On Tuesday morning, I attended a breakfast seminar, titled "What's next for Sustainability - is the message getting through?", and in the evening was a Firm Elite dinner, with the conversation focussing on "Communications in a digital world - how do we need to adapt in order to ensure our organisations' sustainability in tomorrow's political, social, environmental and economic atmosphere?"
In the morning, we were a collection of (mostly) businesses, with a few thoughts from invited guests Doug Johnston - Director of Ernst and Young's Climate change and Sustainability Services team; Alan Knight - sustainable development advisor to many corporates including Body Shop, Coca-Cola, the UN, and currently the Virgin Group; and Harry Wallop - Consumer Affairs editor at The Telegraph.
This was a day of discussing Sustainable Business, and how we talk about it, communicate how we are doing and engage stakeholders. One thing became very apparent by the end of the day - it doesn't matter what field you work in, how close you are to sustainability or how senior you are, some people JUST DON'T GET IT!
Example - I brought up the idea of creating sustainable partnerships between civil society and the private sector at the breakfast meeting. Among the good and the great of sustainability and some of the top 'CSR Professionals' in business. I was asked to clarify what I meant. I didn't use any big words, I didn't use particularly long sentences. I simply asked what they thought of cross sector collaboration for social and commercial benefit, and how we (as a group of enlightened souls) can take this concept further.
So I asked again: Partnerships between businesses and charities not only contribute significantly to the aims of charity and philanthropy, but they also have the ability to make considerable savings within a business. So is it not possible for businesses to look outside their sector to other stakeholders when trying to effect sustainable change?
The response was, in essence, "well, it's really the job of the charity to come up with the idea" How infuriating.
I compare that with my experience of Sara Dixon's Firm Elite Dinner I attended in the glorious Caledonian Club, yesterday evening. My co-host Simon Card OBE introduced the discussion for the evening - how do we ensure sustainability?
Around the table were professionals from law firms, banks, charities, professional services firms and consultancy. We had a really interesting and diverse group of people, all talking about how we can sustain our organisations, and the really interesting thing was that it wasn't anyone's day job to think about this stuff. But all of us got it.
Conversation was lead by Brian Bannister, Communications Director at PwC and Filippo Addarii, Exec Director of Euclid Network - an ACEVO spin out and joint venture.
Brian gave us some very interesting anecdotal evidence from his experience of change management and crisis management within a large, global corporation. Some of his key messages were:
*Broaden your outlook to engage those who shape your environment.
*In our digital world, by the time you know you have a problem, it's usually too late!
*Talk to your most harsh critics. Battle with them and the other fights will be won with greater ease.
*The era of Corporate Philanthropy is over.
*Corporate leaders need to be brave to survive. Neither success nor sustainability will come from shying away from problems.
Filippo gave us an international perspective - we must focus on solidarity, and look to reclaim the magic we once had.
His story was from his first years in London - when all was opportunity and possibility. Now our fair city has lost it's claim to be the most innovative in Europe, and Filippo's question was
"Where have all the optimists gone?"
He went on to say that civil society is the secret weapon - the silver bullet to regain our global standing. People connect about problems and passions - civil society is passionate about solving problems, so surely it must play a significant role in bringing back optimism.
Brian followed this by reminding us all of his Liverpudlian roots, and letting us into a spot of scouse lingo with which few were familiar: Optipessimism. This is a state of mind through which one can share in the joy of great things, but revert back to the outlook of Eyore in the blink of an eye - never disappointed! I'm glad to say not many were keen to adopt this!
But as we moved around the table, hearing from our diverse group, it became clear that we were more optimistic than many. There was an agreement that in order to achieve sustainability, we need to make things realistic, rather than remain in the doldrums of ideology.
We agreed that perception matters - look to our colleague and fellow diner Heidi, reputation manager at Project Associates for cases of how important it is. We agreed that in order to understand how we are perceived we must look to all of our value chain, not just colleagues, or suppliers or consumers as individual groups, but also the way they connect to form a perception landscape.
Trust comes from this - public opinion, branding, all of these are based on how we communicate, and how we are seen.
We talked at length about CSR and philanthropy, and again agreed about how the narrative has indeed moved on to one of sustainability - a move to the pragmatic and away from the ideological.
Charities have excellent public trust, very often good branding, and are perceived as a paragon of virtue. So how can we, the diverse group of people around the table, learn from this? Also, many corporations would love to be as well networked as their colleagues in the third sector (I think here of Stephen Bubb of course - who has more business cards than most business leaders, and most importantly, knows what to do with them!)
I made a point that we can not just learn from it, we can use it. Business and charity can work together, creating sustainable supply chains, engaging consumers in a range of ethical and virtuous activities and both benefit in absolute equal measure. And this, we finally agreed, is the much debated (and misunderstood) Big Society - in action. Working. Without intervention from government, before it even entered our lexicon.
this is something we can work on, can develop and bring forward. But slowly - as another very astute diner pointed out, patience is a virtue - let's do things with consideration to achieve sustainability.
Final thoughts were around two things - firstly, Al Gore's comment that to go fast we go alone, and to go far we go together. We need to do what John Wayne did best - build a posse and tackle the problems together.
Secondly, Filippo asked "Where are all the optimists?" A clear sign that this was his first Firm Elite Dinner, as we were all at the table.
Wednesday 21 July 2010
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Sustainable Business - from the horse's mouth
Yesterday evening, I attended a networking round table event - organised by Corporate Culture. The title for the discussion was "What is sustainable business and how is it different from CSR" A really interesting subject, with a few surprising outcomes.
Discussions were led by Mike Barry, who leads on Marks and Spencer's Plan-A campaign - In 2007, they came up with 100 commitments that would improve the sustainability of the company.
Both the CEO of Corporate Culture, John Drummond, and Mike are on the ACEVO sustainable business steering group, so we were in great company.
Also around the table were the top people on the issue from Investec, Royal Mail, Sainsbury's, Fairtrade Foundation, WWF, Arcadia Group, Unilever, Coutts & Co, Northern Foods and Tata Beverage Group. We were joined by Steve Howard, CEO of BITC for a short while also.
Mike's presentation looked at the case for creating a sustainable business, why it's different from CSR, how it works for them, followed by some thoughts for the future.
I won't transcribe the whole thing, as interesting as it was, but here are some choice quotes or things that resonated particularly with me:
*Everyone has at least one competitor that is redefining from CSR to sustainability; you can't afford not to do it.
*Sustainable businesses need to cover everything on the sustainability spectrum, not just the few good PR opportunities that CSR may cover.
*Human change is crucial. Those who can drive change are the ones who will succeed.
*Value chain is important - look outside to your stakeholders, suppliers, consumers and seek to build relationships with them and take them on a journey.
*The dull things are still important - things we can't make media hay out of still need to be done.
*It makes money! Plan A was expected to lose £40m in its first year. It is now making £50m profit.
*The low hanging fruit, the easy wins are gone. We need to focus on making difficult decisions, always involving trade-offs.
The discussion that followed was most interesting. Very quickly, we dispensed with a conversation on the language used. Do we call it CSR or sustainable business? Many thought it didn't matter, but I argued that it really does. CSR is 'yesterday', it's been exposed as shallow, PR driven and incomplete. Sustainable business is modern and progressive, it's 'tomorrow'. When talking to external stakeholders, especially in the third sector, it is vital that an image that looks forward to an enterprising future is presented.
What lies underneath the language, of course, is the most important - the activity carried out by the corporation. We all agreed that the fence painting and similar activities speak to a severe lack of understanding of what is needed.
Steve Howard brought up government - he had been to a discussion with Cleggeron yesterday morning to discuss Big Society, and said one big message from the session was championing the need for working in partnerships across sectors. This is great news for our work with the sustainable business forum, and I hope to capitalise on this mood by introducing our brokering and matching service. If two political parties can come together and form a working partnership based on transparency and collaboration, it gives us hope!
Final thoughts on the evening -
Change is key. Those who effect change, who champion a sea change within their organisation, who can garner the right amounts of support, and influence others will be the most successful.
We also need to take a role in translation. We all exist in a value chain, with stakeholders on either side of us - suppliers (of ideas, goods, services) and consumers (of our message, ideas or goods). We need to translate the passion of the consumer and ensure this appeals to the sensibilities and objectives of our suppliers. When we can achieve this kind of joined up, innovative and progressive thinking, we will be well on the way.
Discussions were led by Mike Barry, who leads on Marks and Spencer's Plan-A campaign - In 2007, they came up with 100 commitments that would improve the sustainability of the company.
Both the CEO of Corporate Culture, John Drummond, and Mike are on the ACEVO sustainable business steering group, so we were in great company.
Also around the table were the top people on the issue from Investec, Royal Mail, Sainsbury's, Fairtrade Foundation, WWF, Arcadia Group, Unilever, Coutts & Co, Northern Foods and Tata Beverage Group. We were joined by Steve Howard, CEO of BITC for a short while also.
Mike's presentation looked at the case for creating a sustainable business, why it's different from CSR, how it works for them, followed by some thoughts for the future.
I won't transcribe the whole thing, as interesting as it was, but here are some choice quotes or things that resonated particularly with me:
*Everyone has at least one competitor that is redefining from CSR to sustainability; you can't afford not to do it.
*Sustainable businesses need to cover everything on the sustainability spectrum, not just the few good PR opportunities that CSR may cover.
*Human change is crucial. Those who can drive change are the ones who will succeed.
*Value chain is important - look outside to your stakeholders, suppliers, consumers and seek to build relationships with them and take them on a journey.
*The dull things are still important - things we can't make media hay out of still need to be done.
*It makes money! Plan A was expected to lose £40m in its first year. It is now making £50m profit.
*The low hanging fruit, the easy wins are gone. We need to focus on making difficult decisions, always involving trade-offs.
The discussion that followed was most interesting. Very quickly, we dispensed with a conversation on the language used. Do we call it CSR or sustainable business? Many thought it didn't matter, but I argued that it really does. CSR is 'yesterday', it's been exposed as shallow, PR driven and incomplete. Sustainable business is modern and progressive, it's 'tomorrow'. When talking to external stakeholders, especially in the third sector, it is vital that an image that looks forward to an enterprising future is presented.
What lies underneath the language, of course, is the most important - the activity carried out by the corporation. We all agreed that the fence painting and similar activities speak to a severe lack of understanding of what is needed.
Steve Howard brought up government - he had been to a discussion with Cleggeron yesterday morning to discuss Big Society, and said one big message from the session was championing the need for working in partnerships across sectors. This is great news for our work with the sustainable business forum, and I hope to capitalise on this mood by introducing our brokering and matching service. If two political parties can come together and form a working partnership based on transparency and collaboration, it gives us hope!
Final thoughts on the evening -
Change is key. Those who effect change, who champion a sea change within their organisation, who can garner the right amounts of support, and influence others will be the most successful.
We also need to take a role in translation. We all exist in a value chain, with stakeholders on either side of us - suppliers (of ideas, goods, services) and consumers (of our message, ideas or goods). We need to translate the passion of the consumer and ensure this appeals to the sensibilities and objectives of our suppliers. When we can achieve this kind of joined up, innovative and progressive thinking, we will be well on the way.
Thursday 13 May 2010
Mentoring and networking
Just a quick update as I'm on the move a lot the next few weeks.
Today I'm having the first meeting of several with ACEVO members who are interested in one of our new mentoring programmes.
The context here goes back about 9 months - I met with John Stokoe, Vice President for National Government at BT first with Seb Elsworth (ACEVO director of strategy and author of fab blogsworth - http://sebelsworth.blogspot.com)
among other things, we discussed the work ACEVO do on developing leadership by facilitating cross-sector partnerships. Quite honestly, we had tried before but the resources hadn't been there to do the project justice. We had produced a great publication with great case study material etc. but there had been little follow up.
Here was a great opportunity to re-ignite the process! The next meeting was with Erin McFeely, my colleague in our Leeds office who has done a great deal of work around developing our leadership work. We floated the idea of partnership creation to John, who said the BT talent pool could be a great access point. Also, many of this group want to experience the third sector- seemed almost too good.
So Erin and I took these strands of ideas away and knocked them into shape and created a full proposal for John. It was at this stage that julia Richards got involved to create the matching part of the programme - she has created these on the past for large corporations and has had huge success doing so.
So skip ahead through the months and here we are - approval to run a large scale, nationwide mentoring programme between third sector CEOs and top BT execs. And I have a meeting with Matthew Thompson of the LCRN to discuss it later today.
It's easy to forget how much various people put into this project; I'm very lucky to be part of such a great team.
This evening, myself and my colleague Jazzmin (who works on all things sustainable business with me) are going to the spring conference of the pennies foundation- a great organisation who are getting into a very interesting area - using technology to generate point of sale charity donations. I met the CEO a few months back and am really looking forward to seeing how they have progressed. Hopefully there are some connections I might make to ACEVO's corporate partners who may be in a position to help. It will also present a great opportunity to meet some more potential corporates and, more importantly, spread the word about our sustainable business forum!
Today I'm having the first meeting of several with ACEVO members who are interested in one of our new mentoring programmes.
The context here goes back about 9 months - I met with John Stokoe, Vice President for National Government at BT first with Seb Elsworth (ACEVO director of strategy and author of fab blogsworth - http://sebelsworth.blogspot.com)
among other things, we discussed the work ACEVO do on developing leadership by facilitating cross-sector partnerships. Quite honestly, we had tried before but the resources hadn't been there to do the project justice. We had produced a great publication with great case study material etc. but there had been little follow up.
Here was a great opportunity to re-ignite the process! The next meeting was with Erin McFeely, my colleague in our Leeds office who has done a great deal of work around developing our leadership work. We floated the idea of partnership creation to John, who said the BT talent pool could be a great access point. Also, many of this group want to experience the third sector- seemed almost too good.
So Erin and I took these strands of ideas away and knocked them into shape and created a full proposal for John. It was at this stage that julia Richards got involved to create the matching part of the programme - she has created these on the past for large corporations and has had huge success doing so.
So skip ahead through the months and here we are - approval to run a large scale, nationwide mentoring programme between third sector CEOs and top BT execs. And I have a meeting with Matthew Thompson of the LCRN to discuss it later today.
It's easy to forget how much various people put into this project; I'm very lucky to be part of such a great team.
This evening, myself and my colleague Jazzmin (who works on all things sustainable business with me) are going to the spring conference of the pennies foundation- a great organisation who are getting into a very interesting area - using technology to generate point of sale charity donations. I met the CEO a few months back and am really looking forward to seeing how they have progressed. Hopefully there are some connections I might make to ACEVO's corporate partners who may be in a position to help. It will also present a great opportunity to meet some more potential corporates and, more importantly, spread the word about our sustainable business forum!
Friday 7 May 2010
Is big beautiful?
So I'm going to start every blog now with an apology for not writing for a while. This one is HUGE! I'm so very sorry, dear reader.
Now, onwards with blogging. Serious stuff.
I have recently been taking a lot of meetings with young, entrepreneurial types. This makes a considerable change from the law firms, accountancy practices and large firms whose primary interests are in corporate responsibility and sustainability, or developing new business contacts through large-scale, multilateral marketing strategies.
So which one is better? Is that even a fair question?
Well I like the entrepreneurial thing - I like the fact that an idea and a charismatic person can give life to a profitable and sustainable business. And the thirst for success is of course admirable, but what are the differences? Individuals in large multi-national companies have the same thirst for success, so it can't be that.
Large companies are powerful, and can use their significant balance sheets to invest, develop and market new products,and carve out a larger market share. Young innovators don't get this, but aren't naive enough to assume they can. That's not what they want.
The main difference is ownership. And not ownership of equity or assets, but ownership of the ideas and the intellectual property behind a business. Giving this away seems to be something you have to be willing to do in a large company.
Someone said to me two days ago that they have started companies, knowing that the shelf life will be fairly short. This means he can put it down, sell it, and start the next thing. In the technology space this is definitely an advantage.
So I'm not sure whether one is better, whether big is beautiful. For my purposes, I need to strike a balance between large companies who will join the debate on sustainable business - I am working a lot with Mike at M&S, who runs their Plan A strategy. I need businesses like this to be involved. When it comes to delivering services, I prefer dealing with innovative and progressive companies that have the 'fleet of foot' flexibility and mentality to suit how ACEVO works. So maybe beauty really is in the eye of the beholder...
The ACEVO sustainable business forum is going very well indeed - we are coming out of the planning stages and into marketing and development. I'm looking forward to our next catch up, when our chair Oliver Rothschild has returned from his latest travels. In the last few weeks I have been meeting with BT, with Joyce at Catch22, with Ben Brabyn to discuss marketplace creation and matchmaking, and with a number of firms who are interested in joining the network. We have also added John Drummond, CEO of Corporate Culture to the steering group. John has been working on sustainable business for a number of years, advising companies such as t-mobile and BSkyB on their sustainability strategies. I'm really glad he has decided to join us.
We are also doing a project with the CBI at the moment, about how private and third sectors have created partnerships to deliver public services. This will add significantly to the dialogue around sustainable business, and there is a great deal of cross-over between the two projects. A lot of people are joining this movement to make conversations between sectors more transparent and easier - it is a really exciting time for us and our members.
Now, onwards with blogging. Serious stuff.
I have recently been taking a lot of meetings with young, entrepreneurial types. This makes a considerable change from the law firms, accountancy practices and large firms whose primary interests are in corporate responsibility and sustainability, or developing new business contacts through large-scale, multilateral marketing strategies.
So which one is better? Is that even a fair question?
Well I like the entrepreneurial thing - I like the fact that an idea and a charismatic person can give life to a profitable and sustainable business. And the thirst for success is of course admirable, but what are the differences? Individuals in large multi-national companies have the same thirst for success, so it can't be that.
Large companies are powerful, and can use their significant balance sheets to invest, develop and market new products,and carve out a larger market share. Young innovators don't get this, but aren't naive enough to assume they can. That's not what they want.
The main difference is ownership. And not ownership of equity or assets, but ownership of the ideas and the intellectual property behind a business. Giving this away seems to be something you have to be willing to do in a large company.
Someone said to me two days ago that they have started companies, knowing that the shelf life will be fairly short. This means he can put it down, sell it, and start the next thing. In the technology space this is definitely an advantage.
So I'm not sure whether one is better, whether big is beautiful. For my purposes, I need to strike a balance between large companies who will join the debate on sustainable business - I am working a lot with Mike at M&S, who runs their Plan A strategy. I need businesses like this to be involved. When it comes to delivering services, I prefer dealing with innovative and progressive companies that have the 'fleet of foot' flexibility and mentality to suit how ACEVO works. So maybe beauty really is in the eye of the beholder...
The ACEVO sustainable business forum is going very well indeed - we are coming out of the planning stages and into marketing and development. I'm looking forward to our next catch up, when our chair Oliver Rothschild has returned from his latest travels. In the last few weeks I have been meeting with BT, with Joyce at Catch22, with Ben Brabyn to discuss marketplace creation and matchmaking, and with a number of firms who are interested in joining the network. We have also added John Drummond, CEO of Corporate Culture to the steering group. John has been working on sustainable business for a number of years, advising companies such as t-mobile and BSkyB on their sustainability strategies. I'm really glad he has decided to join us.
We are also doing a project with the CBI at the moment, about how private and third sectors have created partnerships to deliver public services. This will add significantly to the dialogue around sustainable business, and there is a great deal of cross-over between the two projects. A lot of people are joining this movement to make conversations between sectors more transparent and easier - it is a really exciting time for us and our members.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Firm Elite Dinner - 16th March
I have recently been appointed to the advisory board of Firm Elite – a group of engaging and inspiring professionals from both third and private sectors.
We all share a passion for building networks and creating sustainable and collaborative relationships and our dinners serve as a dynamic forum for discussion.
Firm Elite meet every couple of months for dinner, when we exchange ideas and discuss specific topics. Last night, my first since joining the board, the topic was London, the status quo and future of this great city.
The location for this dinner was the Caledonian Club. It did not disappoint from the second I crossed the threshold: I was first to arrive, and have never encountered a more Scottish person at reception. I would imagine his name is Jock and I will forever remember him in full highland dress. I forget now whether he was or not. The dining room is beautiful, with some excellent watercolours of highland landscapes adorning the spaces between the bookshelves that contained leather bound, dusty volumes of Robert Burns, Almanacs of Scottish Antiquities, and the occasional Dickens.
Over some drinks, we mingled and briefly discussed the topic for the night and future events. We sat down to a delicious Roquefort tart, followed by lamb. As the wine was poured and we got to know our neighbours, the topic of the evening was formerly introduced by our co-host, Kehrela Hodkinson of the Hodkinson Law Group.
Benjamin Disraeli said that “London is a roost for every bird”, and while this statement carries a great deal of significance, one could suggest some birds are flocking here, while others are flying south in search of more hospitable climes. Why is this happening and what does the future hold? At this point of the evening I was sure that none of us we be much closer to answering these questions by the end of the evening. However, I also knew that I was about to hear some very informed, articulate and interesting opinions.
Discussions were led by Julian Rhys of Frostrow Capital and Derek Wright of Kleinwort Benson. Very interesting choices, made long before London lost our top spot as the world’s financial centre. The first question to be addressed was “Do we need to be in London to do business?” There are some very valid points to both sides of this: we are never more than a few feet from Blackberry, mobile phone or computer and conduct most business remotely, so why does it matter where we are? There are hundreds of extremely successful businesses that operate outside of London, so is our fear that removing ourselves from London will decimate business totally irrational? Andrew Pullman, MD of People Risk Solutions, said that he hadn’t had an office in London for years, and this not only had no effect on his business, but also had saved him considerable expense!
Contrary to this, some argue that you need to be near clients, to be near the action, the hubbub and the buzz of a large conurbation. There was a split in the room here. Each argument is equally valid and equally flawed – we shouldn’t need to be in London, but we really want to be.
The third sector viewpoint came up here: responding to a member survey around 2 years ago, ACEVO established an office in Leeds. There were a great number of our members who wanted a greater level of engagement with ACEVO, but were prevented by our location in London. A great number of them are delivering services to local areas, and therefore have no stakeholders in London. So we asked, we listened and we did. And the response was great: we are now offering valuable help to hundreds more members in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside.
The next point was around the future for London – what is happening now that will affect our beloved city in 5, 10 or 20 years. We reminded ourselves about the Olympic games, and how successful 2012 will be for London and the UK. However, is this a sustainable future? Plans are of course being made to ensure the sporting venues will be put to use after the post-games exodus, but there is a nagging doubt that we may be left with a games-shaped hole in our city.
Alongside this temporary peak of the activity around London, will be the cultural Olympiad. A festival of art, theatre and music has accompanied the games for some years, and London’s will sit next to some of the most impressive and extensive arts, heritage and cultural venues in the world.
At this point, we were joined by Philip Henson, a Partner at law firm Bargate Murray. He had been interviewing with the BBC and so arrived late. It was quite wrong-footing to see, as the last morsels of lamb were removed from the room, more cheese and leek tart arrive. I knew the Scots had interesting views on cuisine (not least the manifestly artery clogging deep-fried pizza), but surely not starter followed by main course followed by starter? All my fears were laid to rest when I realised that rather than join us for pudding, Philip was going to get the whole meal, and a very good thing – it was delicious!
Two themes appeared throughout the night throughout our discussions. The first was the idea of ‘UK Plc’, and how it is currently valued. The second was around the responsibility of the media for ensuring that the good news is heard, how London is promoted and how we shout about our successes.
These two combine nicely, and as a group of rational beings we might quite rightly assume that the press is to blame. Luckily, we had a representative of the media with us. Chrissie Smith is a trainer with Electric Airwaves, the media training group and has advised many nervous or inexperienced professionals on how to deal with and engage with tricky interviews, and more importantly, tricky interviewers. It was really interesting to hear a seasoned journalist talking about how media and press can play such a vital role in the communication of ideas.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and look forward to the next event. These dinners are a fantastic opportunity to slow down our thoughts and devote some real time to issues that interest us, affect us and allow us to find new relationships and areas for future collaboration.
Richard McKelvey 17th March 2010
We all share a passion for building networks and creating sustainable and collaborative relationships and our dinners serve as a dynamic forum for discussion.
Firm Elite meet every couple of months for dinner, when we exchange ideas and discuss specific topics. Last night, my first since joining the board, the topic was London, the status quo and future of this great city.
The location for this dinner was the Caledonian Club. It did not disappoint from the second I crossed the threshold: I was first to arrive, and have never encountered a more Scottish person at reception. I would imagine his name is Jock and I will forever remember him in full highland dress. I forget now whether he was or not. The dining room is beautiful, with some excellent watercolours of highland landscapes adorning the spaces between the bookshelves that contained leather bound, dusty volumes of Robert Burns, Almanacs of Scottish Antiquities, and the occasional Dickens.
Over some drinks, we mingled and briefly discussed the topic for the night and future events. We sat down to a delicious Roquefort tart, followed by lamb. As the wine was poured and we got to know our neighbours, the topic of the evening was formerly introduced by our co-host, Kehrela Hodkinson of the Hodkinson Law Group.
Benjamin Disraeli said that “London is a roost for every bird”, and while this statement carries a great deal of significance, one could suggest some birds are flocking here, while others are flying south in search of more hospitable climes. Why is this happening and what does the future hold? At this point of the evening I was sure that none of us we be much closer to answering these questions by the end of the evening. However, I also knew that I was about to hear some very informed, articulate and interesting opinions.
Discussions were led by Julian Rhys of Frostrow Capital and Derek Wright of Kleinwort Benson. Very interesting choices, made long before London lost our top spot as the world’s financial centre. The first question to be addressed was “Do we need to be in London to do business?” There are some very valid points to both sides of this: we are never more than a few feet from Blackberry, mobile phone or computer and conduct most business remotely, so why does it matter where we are? There are hundreds of extremely successful businesses that operate outside of London, so is our fear that removing ourselves from London will decimate business totally irrational? Andrew Pullman, MD of People Risk Solutions, said that he hadn’t had an office in London for years, and this not only had no effect on his business, but also had saved him considerable expense!
Contrary to this, some argue that you need to be near clients, to be near the action, the hubbub and the buzz of a large conurbation. There was a split in the room here. Each argument is equally valid and equally flawed – we shouldn’t need to be in London, but we really want to be.
The third sector viewpoint came up here: responding to a member survey around 2 years ago, ACEVO established an office in Leeds. There were a great number of our members who wanted a greater level of engagement with ACEVO, but were prevented by our location in London. A great number of them are delivering services to local areas, and therefore have no stakeholders in London. So we asked, we listened and we did. And the response was great: we are now offering valuable help to hundreds more members in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside.
The next point was around the future for London – what is happening now that will affect our beloved city in 5, 10 or 20 years. We reminded ourselves about the Olympic games, and how successful 2012 will be for London and the UK. However, is this a sustainable future? Plans are of course being made to ensure the sporting venues will be put to use after the post-games exodus, but there is a nagging doubt that we may be left with a games-shaped hole in our city.
Alongside this temporary peak of the activity around London, will be the cultural Olympiad. A festival of art, theatre and music has accompanied the games for some years, and London’s will sit next to some of the most impressive and extensive arts, heritage and cultural venues in the world.
At this point, we were joined by Philip Henson, a Partner at law firm Bargate Murray. He had been interviewing with the BBC and so arrived late. It was quite wrong-footing to see, as the last morsels of lamb were removed from the room, more cheese and leek tart arrive. I knew the Scots had interesting views on cuisine (not least the manifestly artery clogging deep-fried pizza), but surely not starter followed by main course followed by starter? All my fears were laid to rest when I realised that rather than join us for pudding, Philip was going to get the whole meal, and a very good thing – it was delicious!
Two themes appeared throughout the night throughout our discussions. The first was the idea of ‘UK Plc’, and how it is currently valued. The second was around the responsibility of the media for ensuring that the good news is heard, how London is promoted and how we shout about our successes.
These two combine nicely, and as a group of rational beings we might quite rightly assume that the press is to blame. Luckily, we had a representative of the media with us. Chrissie Smith is a trainer with Electric Airwaves, the media training group and has advised many nervous or inexperienced professionals on how to deal with and engage with tricky interviews, and more importantly, tricky interviewers. It was really interesting to hear a seasoned journalist talking about how media and press can play such a vital role in the communication of ideas.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and look forward to the next event. These dinners are a fantastic opportunity to slow down our thoughts and devote some real time to issues that interest us, affect us and allow us to find new relationships and areas for future collaboration.
Richard McKelvey 17th March 2010
Tuesday 2 March 2010
One year in - progress report
Appalling - I have not written on this for ages. After resolving to blog once a week, I am getting around to it maybe twice a month. tut. Could do better.
However, what I lack in frequency hopefully is made up for in energy and fervour.
I have recently chalked up my first year at ACEVO - last Tuesday 23rd was the date. It has been a very informative and indeed, formative 12 months.
I came to the job knowing little about the third sector, and less about how difficult the role of a charity CEO could be. I am lucky enough to have been surrounded by and introduced to some of the most engaged and brightest thinkers in the sector, and have learned a great deal from them all. Internally, the directors at ACEVO have a ferocious combined knowledge: whether it's running a charity, engaging with the government or large, cumbersome entities like the UN and EU, we have some of the best people around. So first thought is a sense of pride to be involved in this work.
The next is a sense of what more there is to do. It's a question I'm often asking myself and others: "What more can we do?" We have a cohort of members with significant needs and concerns, and there is always a push for better performance.
On my side of the business, looking after our corporate partners, I am always striving to increase the return on their investment. This has come from implementing strategic changes and changing how we communicate what we offer, from adding the resource we put into the department, and from increasing the communications that are specifically for our corporates.
Another point comes from this - one around change. ACEVO loves change. Really can't get enough. Whether it's changing the architecture of the sector, or in much smaller ways - changing internal operations to increase efficiency and drive up performance.
Looking ahead, there is much to be done. The SB forum is in its infancy, and this is going to be a hugely exciting piece of work.
The corporate partnerships side of the job is going from strength to strength - more are joining and we are delivering in a much more coherent way.
We are coming into a very busy time for renewals - a third of our full members and almost half our corporates renew in April. This is a real test for us - the % of renewals is a great indicator - a report card - of how well we are listening and responding to our members.
More to come on the Sustainable Business Forum this week - I am writing the paper for it tomorrow morning. Watch this space.
However, what I lack in frequency hopefully is made up for in energy and fervour.
I have recently chalked up my first year at ACEVO - last Tuesday 23rd was the date. It has been a very informative and indeed, formative 12 months.
I came to the job knowing little about the third sector, and less about how difficult the role of a charity CEO could be. I am lucky enough to have been surrounded by and introduced to some of the most engaged and brightest thinkers in the sector, and have learned a great deal from them all. Internally, the directors at ACEVO have a ferocious combined knowledge: whether it's running a charity, engaging with the government or large, cumbersome entities like the UN and EU, we have some of the best people around. So first thought is a sense of pride to be involved in this work.
The next is a sense of what more there is to do. It's a question I'm often asking myself and others: "What more can we do?" We have a cohort of members with significant needs and concerns, and there is always a push for better performance.
On my side of the business, looking after our corporate partners, I am always striving to increase the return on their investment. This has come from implementing strategic changes and changing how we communicate what we offer, from adding the resource we put into the department, and from increasing the communications that are specifically for our corporates.
Another point comes from this - one around change. ACEVO loves change. Really can't get enough. Whether it's changing the architecture of the sector, or in much smaller ways - changing internal operations to increase efficiency and drive up performance.
Looking ahead, there is much to be done. The SB forum is in its infancy, and this is going to be a hugely exciting piece of work.
The corporate partnerships side of the job is going from strength to strength - more are joining and we are delivering in a much more coherent way.
We are coming into a very busy time for renewals - a third of our full members and almost half our corporates renew in April. This is a real test for us - the % of renewals is a great indicator - a report card - of how well we are listening and responding to our members.
More to come on the Sustainable Business Forum this week - I am writing the paper for it tomorrow morning. Watch this space.
Wednesday 10 February 2010
First Steering Group Meeting
So after all the planning, today it finally came together.
The ACEVO sustainable business forum had its first steering group meeting.
We met at 10am, and I have to say the whole meeting surpassed all expectation.
The line-up, once again is:
One that I really liked was "We are here to create a new model of working"
Oliver, our chair, put it very well:
"It is a simple problem with a complex solution: we need to talk the same language by breaking down barriers"
We agreed that as well as sending the right messages, we also need to focus on how we communicate.
I could go on listing these little snippets that came up every so often, but will end with one of the most interesting and truly inspiring:
"Marks and Spencer would not be able to carry out our corporate objectives without our partnerships with third sector organisations" (I paraphrase, but I'm sure Mike will confirm!)
So, what next? I am writing a paper, based on today's discussion. This will outline the handful of 'building blocks' that we believe create the ideal partnership. From this, we will be able to reach out into our networks and create a movement.
This movement will be 50 - 100 people strong, split evenly between third and private sector. From this, we will create an influential lobbying group.
There is a definite call to action here. If you have any interest in this agenda, you can't afford not to be in this forum.
The ACEVO sustainable business forum had its first steering group meeting.
We met at 10am, and I have to say the whole meeting surpassed all expectation.
The line-up, once again is:
Oliver Rothschild, Chairman, Rothschild Corporate Advisors
Ben Brabyn, CEO and Founder, Bmycharity
John Stokoe, Vice President National Government, BT
Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business, Marks and Spencer
Allison Ogden-Newton, CEO, Social Enterprise London
Joyce Moseley, CEO, Catch-22
Charlotte Goodman, Director of Business Mobilisation, Virgin Unite
Clare Tickell, CEO, Action for Children
We began by outlining what each of us wanted to get out of the group, what we had to bring to the group, and what we saw as the most important outcome. This was a really interesting exercise, mostly due to how aligned we all are in our thinking. You can see from the list above how diverse the backgrounds are, so would expect a certain degree of diversity in the opinions and objectives around sustainable business. But no! We all agreed that (amongst others): relationships are key for sustainable growth; private organisations rely on the third sector and should therefore support it; there is often a disconnect between the understanding of 3rd and private sectors entering into a partnership.One that I really liked was "We are here to create a new model of working"
Oliver, our chair, put it very well:
"It is a simple problem with a complex solution: we need to talk the same language by breaking down barriers"
We agreed that as well as sending the right messages, we also need to focus on how we communicate.
I could go on listing these little snippets that came up every so often, but will end with one of the most interesting and truly inspiring:
"Marks and Spencer would not be able to carry out our corporate objectives without our partnerships with third sector organisations" (I paraphrase, but I'm sure Mike will confirm!)
So, what next? I am writing a paper, based on today's discussion. This will outline the handful of 'building blocks' that we believe create the ideal partnership. From this, we will be able to reach out into our networks and create a movement.
This movement will be 50 - 100 people strong, split evenly between third and private sector. From this, we will create an influential lobbying group.
There is a definite call to action here. If you have any interest in this agenda, you can't afford not to be in this forum.
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