Flint & Steel Volume 02 - when business meets social

ISSN 2382-1965

9 772382 196008

The Tipping Point 04 | Business Unusual 11 | How Social Enterprises Work and What They Need to Grow 16 | Inside Enspiral Space 22 | Perspective Tilt 30 | Doing Good and Making Money 34 | More Than Profit 37 | Worlds Together 41 | Seeing the Possible 44

NZD $13.95 INC GST SUMMER 2014

volume 02 - when business meets social

CONTENTS Editorial The Tipping Point / MJ Kaplan Business Unusual / Jaimee Abict How Social Enterprises Work and What They Need to Grow / Alex Hannant Inside Enspiral Space / Stephan Vermeulen & Nakita Whittaker Perspective Tilt / Michelle Sharp Doing Good and Making Money / Jeremy Vargo More Than Profit / Murray Sheard Worlds Together / Kareen Hillenaar Seeing the Possible / Hannah Smith

02 04 11 16 22 30 34 37 41 44

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EDITORIAL Editor/Art Director Jaimee Abict Designer Caleb Mays Sub-Editors Jeremy Vargo Joanne Abernethy Editorial Assistant Danielle van Dalen Photography Stephan Vermeulen Nakita Whittaker (unless otherwise stated) Printer Westprint Publisher Maxim Institute editorial@flintandsteelmag.com flintandsteelmag.com We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of these people in helping us navigate the world of social business: Line Silseth, Emeline Afeaki Mafile'o, Billy Matheson, Stephen Tindall, Elliott Blade, Hannah Smith, MJ Kaplan, Mark Powell, Alex Hannant, Silvia Zuur, Anake Goodall, Joel Umali Copyright © 2014 Maxim Institute ISSN 2382-1965 Maxim Institute is a not-for-profit independent research think tank, based in Auckland.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from the publishers. The views expressed in Flint & Steel are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the publication or its staff.

Welcome to the second volume of Flint & Steel.

This annual publication aims to live up to its moniker’s metaphor: we want it to spark thought and creativity. In curating a variety of ideas around a central theme each year, we hope to provide a chance for readers to think deeply about the things that affect all of us.

We are also trying to bring back the long read, by the by. Technology might have rewired many of us to read in 140 character increments, but we still believe in ink on bound paper, quiet corners, and phones on airplane mode every now and then. It’s good for humanity.

THE 2014 VOLUME: WHEN BUSINESS MEETS SOCIAL The business world is going through an intriguing shake-up. Stories of brave innovation among the traditional business set, creative entrepreneurial adventure, and communities rallying, all with a common fixation: tackling the world’s most “wicked,” seemingly indomitable social and environmental issues. Poverty. Educational failure. Environmental waste. Damaged oceans and marine eco-systems. A solution? Business—but different.

From coffee growing, to embroidering, to web coding, to toy making; you’re about to learn how social businesses are disrupting the norm, and clearing the path for a host of novel ways to tackle old problems. And it’s up to us—the card-swipers, the consumers, the vaguely labelled “general public”—to vote with our feet and our wallets, and decide whether the demand for such business grows.

You’ll hear the words “social enterprise” in here a lot. What I’ve discovered is that there’s a thriving sector helpfully labelled thus, and beyond it, there’s also a bunch of folk out there in traditional, mainstream organisations, trying their darndest to be more intentional about how to help both people and planet through what they do every day—all while making profit. It’s a continuum.

Those raised on a TV diet of The Wombles and Captain Planet may be leading the charge on this one, but they aren’t alone. In the UK a few years ago, the Secretary for Civil Society was given the responsibility for growing social enterprise, and the sector is on the up-and-up.

While New Zealand has been slower to catch on, the concept is now piquing interest here across vastly different industries.

After reading what this volume’s contributors had to say, it struck me that if momentum continues at this pace, the next generation will be bewildered that we used to do mainstream business the way we do now. The difference? Organisations prioritising a healthy social impact will thrive. This is far from “fluffy altruism.” Our collective social conscience is always changing, and the years ahead could well herald seismic cultural change if recent events are anything to go by. Take for example the “eco” awareness shift in the last 20 years, and imagine trying to justify the presence of recycling bins at every desk to your average office manager back in 1994.

Let the disclaimer resound: in canvassing such a world of human activity, we could’ve created a tome seven times this size, and still contemplated a sequel. What follows is simply a snapshot of what’s happening out there.

My hope is this: that you will be inspired to think laterally about ways you can put a new lens on your own vocation, whatever that may look like. It’s a lifelong challenge, and it’s one being taken up by hundreds of thousands of people in this country every day.

Jaimee Abict, Editor Editorial | 03

04 | The Tipping Point

The TIPPING POINT MJ KAPLAN

With the social enterprise sector emerging globally as a force to be reckoned with, how’s New Zealand faring? Fulbright Scholar MJ Kaplan travelled from Northland to Dunedin to find out.

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he first time I visited Te Hana Te Ao Marama Māori Cultural Centre in 2013, a group of American travel agents were visiting the property. They were delighted to offer their clients an authentic Māori cultural experience near Auckland. For my part, I was in awe of the dogged determination of volunteers to save a community on the verge of collapse. The demise started in the 1980s when the dairy closed, along with the disappearance of railroad and forestry jobs. Unemployment soared. Youth left school in droves; 85% by age 15, and drug and alcohol addiction increased dramatically. In 2004, the Council decided to abandon the town due to hazardous living conditions, lack of potable water, and crime.

Linda Clapham, Thomas de Thierry and other members of the tangata whenua had a different idea. They envisioned a beautiful, culturally and socially vibrant place of opportunity. They coordinated efforts to raise funds, upgrade infrastructure, and lease land. They planted 15,000 trees to protect the water quality of the river and “did what needed to be done,” according to Linda. Trust members volunteered thousands of hours to realise their dream. Today, Te Hana Te Ao Marama is a gorgeous property. The marae was the second in New Zealand to receive the official tourism mark of quality.

They offer marae visits with overnight accommodation, a cafe, an indigenous art and craft studio, cultural concerts, and tours of a 17th Century replica of a pre-European Māori fortified village. Over 7500 students visit annually. Local residents operate Te Hana, and revenue is reinvested into education, upskilling, and social programmes for youth.

Te Hana is a social enterprise. Fundamentally, it exists to serve multiple social and environmental purposes. They create employment, care for the natural environment, support local youth, educate school children about Māori culture, and maybe most importantly, serve as a symbol for community empowerment.

Like any social enterprise, Te Hana is also a bona fide business.

Any startup that involves property development takes substantial capital risk, so achieving profitability has been an arduous task for over ten years. As of last year, the operation was debt-free, valued at approximately $4 million. They have a 99-year lease on the land from the Council. Once they earn profits—anticipated in the next few years—they can expand community programmes without depending on charity.

EARLY STAGES I arrived in Wellington from the US in 2013 as an Ian Axford Fellow, to explore questions about the impact and perceptions of social enterprise in New Zealand. I was based in the policy office of the Ministry of Youth Development in the Ministry of Social Development. I quickly became aware that social enterprise is at a very early stage in New Zealand, and set out to better understand the field and whether social enterprise merits policy attention here. I travelled extensively from Northland to Dunedin to interview people from diverse backgrounds and roles, drinking countless flat whites with executives from not-for-profits, students, business leaders, investors, Māori entrepreneurs, and many others. I researched the

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field, seeking to understand it from a historical perspective as well as through the lens of New Zealand’s contemporary economic, social, environmental, cultural, and political life. I came to appreciate that overall, social enterprise is poorly understood, and that this confusion inhibits its potential.

Social enterprise is a fuzzy concept in New Zealand and globally. This confusion is understandable because the field is new. Internationally, there is no precise or agreed upon definition in government, academia, or among practitioners. Various constituencies have developed definitions, but these vary depending on the source and audience. What is clear is that the public, private, and community sectors are blurring in the quest for better, faster, cheaper solutions to complex and entrenched social and environmental problems. Social enterprise, sometimes described as a fourth sector (after the trifecta that is public, private, and not-for-profits), seems to be a market response to these shifts, applying business models to achieve positive social and environmental change.

Social businesses aim to achieve social impact more efficiently than government, more sustainably and creatively than not-for-profits, and more generously than business.

Some leaders view the emergence of social enterprise as evidence that capitalism is fundamentally transforming. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, calls this shift “creative capitalism.” In 2007 he stated:

06 | The Tipping Point

“We can make market forces work better for the poor if we develop a more creative capitalism—if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities.”

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter describes the responsibility of business to generate both economic and social value as “shared value.” He advocates that capitalism has betrayed its promise by focussing on a narrow equation of value with shortterm economic returns. Whether or not these interpretations prove prescient, new types of ventures that blend social purpose and market-based enterprise are growing and gaining prominence.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISES VS. NOT-FOR-PROFITS Several combined attributes differentiate social enterprises from traditional businesses and conventional not-for-profits: • Intent—fundamentally, social enterprises exist to address social and/or environmental problems, and • Business models—these ventures employ business models, skills and tools to develop products and services, that are traded in the marketplace, and • Profits—ownership is structured to assure that profits are reinvested to advance the core social/environmental mission and grow the enterprise sustainably One reason that social enterprise confuses people is that legal forms have not caught up to match the blended purposes. Social ventures are not-for-profits, for-profit businesses, and hybrids; and they operate in every industry imaginable. (This continuum is illustrated in the graphic).

On the far right of the graphic are commercial businesses that focus squarely on producing profits for owners or shareholders.

Businesses that “do good” contribute money and/or time to support the community, but these activities are tangential to their core purpose of maximising profits. Generally, marketing departments manage these efforts, which can tend to serve a public relations function more than authentic social impact.

Businesses approaching social responsibility with stronger commitment and investment may fit Porter’s notion of shared value.

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, founded in 1978, was the early poster child for a socially responsible business. When the company was sold to Unilever in 2000, it was criticised for conceding profits over social responsibility. A similar controversy is following the recent sale of 50% ownership of TOMS shoes to Bain Capital. TOMS pioneered a model of social impact through its innovative one-to-one giving campaign, which gives one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair it sells—donating 10 million pairs of new shoes to date. As TOMS gained commercial success, its credentials as a true social enterprise started to be questioned. The leveraged buy-out by private equity firm Bain was valued at $625 million USD, and even though Bain endorses an ongoing commitment to pursue TOMS’ social purpose, sceptics abound. The sale raises questions about whether enterprises started for social impact lose their independence and accountability once private investors underwrite their growth.

An example of a social purpose business in New Zealand is All Good Organics, which distributes fair trade beverages and bananas.

The owners explain on their website that they are passionate about treating growers fairly, caring for the natural environment sustainably, and producing a healthy, organic product. Even though All Good Organics is a commercial business, concern for responsible practices is central to their operation. This commitment was recognised with an International Fairtrade award in June of this year.

Not-for-profits exclusively funded by government and/or philanthropy typically serve the most vulnerable people and community needs. Since this is a fundamental role of government and philanthropy, the financial viability of these organisations should not depend on the whims of market forces. Some not-for-profits have had trading operations for years, primarily to diversify income streams and strengthen financial stability. Before social enterprise

entered the lexicon, the term “earned income” described these operations. For instance, consumers pay for tickets to attend cultural events sponsored by not-for-profits. People purchase second hand items at op shops, aware that the proceeds support causes such as The Salvation Army or a hospice. Whether or not these not-forprofits define themselves as a social enterprise, they still exist to serve a core social mission and use revenues from commercial operations to fund this social purpose.

A NEW BOTTOM LINE Social enterprises measure a “double bottom line” encompassing both social and profit benefit, and even a “triple bottom line” once the environment is also factored in. In some countries, specific criteria designate requirements for these competing priorities. For instance, certification from the Social Enterprise Mark in the UK requires a social enterprise to earn at least 50 per cent of its revenue from trading. Benefit Corporation certification, commonly known as B-Corp, also establishes criteria to validate social and environmental guidelines. Patagonia, the outdoors clothing and equipment company, may be the most wellknown B-Corp company. Certification is gaining popularity; there are approximately 1000 companies in 60 industries and 27 countries currently certified. Eagle Consumables, a New Zealand company, earned B-Corp certification in 2012. The company imports and distributes disposable products to the food processing/preparation, medical, automotive, cleaning, and beauty industries.

As these examples suggest, there really is no such thing as a “classic” social enterprise. Ventures vary as widely as the complex issues facing communities do. Social enterprises deliver job training and make available micro-loans; they design, develop and distribute healthcare products to people in need. Hybrid businesses are redefining approaches to education and energy. New enterprises emerge in response to emergent needs, as happened after the earthquake in Christchurch. EPIC, Enterprise Precinct and Innovation Campus, is one example. Wil McLellan was running a successful technology business when the earthquake destroyed both his business and home. With co-founder Colin Anderson, they developed a site for 16 tech businesses that were also struggling to get back to work. Rather than relocate away from the city, they were

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determined to contribute to rebuilding the CBD. EPIC is a symbol of resilience, a sanctuary for these businesses and an important gathering space for the community. EPIC blends commercial and social purposes. Wil was selected for the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship and will be in the US in late 2014 to expand EPIC’s network of innovators and its reach of social and commercial impact.

WikiHouse is another social enterprise that emerged in response to Christchurch’s post-disaster housing crisis. Danny Squires and Martin Luff found the rebuilding plans to be inadequate; in their opinion missing opportunities to apply innovative solutions in the wake of the disaster. WikiHouse is a construction set that enables anyone to design and build durable, versatile buildings. Originating in the UK, this unique system is affordable and eco-friendly. Squires and Luff left successful careers and stable salaries to pursue this venture, and the journey hasn’t been easy. They had trouble securing early stage investment from private, public, and philanthropic sources in New Zealand because their company doesn’t fit the traditional criteria for these separate markets. Now, after three laborious years, WikiHouse is poised to shift from a cutting edge idea to a marketable product in the next six to nine months. It has taken tenacious determination to persuade a range of partners to support a product that could revolutionise the housing industry.

Social enterprises in New Zealand face an uphill battle, with negligible support from government, philanthropy, academia, or

08 | The Tipping Point

business. I detailed these issues in my fellowship report, which can be accessed through Fulbright New Zealand. In February 2014, the Government made a slight shift from its previously agnostic position toward the field, articulating a formal position statement on social enterprise. This position signalled the Government’s willingness to partner with businesses and the community sector to enable an environment where social enterprises could grow and attract investment. The announcement was complemented by a privatepublic partnership investment of $1.27 million.

I returned to New Zealand in May 2014, and the new interest in the field was palpable. I led workshops in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch and was impressed by newcomers pursuing the field and the presence of new initiatives to cultivate startups and venture growth. I was also especially impressed by Canterbury Community Trust’s leadership to launch a social enterprise fund. The Trust is a pioneer in search of more innovative and impactful solutions to the challenges facing Christchurch, even while investment vehicles for blended structures are complex.

One sector in New Zealand that is remarkably out of step with international trends is academia. Last year, I only identified a handful of options for university papers in social enterprise, and none of these for undergraduates. In contrast, in the US and around the globe students are flocking to the field of social enterprise, launching new ventures and inspiring a whole new generation of business savvy social change leaders.

THE NEW WAVE Even youth at intermediate level are getting in on the act. In my home community of Rhode Island, intermediate students started Turn Grease Into Fuel (TGIF) in response to a request for a donation for heating assistance for low-income residents of their community.

Rather than simply make a cash donation, these industrious students researched the process of converting recycled cooking grease into fuel. They orchestrated a new city ordinance and launched an enterprise that earned them international acclaim.

I teach at Brown University where social enterprise had virtually no presence a dozen years ago. Now, we have a dedicated fellowship programme for undergraduate students that includes mentoring and summer funding. There are academic courses, extra-curricular programmes, and conferences. Social entrepreneurs on campus partner actively with community innovators, and many of these students pursue their ventures full time after graduation. I teach a class exclusively for students engaged actively in a social venture.

Two of the students are developing a new beverage from the gac berry that grows in the highlands of Vietnam and has unique health properties. They spent the summer working with farmers in Vietnam to improve production in anticipation of US distribution. Another student developed NBA Math Hoops, a game that makes it fun to learn maths. He put his studies on hold for a year, won a national enterprise competition, and transformed his concept into a marketready product. When he graduates in January he’ll work full time to

grow the enterprise. In my experience, students often turn the kernel of an idea into a legitimate enterprise faster than traditional startups do. For instance, in 2011 three students at the University of Maryland started a programme to redistribute leftover food from campus. They started expanding to other campuses in January 2012 and, as of May, 95 universities in more than 26 states had recovered over 400,000 pounds of food.

Record numbers of Millennials are keen to pursue careers that blend social purpose and commercial success. In fact, surveys indicate that Millennials anticipate weaving in and out of social purpose and commercial work, sometimes straddling sectors simultaneously. New Zealand would benefit from an investment in academic and extra-curricular programmes to tap into students’ talent and motivation to do well and do good.

Social enterprise is not a fad and it is not a panacea. The notion that enterprise can produce surplus funds to channel back into the community has existed in many cultures, including iwi, for generations. If we pay attention to this idea and the hybrids they result in, test their effectiveness and showcase success stories, we may find that we all benefit from sustainable ventures that produce profits and create a healthier world for all of us. *A portion of this article first appeared in MJ Kaplan's Fulbright report.

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ABOUT LOOMIO Loomio is changing the way the world makes decisions. Based in New Zealand, Loomio is a technology tool that makes it easy for people to participate in decisions that affect them. Students use Loomio in Hungary to address the cost of higher education. In Ukraine activists are using Loomio to collaborate during political upheaval. In fact, groups are making decisions using Loomio in Argentina, Turkey, Germany, and 70 other countries. Loomio is a social enterprise. It achieves social impact by supporting citizens to come to agreement on decisions that improve their communities.

Sometimes citizens work outside of government and at other times, they collaborate with officials to change policy. For instance, Wellington City Council engaged a variety of stakeholders to collectively revise the city’s alcohol policy, using the Loomio platform to discuss the issues and seek agreement.

Loomio is a free, open source tool (open source is a model of software development that promotes universal access and collaborative development). Loomio earns revenue from organisations that seek customised services, and businesses use the tool to improve team productivity and to engage with customers.

Not-for-profits and networks use Loomio to resolve important agreements without being restricted by meetings or conference calls.

I did a case study on Loomio as part of my research last year, and I was honoured to later be invited to join the team when I returned to the US. I believe deeply in the value of the tool because I have spent my career helping people strive to collaborate in work settings.

I know how draining it is to suffer through poorly run meetings that produce plenty of talk and few actionable decisions. My own experience with Loomio shows me that it is incredibly possible for diverse groups of people to work through their differences and agree to actions. When people affected by a decision contribute to its development, implementation flows more easily because the choices reflect people’s actual needs.

Being immersed in the challenges of developing Loomio, I am learning daily how tough it is to grow a sustainable social enterprise.

I am also convinced more than ever that these ventures are here to stay and will play a powerful role in improving the landscape of our natural environment and the well being of our communities. I hope so for the sake of my three children and generations yet to come. •

MJ founded Kaplan Consulting in 2000, focussing on strategic alignment and partnerships, following leadership roles in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. She was the 2013 Ian Axford Fellow researching social enterprise startups and youth development in New Zealand. MJ is Adjunct Professor at Brown University teaching social enterprise and strategy. She joined Loomio in 2014, a social enterprise tech startup. She is trustee of Social Enterprise Greenhouse and former board leader at The Miriam Hospital and Moses Brown School. MJ earned a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University.

10 | The Tipping Point

BUSINESS UNUSUAL JAIMEE ABICT

What do 6000 South Auckland kids, the United Nations, a Tongan coffee roastery, the oldest university in England, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force excursion over the Pacific with the New Zealand Prime Minister have in common? Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o.

Jaimee Abict |

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t’s a lot to take in. With her humble, understated manner belying a tornado of activity within the fields of entrepreneurship, community change, policy making, and education, it seems fitting to commence with further understatement: Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o has above-average capacity.

Her vocation can only be properly understood through the lens of her background. Of Tongan, Samoan, and Māori descent, her story began with migrant parents who settled in New Zealand from the Pacific Islands for their children’s sake.

“My mother worked two jobs, seven days a week as I grew up to ensure my siblings and I would have a good life,” she notes; a feat imitating the example of a generation beforehand, when Emeline’s grandmother travelled to New Zealand and worked three jobs to help pay for her own husband and 12 children to join her.

Now a mother of three young boys herself, the legacy of Emeline’s predecessors has been pivotal. “For me, the sacrifices of these women have become a significant cornerstone to what determines leadership in my life.”

Her trajectory makes your head spin. Growing up in South Auckland, Emeline never imagined herself graduating. Flicking

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| Business Unusual

through a magazine one day, she stumbled upon an advertisement for Massey University. She enrolled, and on entering her new classes, discovered a dormant love of learning.

Fast forward six years, she had completed a Bachelor of Social Work with Honours, worked as a practitioner mentoring teenage prostitutes and young women on the verge of suicide, and started her own youth mentoring agency, Affirming Women, out of a twobedroom unit in Auckland’s Papatoetoe.

This agency, now known as Affirming Works, has since mentored and provided educational programmes to over 6000 Pasifika children and youth in South Auckland schools.

Emeline designed the innovative, communitytailored approach, hiring over 120 staff over the past 13 years to keep up with demand.

Working across all school levels, these programmes address social and educational needs like literacy and numeracy, and assist the transition from school-to-work or further study; all based on a Pacific model of collective mentoring. Flying deftly in the face of national statistics, the last decade has seen the Affirming Works high school programme provide an astounding 80% National Certificate of Educational Achievement pass rate among students who complete the programme—well above the national average.

Image: Kareen Hillenaar - A family friend at the Tupu'anga coffee factory

Apparently, if there’s one thing Emeline can’t do, it’s stay comfortable for long. In the early days of Affirming Works, she split her time between working on the ground and continuing to scale the ivory tower—this time, toward a Doctorate in Social Policy, drawing on her community work. Her competing desires for a high standard of PhD delivery and meeting her community responsibilities eventually saw her defer the doctorate, gaining instead a Masters of Philosophy in Social Policy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Sciences.

Given the success of Affirming Works’ programmes in turning around the lives of multitudes of kids who were previously aimless and flunking school, it wasn’t long until Emeline started getting phone calls from government departments inviting her to advise on local and national boards. It was time to set up a second business: Fofola Consultancy Ltd. From this platform, Emeline has been involved in shaping policy over the last 10 years; from writing the initial Pacific Youth Strategy in Auckland, to Family Violence Conceptual frameworks, as well as directly advising on the Ministerial Portfolios of Pacific Island Affairs, Social Development, Health, Education, and Whānau Ora. She uses her ample cross-sector experience in various governance roles, sitting on boards such as Youth Horizons and Pasifika Futures, advising on Pacific and social issues.

With the sheer mix of work surprising even the entrepreneur herself, she eventually discovered her niche:

“For many years I didn’t understand what I actually did, until someone called me a social entrepreneur.”

In 2006, she was named a Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader, and in 2008 was invited to travel to the UK as an ambassador for New Zealand to attend the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford. Not bad for someone who read their first book at 19.

The Forum experience gave her a sense of the wider network of social entrepreneurs that existed across the globe, and the stories of the keynote speakers only reaffirmed the importance of connectedness:

“We tend to think that great social change is the work of heroes—which is an intimidating view of reality that keeps most people on the couch. But a community or collective approach is about how we all get involved and take responsibility for our challenges."

"Community responsibility is about creating a sense of becoming more inter-dependent; where we are all creating the future that we want to see for our country.”

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In 2010, Emeline and her husband, Alipate Mafile’o, set up The Community Café in Otahuhu—a social enterprise functioning as a source of sustainable income for Affirming Works. Inside the café, photos of youth mentored through Affirming Works over the years cover the walls. Hundreds of people use the Community Café as their hub, gathering to re-caffeinate, get informal entrepreneurship advice, attend events, and connect with each other. “What had been planned as merely a building with various rooms for the community to use has evolved into multiple social services working closely together and breaking down individual silos. We believe a community should be served by the people from within that community.”

Champions of their heritage, that same year the visionary couple decided to extend the business to promote Pacific products and ethical trade to their customers. A weekend in Tonga visiting family lent itself to scoping out Tongan coffee beans to sell at the café. In a slightly larger transaction than anticipated, they returned with a re-mortgaged home and the freshly inked deed to an entire coffee business. Their new purchase came complete with a factory, manufacturing equipment, and the responsibility for managing 10 co-operative coffee farms in Tonga.

Four years on, after a rebrand to Tupu’anga Coffee and a new strategy, business is booming: the company sells out of its crop every year to clients all over the world. They provide 79 people with income annually, and are the largest coffee producer in the Kingdom of Tonga.

In recognition of her phenomenal social impact, in 2013 Emeline won Westpac’s Women of Influence Award in Community Service and Social Enterprise, for “innovative and extraordinary leadership.”

A few months later, she was also invited to travel with Prime Minister John Key to the Pacific on a special delegation, and recently Tupu’anga Coffee was sponsored to attend the United Nations SIDS (Small Island Developing States) Conference as an identified quality “True Pacific” brand from within the region.

This was the first United Nations Conference held in the South Pacific, with representatives from all over the globe meeting to find ways to assist the most vulnerable island states moving forward in the areas of climate change, sustainable development, investment, and the protection of oceans and fisheries.

Emeline’s latest project is setting up New Zealand’s first Senior Pacific high school; PASS (Pacific Advance Senior School).

Joining forces with other social entrepreneurs and friends Hamish Crooks and former All Black Michael Jones, the team has created an umbrella organisation named PPAT—the Pacific Peoples Advancement Trust, which sponsors the school’s operation.

Helpfully, PPAT also enables partnerships for Pacific mentoring programme delivery across Auckland, starting with the combination of Affirming Works and Jones’ The Village Community Services Trust.

In a revolutionary move, PASS’s innovative proposal includes enrolling entire families rather than high school students alone, thereby providing education alongside holistic wraparound family support.

With the Community Café already bursting at the seams, Emeline went on hunt for school premises and had the epiphany to bring the school, the newly relocated café, and Affirming Works together, to operate from a new, large-scale site in Otahuhu.

Here, parents will develop numeracy and literacy while their children pass NCEA, after which the family is connected to vocational programmes in order to bridge the school-to-work gap.

Plans are afoot to run further initiatives in the future, including an on-site Private Training Establishment and a full suite of wraparound support services—all with plenty of caffeine to go around.

Emeline’s deep commitment to her startling array of endeavours pervades every conversation. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be paid to do exactly what I am most passionate about. I haven’t had business cards for three years—I wouldn’t know what to put on them! Each day brings me a variety of work. I love satisfying what I define as 'my core,' which for me is social wellbeing.”

In the words of New Zealand’s Governor-General, Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae: “Dreamers have vision, leaders make things happen and extraordinary people do both.” Emeline hasn’t gone out of her way to create social businesses—it’s simply an overflow of who she is.

“For Pasifika, ‘social enterprise’ is just business—culturally, we wouldn’t think to run a business that didn’t also help the community.”

Her ongoing passion is to enable others who dream of merging entrepreneurship and social impact. Be warned. Wander into that bustling South Auckland hub and you may find yourself with Emeline over a cup of fresh Tupu’anga blend, soon to be inspired along a path of your own at her favourite juncture: the intersection of business and social. •

Jaimee Abict is the founding editor of Flint & Steel. Amid the digital revolution, she remains unfashionably devoted to print. She has worked for Maxim Institute since 2012, most recently as Communications Manager. Prior to this she worked on current affairs magazine the New Zealand Listener, and has held former roles in advertising and copywriting.

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Jaimee Abict |

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Top left, middle and bottom images: Kareen Hillenaar

HOW SOCIAL ENTERPRISES WORK and WHAT THEY NEED TO GROW ALEX HANNANT

CEO of one of the largest social business incubators in New Zealand, Alex Hannant has had a front row seat to the various forms these enterprises can take; what works, what hasn’t and what might.

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usiness is an effective way of getting things done. We all, pretty much, believe that it is a good way to keep the world turning.

Businesses identify a need, and solve it with a product or service that customers are happy to purchase. They scale through markets, enabled by a supportive interplay of regulation, law, capability support, and capital. Competition to win customers drives innovation and improvement.

However, there is also an assumption that business owners should receive all of the financial benefits of success. While we do not wish to suggest that shareholders shouldn’t benefit from their hard work and risk taking, social enterprise is a challenge to the assumption that businesses can only work in this way. Efficacy of delivery is not inherently coupled with maximising private returns— they are different things and it is the decoupling of these traditional bedfellows that creates a new opportunity. If business is so effective at solving problems, why not point it at the most difficult and intractable social ones? And if solving social problems becomes the business purpose, why not use the financial benefits to maximise impact?

16 | How Social Enterprises Work and What They Need to Grow

Social enterprises seek to employ the innovation, scale, and financial sustainability of an effective business model but do so to maximise social change—prioritising returns for stakeholders over shareholders.

Social enterprise isn’t about replacing mainstream business; it’s about expanding our practice and developing new models to tackle social and environmental challenges in different ways.

These are challenges that traditional approaches to social change can’t make go away, and that we simply cannot afford to continue to gift, grant, or throw money at.

This article aims to build mainstream support for social enterprise as a new, valuable, and complementary sector within New Zealand’s economy. It does this in two parts: firstly, by giving the reader a sense of how social enterprise models work in practice;

BUSINESS MODELS THAT DELIVER SOCIAL GOOD Just like mainstream businesses, social enterprises demonstrate huge diversity in their size, structure, and shape. However, at the heart of how they actually work, regardless of the change they seek, there are number of core models that deliver social good: 1. The Robin Hood: The Robin Hood is essentially a mainstream business that exists to resource less marketable activities.

Examples include Y-Gap in Australia, which runs boutique cafés and restaurants, and reinvest their profits into capability building programmes for social entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Another example is Barnardos’ Kidstart, where profits from their childcare service cross-subsidise other social services they deliver but are less easy to resource.

2. One-for-One: Like the Robin Hood, the One-for-One runs a successful business to resource other activities but with a stronger link between the activities—often delivering the same product or service with different pricing models. Examples include TOMS, which sells shoes and sunglasses on a commercial basis and then provides a similar product or service (eye-treatment in the case of the sunglasses) at no cost to people in need. Another example is the Aravind Eye Hospital, which performs thousands of eye operations a year, half to customers who can afford to pay at the market price, and half to customers who can’t—subsidised by margins that would otherwise be returned as dividends to investors. An example closer

Image: Mark Tantrum – The Ākina team

secondly, by making the case that if we want social enterprise to work at scale, then we need a coherent approach and a supporting infrastructure—just like the mainstream business sector.

to home is Angel Place, a Sydney-based startup setting up a hotel that will provide a free room to people at risk of homelessness for every pre-paid room booked.

3. Waste to Value: These enterprises reuse, recycle, and repurpose to create new value in materials that have come to be considered waste. Examples include many of the community-owned recycling centres around New Zealand that not only divert and re-sell materials otherwise headed for landfill but also reinvest revenues into proactive waste management initiatives. Another example is TerraCycle, which provides free waste collection in a number of countries, and turn hard-to-recycle materials into practical and affordable green products.

4. The Regenerator: In these enterprises, the process of delivering the product or service results in the regeneration of communities and the environment. Examples include Te Whāngai Trust, where native plants are grown then sold, alongside environmental services, to private companies and the Government.

Their social impact comes by providing employment and training opportunities to people who are facing complex personal challenges such as drug, alcohol or mental health issues. Another example is Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant that leverages his brand to create a thriving business staffed by young people who have been living on the street. A further example is Guayaki who operate a “marketdriven restoration business model.” They grow and produce Yerba Mate (a herbal beverage popular in South America), reforesting the Amazon as they go. They aim to reforest 200,000 acres of South American rainforest and create over 1000 living wage jobs by 2020.

5. The Good Asset: Based on the development of communityowned assets—often premises or infrastructure—these enterprises provide a public good and also generate revenue streams that can be reinvested into projects and local development. In many countries,

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community-owned energy generation has seen a proliferation of these models, including Hepburn Wind in Australia. Another example will be the Auckland Harbour Bridge Skypath, where the Skypath Trust, which led the project’s development, stands to receive a return from user tolls to then fund new community transport initiatives. Elsewhere, leisure centres and community facilities provide important local amenities that are embedded and owned by the communities they serve.

6. The Disruptive Provider: These models tend to be seen as the so-called rock stars of social enterprise, often with good reason. They tend to be ambitious, entrepreneurial, and target systemic failures. When successful, they create opportunities for significant scale and replication. Examples of this model include Grameen Bank, which pioneered micro-finance by extending credit to people living in poverty and securitising affordable loans through peer lending groups—the antithesis of loan sharks! Grameen has lent more than US$11 billion at a default rate of less than 1 percent, and has developed similar models for housing, education, telecommunications, and even a “not-for-loss” joint venture to tackle malnutrition with food giant Danone. An early-stage Disruptive Provider is Uncharted Play, which is providing a lighting solution for children without access to energy, who are unable to study after sunset. They have developed a football that kinetically generates power—children play football for 30 minutes, which then provides them with three hours of light for study. Another early stage

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“Disruptor” is Chalkle, which is reinventing community education in New Zealand. Built to serve the needs of a changing educational landscape, Chalkle provide software and resources to connect teachers and learners, and enable a distributed marketplace for education—think TradeMe for knowledge and learning.

7. Cash for Impact: Enterprises using this model deliver products or services whose impact can demonstrate a measurable avoided cost or economic benefit. This enables a scalable and performance-based revenue model to be built around outcomes.

These models are still finding their feet and require market mechanisms to trade into. One example of the Cash for Impact model are the communities and landowners that use the Plan Vivo scheme to trade the carbon benefits of ecosystem restoration and preservation projects. Other examples include organisations utilising “Impact Bonds” to resource and deliver interventions that reduce recidivism rates. Given the undisputed health benefits resulting from improvements in housing, it is easy to see how existing health budgets could invest in social housing ventures to avoid both significant economic costs and personal suffering.

8. Fair Share: These are businesses where the benefits are shared internally across the organisation and/or a supply chain— equally distributing profits and power. Examples include Café Direct, which has taken fair trade to a whole new level while retaining the position of a premium coffee and tea brand. Café Direct distributes its profits across their value chain resulting in resilient producer

communities and a supply of high-quality product. Cooperative structures provide a backbone for these social enterprise models, prioritising self-organisation, empowerment, democratic voice, and the needs of member-owners over the needs of capital investors.

While not all cooperatives are driven by a social purpose, it cannot be underestimated how empowering the experience of ownership can be in marginalised communities where self-esteem, confidence, and tenancy are social goods in themselves.

9. Service Providers: These models focus on providing professional services to the social enterprise sector. They can either be specialised services such as impact reporting, business model design, and social finance, or more generic professional services, such as design, legal, and technology, delivered with the interests and values of social enterprise in mind. To maximise their impact, Service Providers often offer flexible contract arrangements and ways of working. New Zealand examples include the suite of professional services offered by Enspiral, the resource reuse expertise offered by Envision, and the design agency, Curative.

Of course, many social enterprises combine a number of these models to deliver a more systemic impact. The Community Business and Environmental Centre (CBEC) in Northland combines the Waste to Value, Robin Hood, and Regenerator models to provide a range of waste management services, employment, and training for around 80 people, as well as offering seed funding for new community initiatives with profits generated from a turnover of more than $10m a year.

Providing a sense of how social enterprises work in practice also gives a sense of why growing a thriving social enterprise sector is of interest and value to policy makers, local government, philanthropists, business, and the wider community.

Social enterprise is about expanding the total pool of economic and social value, rather than redistributing or "salami slicing" what already exists.

So, if we want more social enterprises working at scale in New Zealand, what can be done to facilitate this? While the potential of social enterprise is attractive, the reality of establishing, operating, and growing one is far from straightforward—running any business is a hard slog, and running one with additional complexities and bottom lines can be harder. This is especially true for teams and organisations coming from a low capability base—people used to leading project and community work but who are not familiar with business practice. Or, for that matter, business people who are not used to leading social change. Just as we have developed a support structure for mainstream business that includes training, mentoring, networks, lobby groups, seed-funds, investment funds, legislation, incubators, and, indeed, entire government departments, so too, do we need a similar, if more modestly sized, support infrastructure for social enterprises to succeed.

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PATHWAY TO SCALE—HOW SOCIAL ENTERPRISES GROW AND WHAT THEY NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL In many respects, the development pathway of a social enterprise is similar to a commercial venture. However, the different interests, motivations, conditions, and objectives that drive social enterprises make the supports they require distinct. The purpose of the Ākina Foundation is to deliver a sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous New Zealand by growing social enterprise. To go about our work, we breakdown the growth pathway of a social enterprise into four stages: design, validation, viability, and expansion. At each stage, ventures require a combination of capability building, capital, and connectivity supports to fulfill their potential to succeed.

Design: The start point of any social venture is marked by an intention to solve a social or environmental problem. This usually comes as a vision, either individual or shared, with only a loose understanding of how an enterprise will work in practice. For a good intention to move closer to business reality, ideas need to be quickly tested for basic feasibility, and matched with an assessment of the capability required (business, technical, social) to develop further. Capability supports that facilitate this stage include: business design workshops, basic skills development, access to proven models, innovation processes, and, not least, frank advice on what it will take to be successful. Capital requirements at this stage are minimal, although small awards can play a role in supporting capability building and enabling would-be ventures to move forward. Connectivity is critical at this stage—not least because social enterprises often arise from a desire for collective action. Innovation hubs—providing space and place, peer learning, community building, and networking with stakeholders, are all critical components of good enterprise design.

Given the low conversion rate of ideas to successful enterprises, there is an imperative to enable a continuous, interconnected, and high-volume flow of innovation at this stage with mass mobilisation of talent, mass creation of ideas, and rapid testing and iteration.

From a sector development perspective, this means that support needs to cover a large surface area if it is to be effective—preferably

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via replicable programmes and local level service provision. At Ākina, we are mobilising talent through our Workshops and Clinics programme. Increasingly, we will seek to support locally-led innovation hubs and programmes delivered with regional partners.

Validation: When a team, community or organisation has developed a blueprint for their enterprise, and made the commitment to take it further, they move into a stage of validation.

This requires intensive testing of their business model for market fit, customer fit, commercial viability, scalability, and impact. It involves running real trials and evolving all elements of their proposition based on evidence from the real world. Rapid iteration is possible at this point because the enterprise is still fairly weightless—it is unlikely to be bogged down by the grind of day-to-day-operations or funder/investor obligations. The main obstacle is likely to be the entrepreneurs themselves, and the attachment they have to their initial ideas and beliefs. A key component of their success is being able to respond to the evidence that validation provides.

Development at this stage also demands a step-up in a range of commercial and technical capabilities: financial modelling, marketing, product/service development, impact reporting, operations, legal form (a question that businesses take for granted), and, increasingly, technology.

The capability supports required include skilled coaching through the progressive process of validating the business model, and access to a range of professional expertise to provide advice and undertake specific work. Enterprises that don’t have access to these supports can easily get stuck, fall-over, or worse, persist with a model that is set up to fail. Connectivity between social enterprises remains critical at this stage, not least for the ability to copy models that are already proven and operational. Intellectual property plays differently with social enterprise, as successful entrepreneurs are happy to give away their recipes for success if it means solving a problem more quickly. At Ākina, we support the validation stage through our accelerator programme—Launchpad. Launchpad starts with an open call for the best new social enterprise ideas across the country, and takes around 10 teams through an intensive six-month

process which concludes with the ventures putting business cases to funders and investors. Launched in May 2014, the programme received a surprising 134 applications—evidence of significant unmet demand.

While bootstrapping is expected in the early days, access to capital now becomes necessary for ramping up capacity. For mainstream businesses, seed funding often comes from angel investment and development grants. Both of these options are currently unrealistic for social enterprise in New Zealand due to the limited potential for financial returns within a timeframe that is acceptable to investors (in order to compensate for the early-stage risk and small deal sizes).

Add to that the focus of conventional (business) policy settings and the complications of social purpose and open IP. In countries where social enterprise sectors are thriving, public and philanthropic seed funds (which are motivated by future social returns on investment rather than financial) are managed by specialised intermediaries— like the role the Regional Development Agencies, Callaghan Innovation and business incubators play, in various ways, for private investors and mainstream business in New Zealand.

Viability: After validation, a social enterprise, if it is able to get startup capital, commits to operations and a stage of proving their viability. This is a stage of growing pains—of building an organisation, improving products and services, increasing turnover, expanding operations, and measuring impact. Development at this stage is non-linear, and can involve any number of false starts, stalls, pivots, inexplicable failures, and unexpected breakthroughs. Capability requirements include access to a range of technical supports and services—particularly legal, financial, HR, and marketing. Ongoing mentoring is also required to get the benefit of experience and informed objectivity. Guidance on management and governance is also essential, as these elements provide the foundations for all other aspects of strategy and operations. Connectivity on learning is still important, especially where peers can compare and contrast their common experiences, but now commercial networking is also key to enterprise development—finding new partners (the right partners) that can help access markets and prepare the venture for growth. Ākina supports social enterprises navigating this stage through our Incubator programme—boosted by significant support from our corporate and professional partners who provide support to our ventures on a pro-bono basis.

Capital requirements at this stage become significant, and the resources currently available in New Zealand are scarce. While many social enterprises get access to grants through existing public and philanthropic funds, these rarely recognise or prioritise the internal capability development, which is the primary need of ventures at

this stage. Usually, they are grants issued to fund service delivery with internal development only enabled by default. To date, there are only a few philanthropic organisations who intentionally fund the development of social enterprises and only one—Canterbury Community Trust’s Social Enterprise Fund—that is explicitly named as such. In mature sectors internationally, funds have been established to specifically support development of ventures at this stage. Again, these funds are usually capitalised by public and philanthropic sources motivated by future social returns, and the prospect of getting social enterprises to the point where they are investment ready, or otherwise primed for self-sustainability. This last stage is defined as moving from development to expansion.

Expansion: If a social enterprise can navigate the previous stages, they reach a position from where they can scale and sustain their impact. This usually goes hand-in-hand with securing the investment they need to ramp up operations. For organisations coming from a traditional charity or community background, resolve is often required at this stage to push for a truly investable proposition, and get beyond a grant-funded model disguised by some trading. Traditional private investment can be sought, but is problematic for the reasons previously outlined. In order to tolerate and respond to the needs of social enterprise, new impact investment markets are required, purposefully designed to generate both social and financial returns. Internationally, engagement in impact investment is growing rapidly—the number of specialist funds has doubled over the last five years, and Social Impact Investment is currently on the G8 agenda.

In New Zealand we don’t have an impact investment market yet, so social enterprises need brokered connections to investors who will consider a deal on a case-by-case basis. They also need the capability and professional support required to structure and execute the investment. When the investment is secured, social enterprises—like any business—need continued support to stabilise and manage an expanded operation. Ākina is in the process of building the networks, capability, and capital required to provide an appropriate and accessible offer in this space.

This is what social enterprises need to grow. It’s not that they can’t navigate these stages on their own, it is simply that the majority of them don’t, and because of the lack of support, many more are discouraged from even trying. So the rationale for investing in support for social enterprise is exactly the same as why we do it for mainstream businesses—more ventures, with better business models, developing more quickly, and operating with stability, results in outsized returns on investment. With social enterprise, the return on investment is diverse innovation, social change, and public benefit. •

Alex is the Chief Executive of the Ākina Foundation. Previously based in the UK, Alex was Director of Programmes at LEAD—a global network focussed on leadership and sustainable development. He was also Head of Partnerships at the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)—a global initiative providing technical advice and services on climate change and development to decision makers in developing countries.

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22 | Inside Enspiral Space

INSIDE ENSPIRAL SPACE PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHAN VERMEULEN & NAKITA WHITTAKER “We believe magic happens when like-minded people share a space.

We've seen this repeatedly: conversations spark ideas, which become projects that grow into world changing ventures.”

Welcome to a morning in the life of Enspiral. A quiet, quirky hive of activity, this co-working space is home to some of the most innovative startups and charities in the city—as well as a suite of professional services including accounting and legal—all with an ethical focus.

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28 | Inside Enspiral Space

WHO WORKS HERE? BUCKY BOX

CHALKLE

Bucky Box makes it easy to run a successful local food delivery business. It’s a social enterprise on a mission to solve the food distribution problem, in ways that foster friendly farming. Since 2011 Bucky Box has powered all manner of local food deliveries, including vegetable box schemes, artisan bread, community supported agricultural farming, food co-operatives, and recipe bag subscriptions.

“How do we catalyse the learning renaissance?” – Silvia Zuur, Chalkle CEO. Chalkle helps connect people who have things to teach with people who want to learn. It’s an easy to use website that helps teachers and educators to organise and promote any kind of face-toface learning experience. (See more about Chalkle on page 18.)

ENSPIRAL DEV ACADEMY Based down the road, Enspiral Dev Academy trains world-class junior developers and helps them get started in the workforce. Their nine-week intensive course promises that those with no prior coding experience will leave the course with the skills required to land a junior web developer position.

RABID Rabid is a software firm that works with organisations and entrepreneurs to envision and develop new products and services.

They use open-source technologies to develop usable solutions with clients and products that span business, NGO, and community sectors. Experts in web development, Rabid actively contribute to projects that make a positive impact in people's lives and communities.

LIFEHACK “How might we improve youth wellbeing through technology?”

Lifehack is a social innovation lab, working at the frontline of catalysing meaningful action to improve youth wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand, and has received funding from the Ministry of Social Development for its work in improving youth mental health. Lifehack runs a range of events and experiences, and creates resources to enable Kiwis to connect with one another, build trust, and upskill in toolkits for social change and entrepreneurship.

LOOMIO “It might look hard from the outside, but the point is, social enterprise could be a silver bullet: the future of business.” – Ben Knight, Loomio. (See more about Loomio on page 10.)

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PERSPECTIVE TILT MICHELLE SHARP

Image: Esther Kirby - Michelle Sharp at Kilmarnock Enterprises

In the midst of incredible corporate success in the UK, Michelle Sharp chose to hit pause and start over. A new country, new workplace, and a new purpose later, she explains how her company is challenging stereotypes, one contract at a time.

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ooking back now I see the signs. But if you had told me when I sat in the chair at the top of a rapidly growing UK telecommunications firm that in a few short months I would be uprooting my family and moving to a little island on the other side of the world, I would have expressed scepticism.

Four years on, I am privileged to be running a leading social enterprise that provides inclusive, rewarding, and fulfilling employment to around 80 people who, due to some level of disability, might normally find some work environments challenging.

Now I get to walk into the Kilmarnock Enterprises factory, a place filled with amazing co-workers whose smiles bring me a greater sense of accomplishment than any successful contract in my telecommunication days.

We provide services such as assembly work, collation of goods, food re-packing, shrink-wrapping, carpentry, and electronic waste recycling.

By supporting personal development within a professional context, people with an intellectual disability have been given a greater sense of selfworth, confidence, and belonging.

Due to the passion, commitment, adaptability, and hard work of the incredible workforce at Kilmarnock, this enterprise has flourished. We now operate with 85% self-generated revenue, ISO 9001 and HACCP accreditation, and a very happy workforce.

BUSINESS BUT DIFFERENT At Kilmarnock it is a job well done if we are able to provide a socially responsible environment that caters to everyone’s unique capability, and empowers them to take control of their lives and pride in their successes. But to meet our social objectives, it is essential that Kilmarnock reach its commercial revenue targets.

This commercial focus has seen the company mature significantly in the past 18 months. We now have more stringent business practices, greater financial management, improved cost controlling, and multidirectional communication lines that include all Kilmarnock employees, ensuring that everyone is striving for the same goal.

Decisions within Kilmarnock go through a significant vetting process so that the outcome will be in line with our social responsibility and have a positive impact on the team and company culture.

For instance, we recently embraced a contract to dismantle and recycle analogue televisions, a task that many of the strong young lads at Kilmarnock absolutely love. We like to focus on

workplace evolution and contracts that are diverse, create new skill sets, encourage fitness and movement, get the team excited, and are financially rewarding.

BEST OF THE BEST We operate in a fiercely competitive open market and it is essential that our service is equal to, if not better than, our mainstream business competitors. Our success within the business sector gives our employees such a sense of pride; knowing these commercially focussed organisations value the quality of the work our team delivers makes them realise that they can participate in society in the same way that anyone else can. Every contract won is won on merit.

Kilmarnock’s employees know with full certainty that the success of the enterprise is down to their meticulous attention to detail, passion for the job, and incredibly high standards. We are able to offer customers a skilled, reliable, and adaptable workforce that creates quality products, in addition to the knowledge that through their patronage they are supporting a very worthy charity. Through openness, mutual understanding, and integrity we have built amazing relationships with our customers. We aim to form strong, long-term arrangements with businesses to create a stable workflow and guarantee our employees steady, full time employment. We are proud to work with companies such as Air New Zealand, Foodstuffs, Fonterra, and The Gough Group who selected us based on the calibre of our work and continue to support us because we deliver quality products on time, and with a big smile. At our monthly customerhosted and sponsored sausage sizzles, it is clear that customers delight in visiting our factory and passing on their praise to the team directly. I suspect some may even be angling for an invite to the Friday evening employee Zumba class!

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Like all organisations, we are only as good as our people.

Fortunately, we have an outstanding workforce who are 100% committed to working together to achieve fantastic results. At Kilmarnock Enterprises we aim to foster this commitment and that aim is the driving force behind our training initiative. Employees expand and diversify their capabilities with the goal of meeting the requirements of the external workforce, and take command of their own future.

We recognise that we are all unique and all offer our own individual strengths and abilities. We have made it our goal to ensure that every employee is achieving the greatest results they possibly Michelle Sharp

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can by introducing regularly reviewed, individualised support and goal setting programmes, looped multi-step demonstration videos, routines to eliminate error, and hazard identification programmes.

The growth and development of the employees has been incredibly inspiring and has reaffirmed the importance and value of the initiative.

Our plans are still in their infancy, but we hope to place a priority on building skill sets and potentially earning qualifications that will enable people with disability to easily transition into the wider workforce.

Kilmarnock’s ambitions are ever evolving and we are constantly seeking new ways to facilitate growth, confidence, wellbeing, and independence in our employees.

This is achieved by celebrating their unique capabilities in a positive work environment, with room to grow personally and professionally.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING Alongside professional development, a significant part of the Kilmarnock individualised plans is personal wellbeing. We have introduced a Workplace Wellness Programme, which includes regular aerobics sessions, nutritional snacks, homemade soup available to buy at lunchtime, stretching before work and after 32 | Perspective Tilt

breaks, dental hygiene sessions, presentations to all employees by Mission Nutrition, removal of fizzy drink vending machines, and the Kilmarnock Pedometer Challenge to get everyone moving.

The results have been staggering, with some employees losing as much as 30kg over the last 12 months and competing to take control of their health, proudly putting my pedometer to shame. It’s these initiatives that make us immensely proud of what we do and ensure the work environment is one of good, healthy fun.

OPENING THE KILMARNOCK DOORS A turbulent history has meant that the disability sector has traditionally been very private and insular.

A big change we have made over the last 12 months is to open our doors, books, and communication lines with as many disability service providers as possible, with the view that collectively we can achieve so much more.

By inviting people in to meet our employees and share in our experiences, we have been able to collaborate with disability organisations and employment agencies to improve our employee provisions and help more and more people with disabilities find regular supportive work and lead regular lives.

Images: Esther Kirby

CHANGING ATTITUDES When I walked into Kilmarnock I met a group of people who were so passionate about their work and so well connected with their coworkers that it was truly inspiring. My first two weeks were spent in the factory getting to know the people and the equipment and whilst they teased me for being chatty, disorderly, and interrupting their workflow, they were welcoming in a way I had never experienced.

A very important part of our work at Kilmarnock is changing the way people perceive intellectual disability.

We have delivered presentations to over 4000 people in the last 18 months, telling them the story of Kilmarnock and willing them to open doors for those with disabilities. The tours have become one of the most rewarding tasks for me, as I get to witness, bit by bit, people beginning to see things differently.

We have taken many steps to spread our message including public talks, hosting school-aged students for community service, university internships, work experience, educational tours for

primary school students—and the list goes on. We believe that by welcoming the community into the factory we can change people’s understanding of intellectual disability and show just how unique and valuable our employees are.

The world of social enterprise is a far cry from my time in the mainstream business world, but the experience I have brought to Kilmarnock Enterprises has enabled us to grow and mature; ultimately offering our employees a superior work environment where they are not only supported, but encouraged to improve their lives and become more empowered, engaged citizens.

The team at Kilmarnock are second to none, and the incredible work place culture has ensured that the team has approached change with enthusiasm and fortitude. None of these successes would be possible without the people of Kilmarnock and the outstanding culture we have cultivated in the past 18 months. They continue to inspire and motivate me to grow this enterprise in a way that supports them in all their goals and ambitions; opening up a bright future for Cantabrians living with disabilities. •

Michelle Sharp is CEO of Kilmarnock Enterprises. She holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, a Diploma in Marketing, and an MBA from the University of Leicester, and has lived in Spain, Mexico, the USA, the UK, and New Zealand. Michelle previously worked for Vodafone UK, followed by co-founding a startup telco, which grew rapidly into an internet service provider with a multi-million dollar turnover. She moved to Christchurch in 2009 with her husband and two young children.

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DOING GOOD and MAKING MONEY JEREMY VARGO

After discovering bona fide entrepreneurial nous in high school and succeeding in his own ventures, Travis O’Keefe changed tack when he discovered his knack for business could also serve his people.

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hen I think of the type of person best suited to help New Zealanders living in poverty, my mind doesn’t naturally jump to an entrepreneur. I think of social workers, financial counsellors, perhaps even volunteers at food banks. The word “entrepreneur” conjures up images of impermanence in my head: people who give something a go, and move on quickly if it doesn’t work out. They’ve got big ideas, a healthy disrespect for the conventional “way things are done,” and a keen understanding of when to cut their losses and run. What I failed to consider is that the very nature of an entrepreneur is to defy the expectations and definitions of others, and when I met Travis O’Keefe that’s exactly what he did.

It’s a talent deeply ingrained from a young age. Now a soughtafter business consultant, Travis grew up “a half Māori, half Irish kid” on the East Cape in Whangara, a small town famous for being the hard-up locale of Whale Rider and not much else. He recalls a childhood spent learning what he calls “grit, the ability to never give up,” taught by immersion in a community beset by family violence, unemployment, and poverty—a front row seat to what policy makers call “social deprivation.”

Hand in hand with grit came the ability to think outside the square; creativity driven by a lack of resources.

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These two “gifts,” as he calls them—grit and resourcefulness— are what he now spends most of his time teaching other people to access. Travis has spent several years consulting to iwi leaders and representatives of Māori Trust Boards, helping them to refine their business strategies and increase the funds available to funnel back into their communities, to support Māori achievement and solve social issues. Through his work with Māori business leaders as a consultant for The Icehouse, and his new “Business in a Box” venture, he works to help others develop the entrepreneurial mindset that has made him a success.

Travis wasn’t always this altruistic. His first shot at business was the purest form of teenage resourcefulness. Failing miserably in a mandatory high school accounting class, he began using this class time to organise lucrative ticketed keg parties for his schoolmates in a friend’s garage. His first legitimate business opportunity came just after high school, when he successfully tendered for the contract to manage the local swimming pool. Having worked for the previous manager while at school, Travis pulled together a group of his friends and co-workers and managed to convince the district council to take a chance on a local kid instead of the competing management companies.

Running this team was the first step in Travis learning the greatest determinant of success: people.

“If there’s one defining reason, one small thing you can do to unlock most of the value of your business, it is people. Find the best, the ‘A Team,’ your dream team. Don’t just get people that you like on board, but actually people you need to bring the balance, people who’ve been there, done that, and learned the lessons with someone else’s money. The people you surround yourself with are the best measure of your ability to succeed.”

In 2009, there was a moment when Travis’ appreciation of the value of “people” shifted from mere business strategy to a driving mission for his life’s work. He happened upon a copy of The Social Report 2009 from the Ministry of Social Development; a detailed chronicle of well-being in New Zealand across a range of different indicators including poverty, smoking, violence, loneliness, health, imprisonment, and alcohol abuse. The discovery that Māori made up the majority of almost every negative well-being indicator horrified him, and spurred him into a flurry of activity to see positive social change for his people.

Initially he tried in vain to influence legislation and government departments by lobbying MPs and writing policy. Frustrated by Wellington, he looked to the charity sector, but soon discovered that lobbying for change within a traditional charity model wouldn’t fully satisfy someone with such a determined mind for business and the unconventional perspective of an entrepreneur.

Travis returned to business. Previously, his passion for entrepreneurship had been about proving a point: that he could be a success. Now he had a new model. “Business doing good,” or “business with a double bottom line, doing good and making money” is his take on what some call social enterprise.

To Travis, business isn’t a dirty word, or a less worthy pursuit. It’s a means of personal empowerment, an act of sustainable creativity, a tangible way that anyone can improve their own life and serve the needs of others.

He found businesses that shared this ethos amongst the almost 20,000 Māori trusts and iwi enterprises that operate around New Zealand. Guardians of land, fisheries, and forests, these trusts run businesses in diverse industries including farming, logging, and property management for a profit, then turn that profit over to their trust’s social arm, which supports the needs of their people. The South Island tribe Ngāi Tahu is the largest example of this model, with a business arm that manages almost $1 billion of assets resourcing a massive social arm that provides education opportunities, social housing, financial programmes, leadership development, and social services.

Travis co-founded the Māori unit at Auckland consultancy The Icehouse, based on the understanding that Māori business culture is different. Communities will elect board members to manage the tribe’s assets and businesses on their behalf, so board members often come to their roles without much business experience; a fact that renders most executive and board training schemes entirely unsuitable. He helps trustees think beyond their current assets and aspirations, creating opportunities with new systems and processes.

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“Traditional accounting advisors and lawyers will come up with a traditional strategy which gets written down, put into a drawer and ignored. We work on starting up with new ideas, failing fast, adapting. We ask: ‘What are the one or two values that we must promise to each other?’ and from that point, work on fresh approaches to old problems.”

Travis and his team’s latest venture, “Business in a Box,” is a joint venture with an iwi, Ngāti Pūkenga, and is a shift from this top down approach. In areas like Whangara, poverty is prevalent because there’s hardly any work, yet Māori communities remain understandably committed to the area because of the strong draw of the land as their ancestral home. Instead of working to fund social services for people in poverty, Business in a Box offers people the opportunity to grow their own income and provide for themselves through micro-enterprise. All it takes is an idea.

Travis and his team of entrepreneurial experts take a great idea that a local mum or unemployed young person has come up with in one of their creative workshops, and create a viable business model for them. Rather than expect the new entrepreneurs to go through this process on their own, experts do it on their behalf. The idea

is tested through 11 steps to prove that it is viable, marketing and finance experts create business systems, and the new entrepreneur is coached to run the enterprise on their own. The businesses will mostly remain small and manageable for someone with fulltime work, while making enough money to increase the owner’s household income by 50%.

“Research states that if you grow the household income it has a multiplier effect to improve access to education, health, justice, housing, and so forth,” Travis says. “We can’t solve everything, but if we can increase household income, this one thing will have a multiplier effect and do a lot of the work that we have tried to do for people.”

Curving across Travis’ shoulder and back are two taniwha— inked black and white—locked in battle. Markers of his heritage, they present a visual challenge: dark and light, good and evil, greed and generosity constantly at war. This tattooed battle serves as a reminder of the Māori proverb that the taniwha we choose to feed will grow stronger and defeat the other. As today’s business culture grows more and more aware of its impact on the world, some view solely profit-motivated business as “the dark side,” in competition with a society that cares for the needs of its people. In fusing his passions for business and people, Travis has found a way to feed both motivations at the same time—a double bottom line he can be proud of. •

Jeremy Vargo is the Media and Communications Officer at Maxim Institute. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing at the University of Canterbury, and has several years of experience in communications and community work.

36 Doing Good and Making Money

MORE THAN PROFIT MURRAY SHEARD

Passion is profitable … sometimes. Murray Sheard reflects on how his social venture The Kitchen succeeded—then failed; and why every business should seriously consider how to engage the creativity of their staff.

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woman upcycling old house materials, a startup developing brain-computer interface technology to help people with severe disabilities, disaster-mapping software developers spanning Kenya and New Zealand, a sports management company looking after the mental well-being of athletes, and budding communications gurus helping the community sector reinvent themselves and their message. Welcome to the new world of social enterprise.

I met these inspirational people and a bunch more while setting up and running a workplace home for them. Called The Kitchen, we worked from the top of Ponsonby Rd, Auckland, as a hub for small businesses and not-for-profits sized from one to four people. The red thread running through them all was, broadly speaking, social enterprise.

The Kitchen aimed at being a creative, wellresourced work environment and community hub for change-makers creating social and environmental good.

As the name suggests, these people were fond of cooking up ideas for action, experimenting with recipes for practice, and finding the right ingredients to make a difference.

Over 30 organisations called it home. With like minds but diverse activities and skill sets, working in the same physical space allowed for peer-to-peer advice, democratised information, catalysed collaboration, and fostered creative collisions. We also hosted events

put on by our members and opened this to other organisations promoting social good.

Based on The Hub in London, it was an attempt to weave the magic of connection. We found some of the best ideas came at the edges of work and play—from our famous Tuesday lunches that drew many visitors, to the morning when the Pop-up Dining crew popped up and started many fruitful partnerships just because of who happened to be in the room.

Common to all I sensed a gratitude for the skills we have and a desire to pay it forward, helping to build the community fabric and enhance others’ lives. And we wanted to prove that you didn’t have to sell your soul to make a living.

We felt brave. We ran with a vision. We found a home with each other. But then after 18 months, it was time to say goodbye. Set up as a social enterprise, The Kitchen broke-even halfway through its life, but in a niche market and with fluctuating membership levels we couldn’t sustain this, and I made the painful decision to close it in late 2013.

The Kitchen was an ambitious, spirited, and—I hope—important venture. It was always a risk. I was of course personally gutted—a heart's dream turned to requiem. And yet … there is a lot we can be proud of and many people report they have been supported and emboldened to try new ventures and ideas. A number of people left their jobs and took the leap into a socially focussed enterprise because of the inspiration and community they found there. For some, it inspired them to listen to forgotten reaches of their hearts.

Those people are my heroes.

Murray Sheard

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Ripples have spread throughout Auckland, working partnerships formed that have endured and prospered. The flag we waved for social enterprise has been noticed and acted on by trusts, councils, and government.

I think the word “closure” is overused: it is not faithful to the open-ended rhythm of experience. I know that while ending, The Kitchen has brought some people to the edge of nascent beginnings.

REFLECTIONS ON THE MOVEMENT

Image: Provided by Karen Knighton

Out of this experience I have two reflections: the first on social enterprise workspaces, and the second on the wider sector.

I am often asked if I would do it again? I have always been drawn to work in organisations that attempt inspiring solutions to contemporary problems, especially those working toward a just,

38 | More Than Profit

sustainable, holistically fulfilling human presence on this planet. Our co-creation The Kitchen was born out of that ethos.

On one hand, I would like to encourage someone to try. A city the size of Auckland deserves a workplace that can rally the sector and wave the flag for social enterprise, across a skyline that is a shrine to a sole focus on profit.

On the other hand, while there are exceptions, it is the norm that revenue streams and therefore profit margins for social businesses are tighter than for those aiming more clearly for profit.

That was true of most of the enterprises I encountered and it was true of The Kitchen.

My conclusion is that a business aimed to be solely a fullyfledged social enterprise hub would struggle in New Zealand because of the relatively small size of our cities. The “hubs” that can and do work are those started by a business or businesses that need their own workspace, and add to their revenue by subleasing space to smaller groups.

Reflecting on the sector, my observation is that the reality doesn’t yet match the reputation. I’m a fan and a cheerleader for social enterprise, but I have observed that some its present success and reach has often been exaggerated.

In theory, the social enterprise sector is comprised of those who have found ways to combine their passion for a better world with sustainable employment, by starting businesses and eliminating or strongly reducing grant-dependence.

This includes: • Businesses producing goods and services aimed at alleviating social or environmental problems • Businesses offering mainstream services but specialising in offering them to community sector clients • Businesses set up to dedicate a large slice of their profits to charity • Some not-for-profits who find their skills are in demand commercially and use that to help fund their charitable work When I look at the organisations or businesses that had been resident at The Kitchen and many others that came through, shared their story and picked up ideas, very few fit into the definition of social enterprise. Few, for example, were able to sustainably pay staff. Those that were financially sustainable tended to fall into the following categories: • Those offering services to the community sector based around charging out their own time • Those offering goods and services to clients and consumers who are funded by the government to buy them, such as disability services • Not-for-profits with grant funding—often using the tag “social enterprise,” but effectively a rebrand of the traditional community sector • Those that offer new ways to give money to charity— effectively redistributing the charity dollar • Those providing a traditional service, but employing people who often struggle to find work • Importers and innovators in the fair-trade field Only the last two fit the standard definitions of social enterprise.

If we had limited membership of The Kitchen to those types of organisations alone, we could not have started. The most successful social enterprises I have seen have tended to be businesses that entered an already profitable field—such as fair trade importing or green tech—filling niches that other businesses could equally fill without having the same wider social purpose, simply because it already makes economic sense.

The birth of Ākina Foundation and Social Enterprise Auckland is encouraging evidence that the sector is gaining publicity and legitimacy. Yet both are currently funded by central or local government, so the impression remains that the sector still has financial challenges to overcome before it can truly stand on its own.

BROADENING THE NATURE OF BUSINESS While I’m a fan of the social enterprise sector, it is a niche within an expansive market.

This means that “regular” businesses must answer the same larger question: how can the spirit of social enterprise play out across the board, at a time when organisations across the world are waking up to the importance of their social impact?

Every human endeavour rests on a set of values, and this is no less true of business.

There is an outward facing side to this. The very public notions of “social responsibility” and “sustainable business” practice have been well documented. I will not add to that here, except to say that corporate responsibility and social enterprise movements are a return to the original essence of corporations when they first appeared in 17th-century Europe. At that time, they were chartered to work in an area of specific public mission in exchange for the formal right to exist. This corporate obligation to serve the public interest was slowly replaced through the 19th and 20th centuries by the view that they exist solely for the benefit of financial investors.

So both social enterprise and “socially responsible,” “sustainable” businesses can be seen as a return to aligning business to the social reasons they exist for; to the principle that business operates on behalf of society.

However, there is an inward-focussed side to it as well: at the Kitchen, we were seeking work that made our hearts sing!

Employment that answered our desire for creativity and innovation, belonging and identity.

Work is central to our lives, so it is important how it is done—and what the doing of it does to us.

When at a party, after the host introduces you, what is the first question you are asked? “What do you do?” What is telling is that we know what they want to hear. They are not asking about your eating and sleeping habits, or about your hobbies. What I “do” is my work.

Thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Marx, Heidegger, Schmacher, and Pope John Paul II claim that our world is continually created and re-created by human work—and in fact, we are created in that process. Subjective experience is too diffuse for self-identity. “I feel” is no substitute for “I did.” Work is our calling card to the rest of the world. Labour is the axis of self-making.

Murray Sheard

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Even with Marx, the critique of business was not mostly material inequality or poverty. It was what capitalist worker relations did to alienate and distort human souls. In graphic language not even Tracy Chapman can match, he says “they mutilate the labourer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine.” It is ironic then that the movement in his name redefined and degraded citizens as mere workers. I found the irony deeper still when, listening to the leaders' debates and political advertising at the recent election, I was struck by the emphasis on the importance of producing good, productive workers. An observer from outer space might conclude that we had lost the Cold War. The nature of work arrangements must be part of the story of the ethics of business. We couldn’t justify an enterprise if it distorted our nature or produced a stunted human.

More broadly than social enterprise, this contract of societal healing, creativity, and engagement between business and the people working in them is more and more crucial, and more and more common.

People are choosing workplaces more by the ethics of the company, the worth of what it produces, and how it expands their identity. We see work as a pilgrimage of belonging, creativity, and identity.

These are our deepest yearnings for our work—and hence, they bear the weight of something beyond ourselves. If what we do and how we do it does not beat a vivid pulse within us, we lose the reason for doing it.

From the other side, businesses need to engage people at an increasingly deep level if they are to retain them. Companies need the vitality of all hands in order to stay afloat in the sea of change increasingly engulfing them. Organisations cannot survive as outer hollow forms but must breathe with the life of those who make them up. Any organisation taking its place in an increasingly fluid global market is asking staff for more adaptability, vitality, imagination, and enthusiastic willingness to go the extra mile.

To put these two halves together: if organisations are asking for people’s commitment, they are asking for their hearts and minds, their hidden loves and personal investment, at the same time. We have to feel affection for something if we are to apply our creativity and enthusiasm to it.

Hence, if the goal of a company is simply profit, without thought to social good and creativity, then it will engage only those people motivated by financial gain. But if organisations and workplaces have more expansive goals and qualities across a range of values, and a sense of creative engagement is found within their doors, they may get something more soulful and creative from their staff.

There is no formula to act as a lever inside a person to release that creativity. We look for work and culture that allow us to bring more of ourselves to the job. These qualities—creativity, belonging, engagement, ethics, and even love—are what human beings have always wanted for their work. None of them can be coerced, manipulated, legislated, or dragged out by a catchy company slogan, or by outlining a three-year plan. They have their own logic and call for conversation.

Many members of The Kitchen were passionate and skilled people who left the regular business sphere because they weren’t satisfied by the purely corporate model. So my call to the corporate world is to take seriously the kind of talent and creative thinking they lose by not capturing these thinkers and doers. If the corporate world would harness talent by appreciating the social aspect of business and engaging passions, more of us would be proud to answer “what do you do?” because our work better matches the type of person we long to be. •

Dr Murray Sheard is Education and Advocate Manager at TEAR Fund NZ, and was founder of The Kitchen. Previously, he was based in London and Jerusalem as Director of Professional Integrity Education at Integrity Action. Other roles have included Director of Ethical Edge Ltd, Lecturer in philosophy and ethics at the University of Auckland, and NZ Team Leader at Servants, a development charity with teams living and working in the slums of Asia’s mega-cities.

40 | More Than Profit

WORLDS TOGETHER KAREEN HILLENAAR

What happens when a fashion student disillusioned with her industry starts a creative collaboration with migrant women living in her city? In her own words and pictures, here are Kareen Hillenaar’s musings on her recent foray into social business.

interactions we had via every other form of communication were so memorable that on homecoming, I considered how I could kind of just keep “travelling.” This led to connections with refugees in the city we share—Auckland—which have been evolving since.

Image: Kareen Hillenaar

I studied fashion. It was hard. I did some postgraduate studies in an attempt to reconcile myself to the difficulties of correlating this industry with the world in which we live. That was even harder.

I spent time in India teaching women to use overlockers. They spoke next-to-no English (more English than I did Bangla), but the

Kareen Hillenaar

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Vintage scarves with prior lives are gathered and embellished in the hands of migrants. That which is lost in translation—like requests for instructions—ensures surprise. This practice—called Company Per se—has its origins in the contemplation of fashion functioning as social enterprise. These are early days (let’s call it an “R&D phase”), but the intention has long been financial selfsustenance pivoting around honouring people—a “social business,” by my definition.

The scarves, squares of fabric, can be hung on a wall as one does a painting, can function as samples of skill, or can be worn—daily, as most of the women do, or on occasion, as I do (albeit differently).

In June we had an exhibition of sorts in a stairwell—an intimation of connection. Included were two sets of ten scarves, and 100 handmade publications corresponding with each series, journalling the journey.

The crowd was diverse. It was a kind of street party.

Hopefully next time it will be more so on both accounts.

I am currently adrift in the South Pacific; craft exploring. The intention upon returning to New Zealand is to invite Pacific migrants into our collaborative endeavours.

Tomorrow I’ll visit artists working within the medium of Tapa; calling into question terms like “tradition,” as generational knowledge founds contemporary practice. The interplay between creating objects and broadening paid employment possibilities for the youth in their village, grounded in the memory of what has preceded, is an integral consideration.

Images: Kareen Hillenaar

Displaced people may bring little with them physically, but on arrival they carry knowledge—a distinctive understanding of their craft—unique to each culture of origin. This craft has formed the basis for our collaborative practice: facilitating friendships and narratives, generating employment opportunities, and celebrating diversity, is the ambition as we, together, create.

It’s not a grandiose thing. It is a fun thing—moments of excited storytelling accompanying show-and-tell; located in just-down-theroad state homes that, on entering, teleport you instantly to Ethiopia, or Afghanistan, etcetera.

42 | Worlds Together

Yesterday I found myself in a room full of women, most younger than me, taught by their mothers and grandmothers; out of this collective understanding, generating new things of beauty—together.

Images: Kareen Hillenaar

Migration can be lonely. I have had conversations with those so profoundly alone that leaving them—regardless of how long—leaves me feeling pretty bad.

But, Maybe working together, being together; Maybe identifying the worth gathered here in collective tacit memory; Maybe exploring notions of home, and of belonging via making; Maybe facilitating encounters, on both figurative and literal levels between creators and customers, especially those now living in close proximity, …are valid responses.

Maybe.

On that basis, we each have a solid reason to join the myriad others seeking to weave community within the framework that is social business. •

Kareen Hillenaar is an Auckland-based creative who is passionate about designing processes that have good social ramifications and beautiful outcomes. She has a Masters in Art and Design in Fashion from Auckland University of Technology, and her recent exhibition, “Silk Scarf Series,” is the result of working with the migrant community to create garments using craft techniques from their native lands. She completed an internship at Maxim Institute in 2010.

Kareen Hillenaar

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SEEING THE POSSIBLE HANNAH SMITH

"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible."

– Søren Kierkegaard

T

here’s a mushrooming grey area between traditional charity and business as usual. A whole spectrum of efforts based on a conviction that things can be done better. A growing anthology of tales of people who are taking problems by the scruff of the neck and giving them a good shake. The “do-ers” with vision and purpose, putting their heads above the parapet to start and build new ventures. Those who stand out from the crowd in their willingness to forge new paths and who epitomise the spirit of doing things differently.

Western culture loves a hero—someone brilliant, inspiring, capable and relentless in pursuit of their goals. So celebrating social entrepreneurs comes easily to us. Their stories inspire and energise.

They are great tales of heroic endeavour—of triumph over adversity, of a gutsy David pitted against the Goliath of “the way things are done.”

But for a while I’ve been wondering if these fantastic tales are distracting us from seeing a much bigger picture; after all, it’s no secret that few great things are created by one pair of hands alone. Who stands behind and beside our fêted, system-changing social entrepreneurs? What enables and encourages them? Who is sticking with the system but battling to create change from the inside? What stories are we not yet telling that might also engage and inspire? And if we told them, might we illuminate a greater spectrum of possibility for us all?

44 | Seeing the Possible

Ten years working in the field of social innovation has taught me that it is not about neat, mechanical, predictable processes, but rather a vast compilation of human interaction.

It’s a whole eco-system for change; one that needs all sorts. It needs starters and do-ers, but it also needs growers and builders.

It needs people at the front, and people behind the scenes. It needs people of diverse abilities joining forces, combining skills and sharing resources in pursuit of common goals. Because strength and resilience is built brick by brick, by brick.

Those bricks take many different forms. A good web designer, accountant, intern, or funding administrator can be every bit as inspiring and valuable as our most celebrated social entrepreneurs.

I’ve seen ventures rise and fall on the strength of their spreadsheets.

I’ve seen a brand overhaul change the fortunes of a struggling startup. I’ve seen impact created at scale through the dogged pursuit of a tiny operational change at one of the biggest corporates in the land. We can individually “upskill” all we want, but we will always need each other.

In reality—nobody is a superhero. None of us have all the answers.

Helpfully, the digital era is equipping and rewiring us to think like this. We can now see webs of relationship where we once saw only straight lines. We are beginning to grasp that we are all part

of systems and networks, constantly able to combine our brains in various constellations. We have the tools to create and craft both alone and with others.

Things are changing in terms of how we see ourselves in the world, and how we go about being, doing, and contributing. This is nothing new, nothing radical—merely a different way of seeing; akin to enjoying the patterns created on the pavement as we splash through muddy puddles, instead of being fearful of how wet our feet might get. At the same time, the straight lines of career “ladders” are being replaced by something altogether more complex.

For more and more people, finding meaning at work has become critically important. No longer are we content with the idea of putting off “giving back” until we retire comfortably and are resting on our laurels.

We want to be doing it yesterday. This is a restless generation.

There is unpredictability and possibility everywhere.

It feels like the perfect storm. The perfect time to look beyond one or two heroic individual entrepreneurs as the fixers for the challenges we are all facing, and see a realm of opportunity where all of us are valuable. An accumulation of small, individual thoughts and actions is what transforms a big idea into a resilient, solid proposition.

Reclaiming this ability to enjoy the chaos of un-straight lines and unpredictable outcomes creates a different lens on the business of making change. It helps us value a multiplicity of personalities, abilities, and skills. Whoever we are, it empowers us to see pathways forward—for ourselves and for others. It quells what Margaret Wheatley calls “our desire for heroes.” As a famous African proverb goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”

As charities seek to be more like businesses, and businesses to be more like charities, the social impact sector is flourishing. From the tiniest startup to the biggest corporation, a smorgasbord of skills and knowledge is needed to keep things moving in a positive direction. At every level, people are tinkering, adjusting, disrupting.

Looking at what we have, need, and want, and figuring out how to get there in kinder, more “human” ways. From our telephones to our underwear to our entire financial system—somebody, somewhere, is thinking laterally and working to get things done differently; and somebody else has the pieces of the puzzle they are hoping to find.

The story of making change is a complex story with many characters.

The thread running through it is pure energy and unwavering optimism. The conviction that there is another way.

So for me, the most compelling story is the one about the many, and not the few. After all—surely changing our world for the better is less of a rugged individual pursuit, and more of an extreme team game. It’s time we started telling a few more stories of everyday folk.

While it’s easy to fall in love with heroes, this is a story about all of us. •

Hannah Smith has extensive experience working across the social impact sector in both the UK and New Zealand. She is a Winston Churchill Fellow, and holds a Masters in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of London. She wears hats for youth charity Spark+Mettle, learning journey provider Journeys for Change and works as a personal coach, supporting others in their discovery of purposeful work.

Hannah Smith

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LOOK THEM UP Ashoka ashoka.org

FRANK Stationery frankstationery.com

Credited with originating the term “social entrepreneurship” in 1980, and today networking a worldwide community of social entrepreneurs, providing startup financing, professional support services, and connections.

For every item sold, FRANK will give the same item of stationery to a child in need. “We are here to disrupt the trend of poverty in New Zealand by ensuring every child gets the stationery they need.”

The B Team bteam.org

Inspiring Stories Trust inspiringstories.org.nz

An NFP initiative formed by a group of global leaders, including Sir Richard Branson and Arianna Huffington, to create a future where the purpose of business is to be a driving force for social, environmental, and economic benefit.

Supporting young people to engage, to step up and play a critical role in creating solutions to the big issues of our time.

Curative curative.co.nz A New Zealand-based creative agency with a difference—a social business enabling community communication.

46 | Things to Google

Liminal Apparel liminal.org.nz Encouraging community over a cup of coffee, while bettering the lives of producers of organic cotton fabrics in the developing world.“We don’t do this for charity and we don’t do it because it’s a good deed.

We believe that this is how business should be done.

People before profit.”

LoveNotes lovenotes.co.nz

Pathway Trust pathway.org.nz

Reusing the non-confidential wastepaper of different companies to create beautiful, new, practical stationery.

Pathway operates two commercial businesses—a commercial furniture business and a devanning business, that exist to fund charitable services and provide jobs for people who would not otherwise be given the chance. Their prisoner reintegration programme works to reduce recidivism and give ex-offenders a fresh start.

New Zealand Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship nzsef.org.nz Learning together to support, create, explore and develop the skills of social enterprise.

“Social Entrepreneurship is found when an individual, group, organisation, or network seeks systemic and sustainable change on our most significant social problems.”

Ooooby; Out of our own backyards ooooby.org Sourcing and selling local produce, while using the profits to build new local food supplies.

“Ooooby began as an idea in response to the overwhelming evidence that our modern industrial food systems are causing more damage than they are worth.”

PledgeMe pledgeme.co.nz Offering a platform for Kiwis to raise funding and turn their projects into a reailty.

Potiki Adventures potikiadventures.co.nz A Māori Tourism Company providing employment for Māori.

“Potiki Adventures now offers employment to people in an environment that celebrates being Māori and living and working by Māori values, customs and traditions.”

Rekindle rekindle.org.nz

Skoll World Forum skollworldforum.org

Space Craft Systems spacecraft.co.nz

Te Whāngai Trust tewhangai.com

Debris becomes bespoke furniture: “enabling the diversion of reusable resources from waste via creativity and craftsmanship.”

Informing and connecting the international world of social enterprise as they bring news, insight, and opportunities to light.

Accelerating entrepreneurial approaches and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing social issues.

Developing our ‘built environment’ through innovative minds resulting in sustainable, healthy, and durable construction.

A charitable trust employing WINZ clients, the long-term unemployed, and probationary prisoners in a native plant nursery, while conducting work and life skills and selfdevelopment programmes.

The Roskill Coffee Project roskillcoffeeproject.co.nz Using the hospitality industry to generate funding and support for the people of the local community and locally run programmes.

“At the Roskill Coffee Project we hope to create a café where we can explore a new way of doing hospitality that encourages growth in people, and not just the bottom line.”

Social Enterprise Auckland socialenterpriseauckland.org.nz Celebrating Social Enterprise in Auckland, while inspiring, connecting, informing, and growing the sector.

Soul Capital soulcapital.org Investing in social businesses and social enterprises in New Zealand and abroad, and recycling the returns to make further “impact investments.”

“Soul Capital is not just money.

It is a blend of human, social, and financial capital, driven by passion to make enterprise a positive force for our society and our planet.”

“Space Craft Systems is a social enterprise forged in the crucible of post earthquake Christchurch to develop the WikiHouse system in NZ and revolutionise the way we create our built environments.”

Sustainable Business Network sustainable.org.nz The Sustainable Business Network helps business succeed through sustainability. They provide advice and support to help business reshape profit.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development wbcsd.org A CEO-led organisation of forward thinking companies that galvanises the global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society and the environment.

Yellow Brick Road yellowbkroad.com Protecting New Zealand’s sea life through its work, to ensure sustainable fishing becomes common practice.

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Take a look at the need out there, at what’s going on in the world. If your job isn’t contributing to fixing that stuff, you should consider how you can be in one that does.

– JOSH VIAL, ENSPIRAL FOUNDER

flintandsteelmag.com