The WildHearts Group is the largest B2B social enterprise in the UK, providing solutions in consumables and document management across the UK. Proxima caught up with Kris Bryson, Partnerships Director, to find out more and understand what it means to go social
If you discount digital transformation (for just a second), “procuring with purpose” is probably the hot theme of 2019 to date. We can define this “purpose” as making commercial decisions which in some way support good causes, or sustainable aims. The government is a leading thinker in this space with numerous initiatives designed to SMEs and Social Enterprise but for many procurement professionals there may still be a stigma that “doing good” is more expensive and therefore at odds with other commercial goals and targets.
This stigma is now well and truly dated, and the social and sustainability sector is booming, with social enterprises alone employing two million people in the UK and contributing c. £60bn to the economy annually. At the recent “Buy Social” event at the houses of parliament we heard how the sector continues to transform and how there are now enterprise solutions that allow larger organisations to buy well and do good at the same time.
Despite low consumer confidence and an uncertain economic outlook it does appear that social value is here to stay, an unstoppable force rather than a passing trend. The majority of our population; millennials and ‘generation z’s not only care but also have significant purchasing power forcing public and private sector to think differently about their strategies and suppliers. Make no mistake, in B2C even being seen to be more sustainable than peers can be a competitive advantage.
As commercial professionals and consumers we often have hard decisions to make in best representing the objectives of the public, our shareholders or indeed our own families. This is an emerging sector that needs our support to flourish. However, to support continued and sustainable growth there is an argument not to purely positively discriminate, but rather to give organisations a platform to compete and evaluate fairly.
In this way we can provide a platform to compete, open our eyes to the possibilities and support social enterprises to further develop and professionalise sustainable offerings. Perhaps this boils down to three key things;
- Understand what solutions exist in the market, how they map to what we buy and the needs of our organisations and customers.
- Ensure that when evaluating we consider wider criteria than pure commercials and weight this appropriately each time.
- Give our time.
Be aware, be fair, be there.
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