#TTIP It was a decade ago that our late founder introduced the profit-for-purpose model to the UK social enterprise community with a business plan which argued: “Traditional capitalism is an insufficient economic model allowing monetary outcomes as the bottom line with little regard to social needs. Bottom line must be taken one step further by at least some companies, past profit, to people. How profits are used is equally as important as creation of profits. Where profits can be brought to bear by willing individuals and companies to social benefit, so much the better. Moreover, this activity must be recognized and supported at government policy level as a badly needed, essential, and entirely legitimate enterprise activity.” This argument derived from a seminal paper shared free-to-use in 1996 arguing that people came ahead of shareholder returns. In 2006, Profit for a Purpose was a subject for discussion on Skolls Social Edge: For years, many nonprofit directors, social activists, and academic theoreticians have looked askance at social enterprise. It appears that money – in particular the pursuit of money – is the object of their discontent. Some fear that “business” efforts will supersede social mission strategies. Others believe a focus on making money (especially worrisome when it is successful) will detract from creating social change. Still others are wary lest nonprofit revenue-generating activities cause a breach in public trust. Each of these concerns is valid if one views social enterprise from the perspective that its only purpose is to generate revenue. There are sone interesting observations from Kim Alter, author of Social Enterprise Typology on the morphing definition of social enterprise. skollworldforum.org/2006/09/25/profit-for-a-purpose/ The conversation preceded the arrival of B Corporations which reasoned business could operate for social beneift and still deliver shareholder returns, ie Profit-With-Purpose . In 2011, Creating Shared Value argued that business could profit from solving social problems, i.e. Profit-from-purpose. It could be described as mission creep. There was little said about profit and purpose in the UK until very recently with a report from the Social Investment Task Force took the profit-with-purpose line. Given concerns that TTIP will open the door to privatise our NHS, I have to ask whether this could be considered an invitation to profit with little emphasis on purpose.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 07:32:25 +0000
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