Deloitte's Social Innovation Pioneers programme helps businesses with a social benefit succeed – but what if we could do more? That's the challenge from our senior partner Ian Steele.
Ask most businesses these days if they have a CSR policy and they'll almost always say 'yes'. Which is fine, I guess.
There's an acknowledgement that business does have a responsibility to contribute to broader society, whether that's through charitable donations, allowing staff days off to undertake volunteer work, or whatever. Again, all fine.
Categorising corporate social responsibility as some kind of policy – a box to be ticked – for me undersells the importance of organisations with resource, talent, expertise, contacts, networks and funding being able to genuinely do some good.
One strand of Deloitte's approach to this is the Social Innovation Pioneers programme. This invites applications from social enterprises, i.e. businesses which have social good as the key metric on their balance sheets, for a year's worth of mentoring and business support from some of Deloitte's senior people. The idea is that we can help them take a great idea and turn it into a great business, so they can amplify their intended benefit to society.
In Scotland, we have recently added two more such businesses: Social Bite, the fast-growing sandwich shop which started in Edinburgh; and Glencraft, the Aberdeen-based mattress, divan and furniture manufacturer and supplier.
In the case of the former, founder Josh Littlejohn has created a high street sandwich shop to rival the major established brands, donating every penny of profit to good causes. His policy requires at least a quarter of the employees to be ex homeless people.
For Glencraft, while award-winning mattresses and divans are its core business, it has combined high-quality products with a staff made up of people with a range of disabilities.
Both are just two examples of extraordinary, inspiring organisations which could probably (definitely) teach some of us a thing or two. And that's the thing. Our people who spend time with these businesses probably learn as much as they impart.
The question then becomes about which good causes, charities or social businesses do you actually support? The energy, drive and determination of the people involved in these organisations is boundless, as is the source of that energy, so why may they look to us for support?
The reasons why we get involved with these projects are many and varied. I don't really care what we write down as the reasons, as long as we do it. Where we fit in is doing what we can to make good businesses even better with the consequence that more people will benefit from what they do. Indirectly, we hope to help a wee bit to make some people's lives a little better. If we are able to do that we absolutely should do it, and when combined with an enthusiasm to get involved by people throughout our firm, it would be more difficult to decide not to direct some of our resources in this direction.
There's a benefit for us too, of course. Deloitte is always trying to attract and retain the best people – the definition of "best" is not just being bright and prepared to work hard. It includes finding talented people who want to do something a bit different; who want to work with their colleagues to give a little back.
Providing a stimulating working environment, an attractive career path with clear opportunity, paying well, offering exposure to attractive clients and geographies is all part of it too – but more than ever, ambitious and talented people want to be proud of where they work and what their employer does to support people in challenging circumstances; to make a difference to people.
Lots of businesses state values and make claims – increasingly, people want to know what's behind the nice words and how much of it is genuine.
We'll keep supporting these kind of initiatives, and not because we want to be seen to be making a difference, but because I want us to actually make a difference. I'd love for us to be able to do more, but if we can help a social enterprise go from level one to level three, then we'll have at least made a start.
There's a growing number of businesses which have social good as their top priority, and an increasing awareness among the general public of the difference they can make by supporting them. For organisations like ours, making a meaningful, genuine and long-term contribution to the success of social enterprises needs to be a significant part of how we do business in the modern world.
For more information on Deloitte's Social Innovation Pioneers programme, or to learn how to get involved, click here.
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