Michele Goldman: The social enterprise sector is still underdeveloped in Australia

Michele Goldman started her career in the corporate sector but felt the need to create more social change in the work that she did.

After nearly ten years in the corporate sector, Goldman moved to the NFP sector and worked as the CEO of the Asthma Foundation and The Housing Connection. Nine months ago Goldman became the CEO of the School of Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) as she feels strongly about making a social change that can also make a profit.

Third Sector spoke to Goldman to find out more about SSE, succesful accelerator programs and where the social enterprise sector is heading in Australia.

TS: Tell us about how SSE got started and what it is.

MG: SSE started 20 years ago in the UK. The founder Michael Young saw that there were people who were less able to access education and therefore were excluded from access to employment opportunities. He saw social enterprise as a means to give these people a hand and support them in building their own self-reliance.

SSE started in Australia six years ago. SSE Australia’s mission is to equip change makers to establish, scale and make social enterprises that deliver social and economic value. We do this through different types of learning programs that are particularly tailored to the way entrepreneur’s learn, which is not by sitting in a classroom listening to lectures. Social entrepreneurs learn by doing.

TS: Why is an organisation like SSE needed in Australia?

MG: Starting a business is a very challenging thing and more business’s fail than are successful. Social business is much more challenging and it typically takes many more years to get to the point where it is sustainable. It is not a level playing field, in a corporate business you know you’ve got to get the right product and services, distribute them to the right channels and offer good customer service and normally you make a profit.

A social business is going to have a less productive work force. It is a very tough and challenging journey and it can be really lonely. These [social entrepreneurs] therefore need support and access to funding and networks and often in this journey their confidence is going to be significantly diminished. They need to have mentors, confidants and supporters to help encourage them along the way and that is what SSE is designed to do. Our name ‘School for Social Entrepreneurs’ is deliberate in the sense that we are not about just building enterprises – our focus is about personal development of the change maker. We are furnishing them with the confidence, skills and networks to be successful in their social endeavours. There are not many organisations that create that early stage support in Australia.

TS: Have you witnessed any stand out examples of social enterprises?

MG: One stand up enterprise for me is Career Trackers. Career Trackers connects indigenous students who are studying at University with top tier corporate companies. The program has been successful in creating 300 permanent placements for indigenous students once they are finished at Uni. It’s a new innovative way of tackling the issue. The gap between indigenous and non-indigenous employment get’s so much attention, airtime and funding, but we don’t see a lot of progress in the gap diminishing. Career Trackers has a new creative approach- it takes away the charitable kind of perspective on the issue and is commercial in its orientation. The businesses are employing these individuals not because they are indigenous but because they are eligible graduates that are talented workers of the future.

TS: What makes a successful accelerator program?

MG: Entrepreneurs learn differently- they learn by doing and they learn through experiential learning techniques. Successful programs are designed to deliver those opportunities. For example, you may hear from a real life expert on legal structures, on social media or on marketing. These are not academics, these are people who live and breathe this stuff- they fail and they see things work. They are wiling to share their learning and wisdom with the students. A successful program will also offer guidance and support; the students confidence needs to be nurtured and their networks need to be expanded.

TS: What is the NDIS accelerator?

MG: SSE has a whole range of programs and [the NDIS accelerator] is about tackling a real need in the market from disability service providers. The NDIS is completely reforming the way charities in the disability sector operate. Over night they are going to have to transform into social enterprises where they will need to market their services to clients. We are about to run another NDIS accelerator program. Research from the first program has shown us that intrapreneurs [change agents] and entrepreneurs [starting their own business] are looking for slightly different things. [Our] next program is targeted towards the intrapreneurs working in NFPs and is designed to tackle the very big question ‘how do we become more customer focused?’

TS: Where do you see the social enterprise space in Australia in the next five years?

MG: The [social enterprise] sector is still quite young and underdeveloped in Australia. We see more players coming into the sector, but I think sometimes that is not always in the community’s best interest as there are lots of small players wanting to do the same thing. There needs to be consolidation. I hope to see that in the social enterprise sector in the next five years.

Social enterprises are all over Australia, but the programs and resources all seem to be concentrated amongst the main cities. I hope this [also changes].