"What's your motivation for doing this?" is a key question I ask new and emerging social enterprises and social entrepreneurs, in start-up programmes for them that I'm invited to support from time to time.
And while everyone always talks about impact in some way, there will always be some who reply that it's because as a social enterprise they can create more impact than a private business can. And for those people, I set a challenge, that (so far) no-one has ever been able to beat:
"Go and read up on McDonald's UK's impact - and then come back and tell me how you're not ashamed when you compare yourself to them as a private, for-profit, business."
In the 20 years of my setting this challenge, no-one has ever come back to me.
That's because McDonalds UK has done a pretty good job of:
- examining how they've designed their supply chain and invested in their suppliers;
- thought about the behaviours of their customers and staff at a local level in how they can be the best 'corporate neighbour';
- as an employer, designed processes and systems which (amongst other things) mean they regularly win awards as one of the best large employers to work for, and also won the contract to train all of the changemaker volunteers at the last London Olympics (to the shock of all volunteering support and training bodies);
- have a strong stance on animal welfare;
- model a lot of good and best practice in how they're approaching how they manage their impact on the natural environment;
- undertake national programmes to encourage childhood literacy;
- are the biggest non-charitable supporter of community sports;
- and the list goes on...
But they don't seem to use any of the above as part of their core marketing messages or reasons why we should eat with them (in contrast to the cause-relating-marketing messaging of most organisations in the social economy) - they're simply doing these things because they recognise that there's a strong business case for them to, other than what their customers seem to prioritise in their buying decisions.
But why am I sharing this here, now, if I've been apparently so enthralled by this fast food chain for so long?
Well, they've recently published what I think may be the first impact report that takes a 50-year perspective (organisations usually only publish their impact reports based on the last year, or a specific funded project) -
https://www.mcdonalds.com/content/dam/sites/uk/nfl/pdf/uploads/mcdonalds-at-50-social-and-economic-impact-report.pdf
(They've also been quietly producing annual impact reports since 2016 on all aspects of their business model, and the impacts they're creating -
https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-purpose-and-impact/impact-strategy-and-reporting/performance-reports.html)
Which can't help me start to wonder - as well as setting a quite high bar on what impact and good it's possible to create within a trading model that isn't reliant on grant income or support (as many social enterprises are), is McDonalds now shaming the social economy further by how its approaching understanding its impact from such a 'whole life' perspective?
However, perhaps I should share a slight possible bias about my apparent extolling of the Golden Arches in this post - although I think there's better tasting burgers to be had elsewhere, and will always prioritise eating out in locally owned independent cafes and restaurants when I can, we do share the same landmark birthday.
And as an unpaid carer who's also self-employed, it was in one of their restaurants that I chose to (belatedly) celebrate mine with them, by treating myself to their birthday 'cake'.
