Social enterprise now and in a post-COVID world

As we first started to confront the economic consequences of COVID-19 containment, I took to nightly tweeting salient facts about #socialenterprise and other topics on which I have expertise. I quickly desisted, partly because practice leaders took up the charge, and because I am personally exhausted by comfortable middle class experts (like me) pontificating about the brave new world we will enter, as if the inequality, pain and death that is playing out in this pandemic is an abstract blip on an otherwise hopeful radar. As I process our shared trauma and begin really listening to the social innovators around me, I realise it’s time to get back to work, so here are some reflections on why we need #socialenterprise now and in a post-COVID world.

Social enterprises exist to meet an unmet social or community need through trading. They are usually in the business of responding to market failure, and often in the business of innovating to do so. Even now, in the face of crisis to their own organisations, social enterprises across Australia are pivoting, not just to save themselves, but to respond to emergency needs for food security and accommodation for people overlooked by current rescue packages, new PPE equipment, and the list goes on. With a typical (if not universal) tendency towards cooperation, social enterprises in some regions are also quickly finding ways to support each other, as some face major demands to scale while others face the prospect of falling off a cliff. Given their social purpose-driven focus, one might be forgiven for thinking that social enterprises are less ‘efficient’ in conventional terms than mainstream businesses. Not so. Our research in Victoria, shows that social enterprises are as efficient and more productive than their mainstream counterparts. A good economic argument for supporting their sustainability? Alongside their social value, I think so.

About a third of Australia’s 20 000 social enterprises are particularly focused on creating employment opportunities for people who are typically overlooked by mainstream employers. In Victoria, around half of social enterprises are led by women, and these businesses typically employ more than double the number of people with disability than their mainstream counterparts. This practice of inclusive employment is critical now and will be even more important as we move into post-COVID economic recovery; social enterprise has much to teach other businesses about how to create a more economically inclusive world. To really nail this, though, Australian social enterprises and their supporters need to confront the age-old primacy of capital over labour, and recognise the huge social value that could accrue from putting more decision-making power in the hands of those they seek to serve.

On this digital platform and many others, people I respect are speaking hopefully of the socio-economic transformations we might see as a result of the major shake-up we are currently experiencing. I am not quite sufficiently at ease with my existential dread to join this chorus. But, maybe sometime soon. In the meantime, I am doing as much as I can as a consumer and an advisor to support social enterprises now, and undertaking research which I and my team hope will provide some missing evidence links to support them to scale their impacts in the future.