Larry Brilliant at Skoll. Image used with permission of Skoll World Forum.

Many of the challenges social enterprise aims to resolve are the greatest challenges faced by humanity: Poverty. Climate change. Conflict. And each is made more challenging by its interweaving with the others. Resolution of these global challenges requires us to “rejoice in complexity,” as was suggested by Stephan Chambers, Director of the MBA degrees at Oxford University’s Saїd Business School, during the opening plenary of the 2011 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

The Forum’s theme for this year was, “”Large Scale Change — ecosystems, networks and collaborative action.” Laudable on its face, the theme gave rise to a series of dialogues over the Forum’s three days that made clear big problems require big solutions. Social enterprise, and in particular its “undisputed star,” microfinance, has demonstrated its capacity to deliver that change, exemplifying Einstein’s assertion that “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

The diversity of people, nations, ideas and enterprises present at the Skoll Forum certainly demonstrated our collective capacity to define new models and pursue new solutions. Yet few organizations have achieved scale without simultaneously diluting their impact. And therein lies the paradox:

As they grow, social enterprises’ capacity to be responsive and need-focused inevitably erodes.

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Archbishop Tutu. Image used with permission of Skoll World Forum

“Large Scale Change – ecosystems, networks and collaborative action.” This was the theme for the 2011 Skoll World Forum, March 30 to April 1, in Oxford, UK. The diversity of delegates’ nationalities, organizations, missions and ideas was matched only by the diversity of plenary, breakout and workshop session topics. Yet at least a couple of common threads united the conversations of the 900 assembled delegates.

One of these was the question of leadership, and more specifically its role in the development of large scale change.

Amid more than enough academic study, philosophical waxing and journalistic opining, ‘leadership’ has devolved in the past few years to nothing more than another example of rampant organizational rhetoric. Yet at Skoll, the profound insights of unquestionable leaders—Queen Noor of Jordan, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and our convener, Jeff Skoll himself—shed new light on the emerging revitalization of leadership. This dialogue was perhaps captured best by the question posed in one popular session:

Is Heroism Obsolete?

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This incredible, inspiring video welcomed delegates to the 2011 Skoll World Forum:

Learn to create a break-through, authentic, values-driven brand strategy for your mission-based organization.

A new generation of entrepreneurs and social change leaders rejects short-term, unsustainable practices, and aims instead to build organizations around enduring values. Yet many cause-driven organizations—whether not-for-profit, social venture or social enterprise—struggle to find their voice.
How should they engage donors, customers, staff and others in their mission? How do they focus their story, pitch and appeals to generate the greatest returns? And how do they stand apart in cluttered, competitive markets? We’ll be including the insights of new research and access to some of the tools and techniques that are typically reserved for our international roster of high impact social change clients.

Mike Rowlands, Founder & President of Octopus Strategies, will co-present this workshop with Stephen Abbott. Together, they’ve helped mission-driven organizations around the world to develop authentic, value-driven and inspiring brands. They’ll share examples, insights and experiences, while helping you to identify ways to distinguish your organization in a marketplace that’s increasingly conscious and ever more crowded.

The workshop will be offered only twice in 2011—both times in partnership with Hollyhock in Vancouver. The workshop does require advanced registration. Tuition per session is $185 CDN. Non-profit, Student, Senior: $165 CDN. Program dates are Wednesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 14 or Wednesday, October 5 and Thursday October 6, from 1:00pm – 5:00pm in Vancouver.

A Celebration of Renewed Vitality

Octopus Strategies is pleased to be sponsoring Vertality, “a celebration of the New Year for and by Vancouver’s change-maker community: people who believe that business can lead the way to a prosperous future by fostering an economic model that values the pursuit of profit equally with the pursuit of sustainability.”

After the shock of 2008, the uncertainty of 2009, and the turbulence of 2010, 2011 ushers in new optimism, and brings new opportunities to build on our successes, and to drive important missions forward.

Begin 2011 with a flourish! Celebrate the new year. Make new connections in an incredibly engaged community. And revel in the Vertality!

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Octopus Strategies is proud to release the first ever Social Enterprise Marketing Toolkit to support the enterprising work of leading social sector organizations in Canada.

To make this meaningful contribution to the emerging social enterprise sector, Octopus Strategies partnered with Enterprising Non-Profits to produce the Social Enterprise Marketing Toolkit, which we unveiled on November 5 at the first ever Social Enterprise Meetup in Vancouver.

Throughout Canada’s western-most Province of British Columbia, there are some 240 established social enterprises, each dedicated to addressing or supporting vital social and community projects and priorities. ‘Social Enterprise’ is defined as a traditional business, operated by a not-for-profit either to directly fulfill its mission, or to channel funds back into the purse of the not-for-profit itself.

In other countries, social enterprise is well established—especially in the UK, where it’s now seen as a vital priority for the national government. By contrast, it is a slowly emerging sub-sector in Canada. Yet in a context of economic constraint, and amid budget cuts to government funding for arts, cultural and social organizations, social enterprise presents significant opportunities.

Made up of five videos and a series of accompanying worksheets, the Toolkit introduces foundational marketing theory, and presents specific examples from BC’s social enterprises and some of Octopus Strategies’ proprietary tools. Some of these tools, such as the Value Spectrum™ and the Message Matrix™ involve approaches that have previously been available only to paying clients.

The Toolkit has been designed to make marketing and communications expertise accessible and applicable for social sector leaders who often have no training or background in marketing. They get pragmatic and actionable techniques they can apply immediately in their social enterprises.

The Toolkit has been launched as a ‘beta’ product and is available online at Octopus Strategies or at Enterprising Non-Profits. Feedback and suggestions for improvement or clarification can be sent to info@enterprisingnonprofits.ca or setoolkit@octopusstrategies.com.