Leading voices from UK social enterprise, co-operatives and social investment have raised concerns over a “landmark” definition of the ‘impact economy’ that risks alienating a number of impactful organisations.
Impact Europe today revealed the name of its new chief: Angela Wiebeck, praised for “building bridges” between mainstream finance and impact over her two decades at UBS and Aquila Capital. She speaks to Pioneers Post from Brussels.
OPINION: There’s a message blowing across the Atlantic that the business of investment is to maximise return, and considering people and planet is woke nonsense. This argument is outdated, says GSG Impact chair Nick Hurd.
INTERVIEW: Putting a price tag on a company’s social and environmental impact is the only way to demonstrate its true profit and loss, believes Sir Ronald Cohen, who is now focusing on driving forward the next accounting revolution.
MY IMPACT CAREER: The Latimpacto CEO shares the ups and downs of a purpose-driven career path – from growing up amid the violence of 1980s Colombia, to corporate law, to leading a fast-growing network with staff across the continent.
A toy maker, a ceramics business and a branding-savvy “social concept store” are all helping to raise public awareness of social enterprise in the Georgian capital – and challenging the notion that buying social means compromising on quality.
“If you don’t measure it, it didn’t happen” – so says the boss of the award-winning social enterprise Noise Solution, which matches young people with professional musicians to learn new skills and boost self-confidence.
There’s plenty going on inside the Brussels bubble that will affect how the social economy is supported – or not – around the European Union. Toby Gazeley deciphers the latest news from the EU capital and tells us what to look out for next.
PART 7: If you're a purpose-driven leader, you're likely to face resistance from people with a very different agenda to yours. From bullying bosses to game-playing business partners: how do you avoid getting drawn into the drama?
From venture competitions to hackathons to master’s degrees, students have more opportunity than ever to explore social entrepreneurship. Universities – and wider society – have much to gain, says Manchester University’s Robert Phillips.
There is almost no early-stage, innovation-friendly impact investing, says serial social entrepreneur Mitra Ardron. Should we just admit that all we can do is make impact investors feel good about applying band-aids without fixing the problem?
Annual review reveals profits down to £4m in challenging economic landscape, but CEO insists investing in social impact makes “good business sense” even in difficult times.
ANALYSIS: Chocolate social enterprise Tony’s Chocolonely has a new legal structure to safeguard its mission, which it claims is a model for others to follow. Does its “mission guardians” and “golden share” approach do the trick?
