#4 - Katie Aitken-McDermott  - Doing social good makes business sense.

In today’s episode with Katie Aitken-McDermott, we talk about how doing social good makes business sense.

Key points from this discussion:

• How the pandemic accelerated the number of CICs being set up, with 20% of the CICs in the region being set up in 2020. 
• The importance of storytelling for social enterprises to create a sense of community and belonging. 
• And the many great examples in the region to learn from. 

Katie moved to the northeast in her early 20s and lives in Northumberland. She’s a mum, a researcher and director of a new social enterprise. She’s worked in the region for almost 25 years with charities, universities and for a local authority.

Katie works at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University and her PhD research focuses on social enterprise. It asks two questions. What is a social enterprise? And how do people start and run different social enterprises? The first question is a bit of a rabbit hole, but it’s important to ask. To answer the second question, she’s visited different social enterprises in our region and really listened to people.     

Her research should help support more people to start and run social enterprises. There are lessons for other businesses as well. 

Key Resources:

Katie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katieaitkenmcd

ESRC - Economic & Social Research Council - https://esrc.ukri.org/ 

NINE Doctoral Training Partnership Website / ABC (Accelerating Business Collaboration)- https://www.ninedtp.ac.uk/

Inspiration North Website - www.inspirationnorth.com