Dr. Mairi Mackay, Global Head of Social Enterprise at The British Council and Tim Hart, the Gra Group

Mairi leads the British Council’s Global Social Enterprise programme, which promotes the development of social enterprise and investment to help address entrenched social and environmental problems, build trust between the UK and other countries, and support more sustainable, inclusive and prosperous societies.

Tim’s a former journalist who created a marketing agency in San Francisco and has recently launched The Gra Group. He’s also a musician and plays traditional music on the Irish Whistle.

Listeners will find Tim’s and Mairi’s interviews fascinating. Tim talks about how small businesses and social enterprises can create customer personae to enable them to really focus on who they are marketing to; the interview includes plenty of advice and refers to template marketing plans and customer personae that you can download. And we go into detail about Tim’s business and career highs and lows.

Mairi explains more about how the British Council’s global social enterprise programme works. It operates in 25 countries and provides aspiring and existing social entrepreneurs with skills training, consultancy, and access to funding and investment opportunities.

The programme also forges international networks, disseminates bests practice and supports policy leaders to create ecosystems in which social enterprise and social investment can thrive.

I interviewed Mairi at the recent Critical Mass conference, focusing on social investment and impact measurement, and we discuss the development of impact investing and measurement in the interview too.

Timings:

• 0 – 6:42 introductions and updates, including new figures about the contribution that the music industry makes to the UK economy; several forthcoming workshops and events; and the Tech for Good initiative.
• 6:42 – 37:46 Tim Hart of the Grå Group. Check out the resources he mentions, available from his website here
• 37:46 – 42:02 a track of Irish traditional music, Sheila Coyles, performed by Tim Hart from his album Five after Four
• 42:02 – 43:34 Tim discussing the social purpose of his agency
• 43:34 – 52:19 Dr. Mairi Mackay, the global head of social enterprise at The British Council
• 52:19 – end wrapping up

This is episode #90 of Business Live, first broadcast on 6 November 2015.