Ethical business: COSMIC

In the first of our on-going features on ethical businesses we talk to Julie Harris from the ICT social enterprise COSMIC.

Explain your business.
COSMIC is a social enterprise delivering ICT services – training, web, tech support and consultancy to businesses and organisations across SW. Based in Ottery St Mary, Devon – lots more information on COSMIC web site.

What’s your background?
I have been at COSMIC for 11 years now, and previously worked in local government (IT and research) and previous to that in our family business (motor trade).

I am also chair of RISE – the regional body looking after the interests of social enterprise in the South West, and I am one of 30 social enterprise ambassadors working in England to promote social enterprise as the business model for 21st century. I am regional ICT champion for Third Sector for SW – and so as you can imagine I do a lot of travelling around the region and lots of networking and meetings as well as running the business.

Why a social enterprise, and how does it apply to what you do?
COSMIC was set up in 1996 as a result of work in the youth club in Ottery St Mary and local community development, which identified the need for support and training, with a particular focus on young people as well as local community and businesses.

The organisation was established as an internet café with training courses and ambitions for employing young people as part of the developing business model. Addressing the needs of the local community and young people’s need for ICT training and employment continued to be a key focus for many years, and saw us develop a whole range of projects at our centre and on the road – outreach included the use of the Space Shuttle mobile unit.

More recently our social objectives have focused on working with other voluntary and community organisations to support their use of ICT, and working in support of organisations seeking to overcome barriers to use and access to ICT including rurality and accessibility. The company continues to offer top-quality employment and training opportunities for young people, including meaningful work experience and helping local schools to understand social enterprise better.

What was harder to implement than you thought it would be?
Running a successful social enterprise is hard work. And it’s never down to one person – it takes a dedicated team and support network to achieve full potential. I am often telling business people that theirs is a much easier job, as all they have to do is return a profit (financial) year by year. Our jobs at COSMIC (and in all social enterprise) is to deliver triple-bottom-line profits – financial, social, environmental. So yes, its a big job to do well.

What has been the unexpected benefit, if any, to you, your business or the community?
There have been lots of unexpected benefits – for me and for COSMIC, mainly around how we have learned how important good partnerships are, and in more recent years how the focus on ICT has provided us with lots of unexpected opportunities for partnership work and new projects to be involved with.

Working in ICT provides lots of new challenges and opportunities every day – recently we were invited to participate in a virtual conference using Second Life and to present to a global audience of avatars about the COSMIC story.

We are regularly hosting visits from people interested in social enterprise and its development – in recent years as well as welcoming students from local universities we have also hosted visits from students and business people from Japan, Australia and in the not-too-distant future from Finland.

What have you learnt and what advice would you give to others thinking of starting a social enterprise?
I have learned so much and I am always keen to share this learning with others. COSMIC is about to launch a leadership mentoring programme for social enterprises and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to offer new ways for leaders to learn and get support to help them grow and bloom.

And yes, I am always encouraging others to start social enterprise – as a career option for young and old, as a new way of doing existing business, and as a really great option for those disillusioned with their existing job or business – it certainly offers so much for so many people.

How do you view the future?
I am feeling so positive about the future of social enterprise now – we have some excellent opportunities for making it the business model which can truly change things for the better.

There has been increasing political support in recent years, but more importantly there is a growing understand in society that things need to change and that social and environmental impact has to play a key role in the future if we are to be considered ‘successful’.

As a young person recently told me when I explained social enterprise as a business model to a group of year 11 students – “Its a no-brainer!”

• We’re keen to promote ethical businesses, so if you know one, get in touch.