On Purpose: A Rippin idea

Sometimes ideas come along that seem so obvious you wonder why everyone hasn't thought of it. Tom Rippin, founder and chief executive of On Purpose , a new organisation that is developing leadership skills for social enterprises, has had such an idea . He seems to be surfing on the crest of a wave. Right now, social enterprises and social businesses are hot. Both political parties have their eyes on the potential gains for both the public purse and for the move towards services that are more tailored to individuals' needs. "Social enterprise is attracting a lot of media and political attention, which is great, and there is a reasonable amount of money in the sector," comments Rippin. "But there is the potential that in five years' time, people may look back and ask what happened to all the money, if the talent isn't brought into the sector, or isn't developed and retained in the sector. This is a fledgling sector at an exciting point in its development, where it recognises talent and understands it needs to invest in something that comes at this stage of development." On Purpose is a one-year leadership programme for high-fliers who want to get into social enterprise, aimed at people in their mid to late 20s, rather than undergraduates. It comprises two, six-month placements in social enterprises, as well as more theoretical training, done on Friday afternoons, which Rippin describes as a "social mini-MBA". The placements are paid at £20,000 a year and the aim is that the year will give people a solid grounding from which to obtain good jobs in the social enterprise sector. The organisations providing placements for the first five associates on the programme, which was launched on Monday, include Coin Street community builders, the Young Foundation, Comic Relief, O2 and the HCT group. But if Rippin has come up with a good idea at the right time, that is not to say that a huge amount of effort hasn't gone into setting up On Purpose. Rippin has an interesting background ; "I wanted to get into international development, but was facing the dilemma that if I had gone to a big development charity, I feared that I would end up making the tea or doing the photocopying," he says. Instead, he joined consultancy McKinsey, as a way of developing his private sector skills, and stayed at the consultancy for five years. He then worked for Comic Relief and for Red, the social business set up by U2 star Bono. "In some ways On Purpose is trying to allow people not to have to make that trade-off," he explains. It will provide people with the training, development and career structure they would have with a private sector employer, combined with experience in social enterprise. The programme is being set up on a shoestring, acknowledges Rippin. But he hopes that it will eventually become self-sustaining. The other major challenge was finding organisations willing to take on his trainees. "Initially, it was about getting the social enterprises willing to take people on board, when the thing is untested," he says. "That took quite a lot of persuasion, but will hopefully become a lot easier as we build up a track record."