Before I chat about CSR, I want to chat about YOU. Why YOU? Well, any successful CSR program starts with YOU, a person who’s passion and drive, turns an idea which initially has little impact, into a program that can potentially change people’s lives.
Every person and every company’s CSR journey is individual to them. What makes YOU care about a certain cause and want to devote your time and money to it, has to be born out of a personal connection to the cause you have chosen to support.
This might be a general cause or specific issue, what matters is that you have the ability to make a difference and that passion combined with the resources available can be a powerful thing! Well I am that person, I am you! I have a cause; I have the passion and I have resources to make a difference.
So that’s why I decided to give a talk at the Florence Nightingale Hospice’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event, in front of local businesses who are keen to grow their CSR work in the community. The event included presentations from other speakers, work-shop, as well as an opportunity to network.
In my talk at the event, I shared my story and now I am going to share it with you, giving you a real-world example of how my passion was created and then how it inspired my CSR journey.
This is a story of someone who left school after their GCSEs initially with no A levels but 20 years later, developed an award-winning CSR program, that inspires young people in some of the most challenging schools with partners including Microsoft and the Peter Jones Foundation.
I wasn’t academic, I was a passionate social person who preferred real-world experiences and connections with people, rather than cramming in revision for countless exams. I was lucky, the skills I had been dealt with as a young person were well met and I believe through the hard work of the people around me, my parents, teachers and role models; they have given me the opportunity to do what I do today, and that’s exactly what I want to now do. Inspire and support our next generation of businessmen and businesswomen.
For 25 years my parents owned “The New Inn” pub in Buckingham and growing up in a pub set the stage for some very ‘’interesting’’ life skills, but my main memories are of a very community-driven, dynamic environment with a strong focus on giving back.
So we have these 3 ingredients – leaving school young and not being particularly academic, having the support of others to ensure the skills I did have were well met and finally growing up in an environment which was dynamic and very community orientated; all things that led me to where I am today!
Before I chat about my CSR program, like any story I should tell you I was able to deliver the program which I am so passionate about. Cloudy Group is my vehicle for change, without it I wouldn’t be able to achieve my goal of delivering the same opportunity I had as a child.
Cloudy Group like my clients is an organisation who is always transforming, founded 19 years ago as an internet Café in the basement of my parent’s pub. Fast forward all these years and Cloudy Group is now a managed service provider looking after the IT, connectivity and communications needs of public and private sector organisations and more recently focusing our efforts on training, modernisation and digital transformation of the Council and legal sectors.
As someone who was very community and Charity-driven, I struggled for a number of years to balance the ability to give back to society with bringing up a young family, a growing business and the other pressures of modern life. Then it hit me, what I need to do is align my personal goals with my business goals and without realising it my CSR program had begun.
Before this eureka moment we had done sporadic community engagement, sponsoring computers in our local schools, sponsoring football teams, etc. But none were part of a coordinated approach with clear long-term benefits to the business. In the summer of 2017, I had a chance introduction with someone from the Bucks skills hub who mentioned they were looking at innovative ways for businesses to engage schools and young people and I said, let me have a think and between me and my team, came up with our award-winning program, “The App-Prentice” and so begun the Cloudy Enterprise Academy.
Making CSR Work for you
So why do CSR?
Apart from the obvious benefits to Society, which sometimes can be enough. It also can have some huge business opportunities if it is well thought through and executed. We live in a hugely competitive world, how do you stand out from the crowd and get your business noticed, when your competitors are bigger, more well-resourced and more connected.
Well CSR might be the answer. A CSR program has the potential to promote your business in a way traditional marketing just can’t, in fact, you might call it a form of marketing! You don’t have all the answers at the beginning, in fact, all you need is a good idea, a bit of money and some drive and passion and the rest will follow.
Here is a link to the PowerPoint shown at the event:
cloudy-enterprise-academy-2020-our-csr-journey
Here is a link to a JustGiving we have set up to support Florence Nightingale Charity:
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