Fri 24 / 07 / 15
Same-same, but different: growth in a social business
Conversation session, Brighton Summit, Friday 16 October
Discussing matters of growth in social businesses, you will hear from Jo Ivens, Chief Executive Officer of Impetus, and Andy Winter, Chief Executive of Brighton Housing Trust.
Jo Ivens hopes to offer some insights from growing a social business that will offer a fresh look at growth in all sectors.
“What does growth mean to a social business? What do you do when it’s difficult to access the usual inputs for growth? How do you turn passion for change into action and impact? How do you grow your business in a changing environment?
Some of the most refreshing, exciting and impactful projects we have worked on in the last few years have been with businesses or organisations in different sectors. We have learned about client focus from iCrossing, about completing the job from abir architects. We have learned about bringing the joy of creation to issues that come with having a long term condition through our Open Arts collaboration with Autism Sussex and Grace Eyre.
“Brighton & Hove Impetus is a business - we employ 25 people, we provide eight different services, thousands of hours of support for hundreds of clients per year, we have liabilities, prospects and opportunities. But we also have a social mission rather than a commercial goal and this means we can take a different approach to common business problems”.
Jo has spent most of the last 17 years working in or with charities of all sizes, weaving her way from promoting adult education to helping community groups fundraise for everything from playgrounds to sewing machines, via work on accessibility in a Melbourne hospital and stints in government. Her favourite job is her current one, leading a team of talented, committed people at Brighton & Hove Impetus reduce isolation and improve wellbeing in our city.
Andy Winter will talk about the pressure that there is on charities to merge, the theory being that it creates efficiencies (one chief executive, one finance director, etc.) but that doesn’t always follow or the scale of the savings are not material, and the ethos and identity of one or both can be compromised or lost. What are the risks as well as the obvious advantages (BHT has merged, or acquired, three smaller charities in the last seven years and they would consider doing more in the future, but with caution).
Andy Winter has worked for Brighton Housing Trust since 1985 and has been Chief Executive since 2003. He is a former councillor, a Board Member of the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, and a governor of an NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of Sussex County Cricket Club.
The discussion will be facilitated by Peter Desmond, trainer, coach and consultant with Growth International. Peter has been working with non-profit and for-profit organisations for 23 years.
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