The First Chapter Single pages low res

57
Management
To appeal to investors in the area
of management, an ISE must have
the following three features: track
record, a passionate and capable
management team, and a willingness
to be held accountable for social and
financial returns.
Track Record relates to two things:
their mission and their financial
history. Does the organisation have
a proven history of delivering quality
products or services that relate to
their Mission?
And, have they demonstrated their
ability to deliver financially? A merger
or acquisition can be very powerful
for a social enterprise if you buy
a business that has cash flow and
historical financial data you can
then point to as the basis of future
financial projections. This really helps
strengthen the investment case.
However, we understand that
historical financial track record is not
always an option in a new emerging
market. Piloting and prototyping are
other approaches we use to help
build this whilst demonstrating that
we have tested assumptions, even
if at a small scale.
The existence of a passionate and
capable management team is a
critical feature of an ISE. People
make or break a deal; a powerful
combination of passion and capability
helps provide the assurance
investors need. We can guarantee
that things will not always go to plan,
so having a team who are equipped
and agile enough to adjust and react
well to anything that comes their way
is imperative.
A willingness to be held accountable
for social and financial returns is
the way in which management sets
an investment in their company
apart from a standard investment. If
we look at the definition of impact
investment the two critical words
are the “intentional” nature of the
investment and the “measurability”
of the investment in relation to the
social or environmental impact.
Management’s willingness to
articulate the desired social
outcomes of their organisation, as
well as the measures or metrics they
will use to evaluate their success,
positions them well to be able to
engage with impact investors.
The focus is set on community as
we believe there to be a critical
distinction between a team and the
individual. The right mix here can
actually make an impact investment
less risky than a standard investment
because of the passion and
commitment of a group to deliver the
Blended Value returns.
In this category you want to see
alignment between the Mission, the
Model and the ability of Management
to deliver on the Mission and Model.