Fraser Thompson

Fraser Thompson joined On Purpose’s Advisory Board in 2013 having been a dedicated mentor to participants of the 2012 programme. Known throughout our cohorts for his ‘Shock and Awe’ training, he brings into sharp relief the macro scale challenges that threaten our environment, and are our responsibility to wrestle with them. When he’s not flying between continents to get to work, he’s running through Hyde Park to London’s McKinsey offices.

Why do you do the job you do?

I work with McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) – which is the economic research arm of McKinsey, the global consultancy. I specialize in natural resource issue, focusing on both how countries can use resource endowments to create sustainable economic development, and how countries can improve the productivity with which they use natural resources, and hence create a more environmentally friendly growth model.

What are you most proud of?

A few years ago I worked with some provincial governments in Indonesia to help create “green growth” economic strategies, that aim to reduce carbon emissions whilst supporting livelihoods. There is a long way still to go, but it is very pleasing for me to see these governments push this agenda further.

What keeps you awake at night?

I worry about the short-term thinking in society and how we risk sleep-walking into fundamental economic, social and environmental challenges. Too many businesses think on a quarterly basis, too many governments think on the basis of election cycles, and too many consumers think paycheck to paycheck.

What were you doing 5 years ago?

I was at McKinsey even then! I’m starting to think I’ve been here too long. I was based in the Middle East, working with governments on understanding how to diversify their economies away from a sole reliance on oil.

What do you expect to be doing in 5 years’ time?

Working in some shape or form on this resources agenda.

If you were Prime Minister for the day, what would you do?

Sign my country up to a carbon reduction target equivalent to a 450-ppm pathway and invest heavily in helping business and households adapt to a more resource efficient growth model.

Why are you involved with On Purpose?

The world faces unprecedented challenges. We need the brightest minds and most determined people to address them. On Purpose can help make this happen.

David Walker

David Walker joined On Purpose’s Advisory Board in 2012 having led Clifford Chance’s pro bono offer to On Purpose since 2011. He is now a partner at international law firm Latham & Watkins. He often delights the On Purpose core team with his quick-fire response to emails, and personally marking-up On Purpose’s important, but rather less lucrative legal papers. We just wish we could be of more help to him when it comes to office chair user manuals.

Why do you do the job you do?

I enjoy the challenge of applying the technical aspects of the law to commercial problems faceed by clients. I specialise in private equity and like working with owner managers of businesses; I am one of the few who believe that private equity can be a force for good

What are you most proud of?

My family

What keeps you awake at night?

Almost nothing can keep me awake at night. I am always exhausted by the time my head hits the pillow

What were you doing 5 years ago?

I was a Partner at international law firm, Clifford Chance

What do you expect to be doing in 5 years’ time?

Continuing to be a Partner at Latham & Watkins, another international law firm, and hopefully contributing to the continued success of On Purpose

If you were Prime Minister for the day, what would you do?

Call my best clients and ask them what they need

Why are you involved with On Purpose?

I find the prospect of having highly motivated, ambitious, talented people working for social enterprises incredibly exciting and believe this will ultimately change the way that charities and other not for profit organisations are viewed in the community

If you’ve an idea of who deserves to be given the People On Purpose treatment, be in touch.

Click on the image above to see a video on Virgin Unite

I had read Richard Branson’s Screw Business as Usual before I started and knew that this was a place that was totally inline with my own objectives and combining the power of business with social and environmental objectives.  I worked on all of Virgin Unite’s Entrepreneurial initiatives from Start Up Loans in the North East of England to the Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship in the Caribbean and South Africa. I loved meeting all of the entrepreneurs, their businesses varied hugely from Claire Reed with her visionary Reel Gardening from South Africa, Michael Movery with his spicy Coco Brown’s hot sauce from the Caribbean to Charlie Simpson-Daniel with his nutritious Kings Biltong from the UK. Despite their differences, they all had one thing in common, being involved in a Virgin Unite initiative had given them the confidence and the support to give their start up the best possible chance!

There really must be something in the water at Virgin as I was so inspired by the entrepreneurs and working somewhere where creativity was encouraged, I decided that after On Purpose I would love to start my own business. The only problem is what kind of business will this be? I know that I want it to be socially responsible and have positive impacts on society and the environment, but further than that I have no idea!

Another theme at Virgin Unite and Virgin is protecting ‘People and Planet’, and Richard Branson is particularly passionate about sharks, especially whale sharks, and is also an Ocean Elder. As a keen diver and after a talk from the incredible Ecovative Design who have designed packaging made from mushrooms so that it decomposes and does not get into the garbage patches in the oceans, I started to research more about the problems that the oceans are facing and how little we are doing to solve these problems. It was only then that I realised how large these problems are, from garbage patches to the overfishing, not to mention the problems facing particular species such as sharks as a result of the popularity of shark fin soup. There are already social entrepreneurs and companies who have some incredible programmes such as SafetyNet, a Virgin Media Pioneer, and Net-Works, an Interface initiative, but given the scale of the problem it is simply not enough.

I’m still not entirely sure what I will do when I finish my second On Purpose placement but my time at Virgin Unite has encouraged me to think entrepreneurially, to think big and to think about how my actions impact the world around me. I would love to set up a social enterprise that in some way helps protect the ocean, whether by protecting the reefs, decreasing overfishing or the rubbish dumps at sea. Looks like there will be plenty to discuss with my coach in our next meeting!

Perhaps today’s announcement should come as no surprise since the team’s campaign launched with the backing of four-times Olympic gold medallist, Matt Pinsent CBE.

Matt Pinsent, CBE backing Row-ding On Purpose’s bid

It’s only now that the team has made public how their cart will be clad for the forthcoming season; encapsulated by the term ‘Row-ding’, it takes inspiration from the Boat Race and looks set to apply it to a track-worthy vessel.

Row-ding On Purpose’s grand plan disclosed

Rivals have queried why the team, none of whom are Oxbridge educated, would choose to use the Boat Race as their source of inspiration.  Their avid supporters on the other hand have wasted no time contemplating this conundrum, but have preferred to focus their energies on contemplating the amount that will be on show when the team’s clad in Lycra.

On Purpose is currently recruiting it’s next cohort of Associates, starting in October 2013. To find out more and apply, visit here.

On Purpose is currently recruiting it’s next cohort of Associates, starting in October 2013. To find out more and apply, visit here.

On Purpose is currently recruiting it’s next cohort of Associates, starting in October 2013. To find out more and apply, visit here.

It’s a sobering thought that the integrity of some, perhaps all, of these seeds may be subverted.  The duty to nurture these Associates could feel unduly burdensome were you to consider just how sizable the hopes of the social enterprise space are for this relatively small group of people.

Starting with potential and good intentions is not enough.  The conditions, and the resolution to do good well need to be perpetually tended to.  My intention’s to illustrate this point with reference to two enterprises that were recently brought to my attention (3i and Nike).  If you loose sight of the founding principles, ivy will quickly infiltrate and sabotage a poorly managed woodland.

Induction, April 2013

Over the course of our three day induction, we try to demonstrate to the Associates the extremes of the social enterprise space that On Purpose works with.  We invite two senior folk along to lead two contrasting sessions.  The dimension along which these speakers sit varies from one cohort to the next, but in broad terms they fall along one of the following:

i. how corporates, relative to small scale (social) enterprises attempt to grapple with environmental and/or societal challenges, or;

ii. how charities are working to adopt more commercial minded approaches, relative to commercial entities looking to embed more socially-minded ways of working

The cohort most recently inducted, April 2013, were treated to an exploration of the former.  On successive days they were joined by James Parr, Creative Director and co-Founder of Imaginals (in the corporate corner), and Antony Ross, Partner and Head of the Social Entrepreneurs Fund at Bridges Ventures (in the social enterprise corner).

Strong foundations

By chance, both James and Antony each mentioned an enterprise (Nike and 3i respectively) that when founded could have quite possibly been recognised as social enterprises.  Both Nike and 3i are now a long way from their strong foundations.  I’d suggest these two mighty oaks have since been subsumed in rampant ivy.

3i roots can be found in post-war Britain when communities were decimated.  The Macmillan Committee identified SME as a useful medium to resuscitate society, consequently the state funded 3i (then named the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation) provided long term investment funding for these enterprises.  Now a self-proclaimed ‘leading international venture capital company’, would it be wrong for me to propose it’s lost sight of its purpose; has parasitic ivy well and truly taken hold?

Back in the day Nike’s founders, Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, simply wanted to get people running.  The brand is a by-product that undoubtedly has since subsumed this good intention.  But, by all accounts, there’s a social intrepreneurial effort afoot with the Let’s Move initiative to rectify this record.

Lets Move: click on the image above to watch what Nike is doing

The art of forestry

I suppose On Purpose’s ecosystem of alumni and supporters works to ensure that the generous resource and attention dedicated to the Associates over the course of their year-long programme doesn’t go to waste.  In order for these acorns to reach their potential we try to hold each other to account and to keep any invasive ivy at bay.  Only time will tell though if, or how, On Purpose will deviate from its intention to grow into an ancient oak woodland.

On Purpose is currently recruiting it’s next cohort of Associates, starting in October 2013. To find out more and apply, visit here.

Business As Usual people have robust philosophical roots, deploying the framing philosophy of Utilitarianism – the principle that we should organise society to produce the greatest ultimate aggregate happiness of a population. Rational economic-man’s search for income has become a proxy for the pursuit of happiness. This established mode of thinking is reflected in all sorts of judgements we make: GDP becomes a means to judge the success of a government, and wealth becomes an indicator of someone’s success (“he’s done well for himself”). The economic success of this philosophy is apparent in the leaps in human development that capitalism has catalysed, but its moral neutrality, and failure to capture the import of the individual amoungst the aggregate, has created gaping catastrophes – environmental degradation, inequality, and financial crises to name but three. For our new and better economy, we need a new and better philosophy, one that still allows for the all important wealth creation, but that also articulates a clear theory of social justice.

Credit: BBC

For me, John Rawls’ ideas manage to straddle the common sense approach of creating the greatest good for the most amount of people, with a framework that forces us to consider fairness, justice and inalienable rights for all. Rawls’ genius was to introduce a thought experiment that helps us see the human instinct for fairness. He introduced an imaginary “original position”: a society conceived as if we had no idea where we would be placed in it. He believed, and I agree, that were we to design the world from behind this “veil of ignorance”, we would do so in such a way as to maximise the prospects of the least well-off. Rawls suggested that the following (serially ordered) principles would govern it:

• Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible to a similar liberty for others (political liberty, freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience and freedom of thought; freedom of the person along with the right to hold personal property, & freedom of arbitrary arrest as defined by the concept of the rule of law)
• Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both a) reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage and b) attached to offices open to all.

First someone must be regarded as an individual with rights; then they can be regarded as an economic agent interconnected, fairly with others. This thought experiment is invaluable I think for helping us consider how to combine wealth creation with social justice. It puts people and fundamental rights at the heart of the search for return on investment, and asks that the wealth creation itself be undertaken for the benefit of all: The rising tide must lift all boats.

The current Business As Usual economy is an unjust one in Rawlsian terms, but the business models that we’re engaged with through On Purpose are just in his terms. In Ben & Jerry’s (where I was for my first placement) Linked Prosperity model, inequalities inherent in business hierarchies that do exist, exist for the benefit of all within the value chain. For me – just as Mill et al have been the founding philosophical fathers of modern capitalism, Rawls has the potential to father a different economy. His principles act as a clear framework to answer both the “social” and the “enterprise” of social enterprise, and could act as, not only a useful anchor of measurement discussions, but more ambitiously, could act as the foundation of an economic theory for a better world.

On Purpose is currently recruiting it’s next cohort of Associates, starting in October 2013. To find out more and apply, visit here.