The Business Desk held the above seminar on 17th November 2020. VSNW attended to gain insights to share with our Social Enterprise Networks – many of whom need to explore “hard subjects” resulting from the pandemic. We have to be good at the enterprise to enable the social. Speakers were excellent and it is hoped that the event will be on line in due course. The seminar comprised four speakers.

First off was Dr John Ashcroft – an economist of some renown. Amongst many points he observed two stand out.

1.       “If you do not have a digital presence you have a problem”. This has been evidenced by the recent demise of Edinburgh Woollen Mill/Jaeger/Ponden/Peacocks who had a minimal online presence and is a lesson for all social enterprises. If customers cannot access you they cannot make purchases.

2.       The FED (the American Central Bank) has indicated that there will be no interest rate increases for three years. Dr Ashcoft surmised that the Bank of England will have to follow suit. This does mean that it is a good time for directors of social enterprises to revisit appetite for borrowing. There will be opportunities for investment arising – as set out by other speakers in this seminar.

Chris Yates then followed. He is an experienced Chief Executive who specialises in turnrounds and business exits. This is language that brings sharp intakes of breath within the social enterprise sector but we cannot ignore such issues. Every word that Chris spoke added value to the seminar. Key points include

• Obtain clarity of outcome from stakeholders. What do they want and do they all want the same? What happens if they don’t?

• Ask the team for simple and straightforward things that can be achieved quickly. By setting simple goals, with short time frame, it helps get people out of a fog that is caused by panic operating practices brought about by increasing pressures.

• Be honest and don’t be economical with the truth. Not every operation can be saved.

• Plan for three or four key outcomes and base the plan on stakeholder consultation.

This all sounds quite straightforward. The author of this piece knows that it is not so easy in practice which is why he brought in some one when the community enterprise he was heading took over a failing operation – and this despite him providing similar services for others. One step removed, yet immersed on an interim basis, can be of huge assistance.

Frank Otanagoro continued the seminar with useful advice for dealing with the Covid situation. He advised that unnecessary costs should be eliminated and cash managed tightly followed by a micro and macro evaluation of the business. Bluntly, is what you do and how you do it needed and being undertaken in a manner that is now relevant. He also urged a robust examination of the supply chain – a failure of a supply could have a knock on effect for what you do.

From a social enterprise perspective it then became interesting. Frank strongly encouraged examining all operations within a business and, perhaps, shedding some of the non-core ones. From an existing operation perspective it can have the effect of creating an element of cash or, at the very least, releasing management time to concentrate on the “knitting”. From our perspective it could provide opportunities to acquire an operation which is already up and running with a customer base from which income can be generated. It may even come with a management team who can learn from us as we learn from them. It could be exciting.

Ian Barton concluded the session by stressing the need for business planning. Be strategic in thinking – what will the operation look like in the “new normal”. He talked about the need for strong balance sheets which can be strengthened by the sale of non-core assets – which resonated with Frank. There was discussion about different natures of mergers and acquisitions which, for the author, a former commercial banker, was fascinating but perhaps outside the scope of this report. However, Ian did observe that if blue sky strategic planning had taken place an operation is well placed to react quickly to an opportunity. A distress sale can make things cheaper. This is an element of commercial aggression that the social enterprise sector can learn from.

The Q&A session also produced information gems. It is possible to have a profit poor and cash rich business. Q2 of 2021 will be critical as this is when the support packages, for all sectors, are due to end and first repayments of Covid loans are due. It is sensible to plan for opportunities and wait as well as having an agile response system. Good business will become available due to impaired balance sheets. There has to be caution and a need to fully understand cash flow implications of expansion. Late filing of annual returns can impact on credit rating and it is essential to work with auditors to obtain an audit report which does not have a going concern qualification.

Finally, Dr Ashcroft observed that this will all pass – eventually whilst Frank stressed the importance of good business coaching and support networks.

About – speakers. One of the joys of this seminar was that none of the speakers tried to push their services. In that spirit readers of this article are urged to explore profiles on Linked In and other sites.

About – Business Desk. This is a daily business update bulletin that arrives at 08.15/08.20 each weekday morning. It is free of adverts and provides headlines. These can be clicked upon for further information. There are adverts on the supplementary pages. It is a free service to which the author signed up when CEO of an enterprise in the West Midlands and again now he is working in the North West. There have been no unsolicited emails that can be tracked back to this sign up.

About – author. Andrew Rainsford is Policy and Research Officer for Voluntary Sector North West. He has a varied career including commercial lending; local government management; CEO of a new start community enterprise and project development/funding for a wide variety of third sector bodies.