What came first, the roses or the thorns?

Prime Minister David Cameron, in his new year’s message, has warned that 2011 is going to be a "difficult" year with a lot of “heavy lifting” preceding the "really bright future" of the country. In other words, we will have to endure the thorns before we see the roses.

Although, we were already aware of the impending difficulties, these words have met with a combination of panic and anger given the implication on people’s lives and livelihoods, but should we have known? Boom and bust. It’s a cycle, isn’t it? Should we have expected that a downturn was inevitable? Or did a sense of entitlement creep in somewhere along the line, fuelled by the euphoria of the 'good times'? If it is indeed a cycle, what are we doing now to prepare for the roses? GP Commissioning, LSDPs, Big Society, Outsourcing of services, Personalisation. Words that have had the badge ‘opportunity’ attached to them. Are we viewing them as such?


The Prime Minister was not the only one looking ahead. The Guardian asked a panel of social entrepreneurs and sector experts to give their predictions for the year ahead. This is what they said about opportunities and challenges for 2011:

• CEO of a web-based charity: …But it was always a hard trick to turn policy to one's own ends – even one as warm and woolly as the big society. Especially in the absence of money. So, my best bet for 2011 is to look to where our competitive advantage lies.

• CEO of a Social Enterprise support agency: This means that 2011 will be all about message. What do we do? Why does it count? How will social enterprise build a stronger and more affluent society? We must have the answers, quickly, succinctly, and in such a way that everyone gets it.

• MD of a social innovations development company: ..[small organisations] will have to get out of their silos and embrace networking with the big guys. This will probably mean more mentoring, more networking, more investment in coaching and communications, in order to find a common language.

• Manager of a social enterprise start up support agency: I think the challenge will be to tell the difference between opportunities and poisoned chalices. There will be real opportunities as the state retreats to deliver services in different ways with less money. But there will also be lots of situations where, without sufficient income from the state, it will be pretty impossible to deliver any kind of service.

• MD of a social inclusion organisation: Out with the mentors, in with the patrons. The only mentoring support I've ever seen to work is having a patron. Someone who is inspired by you, champions you and opens doors for you. Someone who will invite you to that dinner party where you happen to sit next to an investor. Someone who will encourage her own contacts to buy from you – someone, basically, who is not a state-appointed objective voice, but a genuinely resourceful and immersed person.

• MD of a social enterprise design and communications agency: One thing we can be certain of is that the state is going be smaller in 2011. This offers both an opportunity for social enterprise to fill some of the gaps, and the challenge of finding the resources to do so.

• Policy and Communications Director of a school for Social Entrepreneurship: Keep the antennae up, the radar on and the networks live: there are opportunities out there, and your best bet for 2011 is among them.

• CEO of a support foundation for social entrepreneurs: My hunch is there will be four growth opportunities. Social ventures that can scale up and deliver quickly, reliably and adding immediate value for money to public services. Expansion for public retailing, social ventures that give customers confidence of ethical quality. Hybrid corporate/social partnerships. And right at the other end of the spectrum, community level entrepreneurship, often more people-powered than money-powered, as anger motivates action.
  

What are the challenges and opportunities for your organisation and what are you doing about them? Do roses have thorns? Or do thorns that have roses? Depends which way you look at it, I suppose.

Happy new year!