalised and ignored. The same goes for business departments of government.   

But this is not to say that the wider business community cannot learn and adapt to become more like social enterprises. B Lab (the home of B Corp for the UK) for instance use the strapline ‘Let’s use business as a force for good’. They talk about “redefining the role of business within our economic system so that every business is a force for good”. However, social enterprises have social good as their core mission, it goes beyond mere window dressing or ‘purpose signalling’… It’s in their DNA. 

This is why social enterprises are far more than businesses, in the conventional narrow interpretation of the word. They are the fabric of the community that picks up those that are left behind for whatever reason by the wider economy and society due to market failure as well as providing goods and services that add social value.   

The social enterprise raison d’être is making a difference by tacking some of the knotty issues that society faces, in a nimble and entrepreneurial way. They often fill the gaps that other businesses don’t or won’t reach, because their central mission is to solve a social/environmental problem (whilst making money to sustain themselves in achieving their social/environmental mission). It is this emphasis which makes social enterprises different from the mainstream business community. Many businesses that are not set up in this way just don’t get the values and motivations that drive social enterprises, their leaders and their wider stakeholders. 

This is why social enterprises are far more than businesses, in the conventional narrow interpretation of the word. They are the fabric of the community that picks up those that are left behind for whatever reason by the wider economy and society due to market failure as well as providing goods and services that add social value.   

I hope that at last we will soon see a paradigm shift in the concept and interpretation of ‘business’, the finance that supports it, along with the organisations that represent it. We need an end to macho toxic cultures that interpret ‘being commercial’ as financial growth before everything else with a bit of ‘purpose signalling’ to cover the cracks.   

If you want to join in and be part of this movement please come to our conference and if you’re a social enterprise, you can future proof your credentials and show your commitment to making a positive impact by becoming an accredited social enterprise!