how businesses can actually benefit from the 'Big Society'

or..."Why i agree with the chief exec of the RSA - but not because of his thinking"

Matthew Taylor’s Comment section in the current issue of the RSA Journal calling for businesses to play their role in Big Society through engaging more with their local communities in relationship rather than token gesture is spot on. But I’m not sure I agree with the basis for his argument being solely on moral grounds.

I think that there are better arguments to be made for businesses to develop better relationships with the communities they based themselves on purely economic grounds:

1. Family firms – over the years this model of business has been seen to be amongst the most sustainable and long-lived, and amongst some of the best models of business to weather recession. Why? Because it roots itself in its local community. Local employees, local customers, local suppliers – all of whom understand the interdependent relationships they share with each other.

2. Compliance with legislation – companies are now legally required to show how they consider their local communities in the decisions they take (perhaps the most controversial aspect of Companies Act 2006)

Ask any business leader to sign up to a way of working based on a moral argument, and it’ll be an uphill struggle. Show them how building stronger relationships with their communities makes them comply more easily with legislation and create a stronger economic base, and they’ll bite your hand off...