Can Social Enterprise learn from Victorian engineers?
As part of my commercial activities, I spent a day at a Trade Fair. The NEC was packed with every type of engineering equipment. It was amazing to see a steam traction engine next to a land speed record holding rocket car but my admiration was for the people who built the traction engine without any of the equipment on display. How much trial and error, how much time spent making the tools to make the engine. I am sure no one thought it would ever succeed but they pressed on regardless.
I went to Cardiff for a couple of days, to meet two of our members and to touch base with San Leonard of 
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Combining the pace of business and the satisfaction of making a difference, social enterprise is the best of both worlds. Well that’s the idea, despite minor challenges like rescuing people and the planet while turning a profit as the economy flounders. There’s a silver lining in sight as the most dramatic shake-up of public services in living memory will create opportunities as well as casualties. The question is whether social enterprises can move fast enough, or forced to pick up the pieces the private sector just doesn’t want.