Craig Dearden Phillips

`The Accidental Entrepreneur’ TheTrue Story of How I Half-Succeeded in Social Enterprise Craig Dearden-Phillips Founder and CEO, Speaking Up For the CSEP Conference, Keswick, March 26 2009

Did you say Accidental? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Why did I do it? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

How I Started – The Only Way

The lessons of starting small... Keeping costs down The importance of passion Having to deliver or die That everything matters

A Crisis: Then a New Approach to Our Mission ,[object Object]

Putting Away the Begging Bowl In 2002, we relied mostly on traditional charitable donations They paid for direct work but didn’t help us to develop the organisation So we turned instead to winning contracts - mainly We still received donated income (about 30%) – but, crucially, we don’t depend on it for survival But we didn’t do it alone

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[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Building a Team beyond the founding fanatics We recruited an FD and Sales Director from commercial sector which built sales but alienated many staff and trustees. Developing systems without killing the spirit Speaking Up has always had powerful number two working as foil to Landing services in a new place We got caught and totally underestimated the work involved. Put in only trusted insiders into new locations. When to control, when to let go We started with Stalinism (correct) but let go too slowly. Goal is decentralisation

Half-Succeeded? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

[object Object],[object Object],Personally exhausted, considering jacking it in Still exhausted but supported by a strong board and excellent senior team (why I am here today) 500 beneficiaries Turnover £0.5m 1 main location 4000 beneficiaries Turnover £4.3m 7 main locations Organisation in poor financial and operational state Organisation has money in the bank and winner of many awards for delivery. One main `product’ and limited customer base Several successful products, working in a variety of `markets’ which mitigates risk

[object Object],Missing a huge opportunity once Staying `hands-on’ too long Not taking enough risks generally Some of my appointments very poor Not leading & managing staff v. well Slow to develop a senior team

Beating the Recession? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Our Challenge ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

So, what’s to learn from my story? ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Thanks for Listening Today! ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]

Craig Dearden Phillips

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Craig Dearden Phillips