The Economics of Creative Social Enterprise

Case Studies of RESIDUE Limited and The DEAD Company

Time for new directions- Evolution or Renewal?

What do creative arts organisations, drama societies, musical ensembles, dance companies, crafts studios have in common?

• They share a passion for creativity and innovation; yes, almost certainly.  
• They are examples of triumph of motivation over hardship; agreed in most cases.
• They tend to be under-funded: probably but not always
• They are personality-led bastions of knowledge masquerading as teams; not always!
• They are successful and respected; mostly
• Their top managements are always open to advice and democratic in their pursuit of excellence; well, really?
• They are a creative form of cultural social enterprise; yes!

Creative cultural entrepreneurs bring these organisations to the market, mostly supported by sound vision and abundance of skills and motivation. Well, that is what makes the subject of discussion for the next few weeks. How is it that some cultural organisations are successful and secure in their existence while others need regular transfusions of energy and can be found wanting in their pursuit of risk-free gestation from concept to sustainable delivery? There are no easy answers but successful cultural organisations tend to be good models of creative social enterprises. They are driven less by the profit motive and more by their commitment to achieve success for their partners and collaborators.

Why should creativity and talent be constrained by market forces?

The study of creative social enterprises also shows that they are more likely to create employment opportunities for prospective artists and creative people who are more likely to go on to social entrepreneurs in their own right. Social enterprises can become secure multipliers of talent and value addition and where the budding entrepreneurs at the helm are able to secure good grounding in research, programme development and the ability to develop capacity, they are invariably successful and brings benefits to the society and the economies of which they are a part. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of social enterprises is their ability to ‘contain’ their creativity on the one hand and to channel their energies to address changing external conditions, that is, their ability to respond to market forces. Does this not sound too much like the language of business and economics?

How can we breathe life into RESIDUE Limited?

One of the most inspiring Asian drama companies that I was drawn to in the mid 1990’s became embedded in history as RESIDUE – Rapidly Expanding but Surely Insecure and Dramatically Undergoing Extinction. They were also a social enterprise but they created unlimited innovative productions for themselves; they were multipliers of output which mostly did not reach markets and when they did, they played to the same people every month. They were an enterprise without a rudder and they liked to go to the edge of the Victoria Falls each month only because they became predictable in blaming everybody else for their giant leaps to oblivion. The problem is that there are many creative cultural organisations which share the properties of RESIDUE.

What are the Seven Principles of Success?

During the next few weeks it would be good to study the RESIDUE type of cultural organisation only because they provided interesting pointers to failure. A very good friend who works as a banker in a high profile and well known company sent me a presentation featuring the Seven Principles of Success. Creative cultural social enterprises should do well by following these seven principles.  Can you help to identify them?

The Economics of Dance

The Arts Council have just published a seminal report following a consultative study known as Dance Mapping. This study started just as I was warming up to produce a series of papers on dance as an economic enterprise. I was lucky to be involved in the Dance Mapping Consultative Panel but unfortunately I could not work regularly with them owing to other unforeseen developments. What do the outcomes of Dance Mapping tell us about the vibrant and highly visible dance ‘sector’ in the UK economy? What is the size of this market and how does the study provide guidance on how to cross narrow bridges over dangerous precipices in the deserts of ice? Are there special lessons to be learnt by DEADCO of the dance world (Desperately Energetic Asian Dance Companies) if they do not learn to respect and respond to market forces as well as TESCO does?