Transcript

You know, I will always speak to that from the experience of the last kind of 12 years, which is, you know, we've sat in a building today which is 1 of 14 community shops, which ended up being a bit of a spin out from a 50 year old commercial business. But not really a spin out because we stayed part of that group. And I often think, look, yeah, I, I love that we've been able to use what you call elegant, I think thoughtful, enterprising ways of thinking and doing to join hands with our communities and offer what we hope is a great kind of service. But at the same time as doing that, I think two things happened. We transformed what could have easily been just a CSR project. Into a standalone business that had its own board in its own auditors and it's on Sep accounts and all that kind of stuff. But at the same time. It started to infect the culture of the ecosystem around it. It started to and I think that was both ways. So we benefited from the toughness and the challenge and the keeping us honest. As you know, management accounts that came out every Monday morning and we've so really how we would do it. Yeah. So I think you know, in our case that was shown first of all because we're we're dead proud of the, you know, the stuff we've done through these 14 stores and we're opening a couple each year working with 70,000 people. And I think you mentioned the word elegant, trying to Co create an elegant reinvention of community retail in partnership with our communities. Really proud of that. But I think I'm equally proud. Of what has happened when you allow a social enterprise culture to sit in the heart of a 50 year old business and how you both changed by that. So, you know, we're, we keep ourselves more honest. We've got rigor in so many things that we do as a business. And we've learned a lot from that and certainly learned more than when I was doing social enterprise on my own 20 years ago. It has been an Academy for me in how you do good business. I think for the wider group business it is. Infected that wider ecosystem right the way down to the way we decorate our head office and the way we talk about what we do and the language we use. So I think I think from I think there are two perspectives on this. I think the first of all the first bit about the advantage of social enterprise. If you're doing the kind of stuff like we are doing, which which is complicated and I think it does take a lot of thinking through and I think it takes a real enterprising. And sometimes quite determined spirit. Yeah. But I think it does, it does really transform the business. I think it gives colleagues a sense of purpose and pride because they can see a tangible thing happening which they all contribute to. Whether you're in a finance team and HR team and IT team and you're on a packing line, you are all contributing to the work that your social enterprise does. And I think also it gives you a. A distinct advantage, particularly if you can work with clients across the corporate world that understands the power of social enterprise, they can look at you as a business and go, yeah, I like the way that that works, I'll do business with you. But I guess also there's another spin on that question in terms of the advantage that social enterprises can bring to business in terms of procurement. And I know that's something that you've been doing a lot about it Social Enterprise UK. Yeah. Well, procurement is a big prize in this country. Public sector procurement 400 billion. Footsie 100 top 100 businesses are gonna have a combined kind of procurement spend in the 10s of billions, if not, if not more. So it's a, it's a, it's a big sum we're talking about here, much more than CSR is ever gonna be. And that's why procurement is so critically important. And it also, I think, rewards businesses for doing the right thing. And that's what I wanna see. We've heard so much about a race to the bottom in terms of reducing salaries and works terms and conditions, actually social enterprises about creating a race to the top who can be the best for communities. Can be the best for workers who can be the best for suppliers, producers, the planet. And actually it's a it's an exciting race to be in now it's it's not all, you know, bees and honey. There are some big challenges of running a business like that and we know that margins can be incredibly tight when you're trying to do so much but the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the world. Don't underestimate the impact that can have on customer loyalty the way that suppliers want to work with you when you're in a bit of difficulty as all businesses. Might find themselves in the way that your partners can rally around you. You know, there's so much goodwill when people know that you're working for a benefit that is bigger than your own. And I, I think it just creates the very, very best in people. It creates the best in business. And actually the legacy of these businesses as you can see here is actually phenomenal and really moving. Brilliant.