INTERVIEW


A vision for the future


Corporate Social Responsibility has the business world’s attention. Yet for some, the next phase of its development has already started. Investors in Community Managing Director Philip Webb spoke to Business Network Editor Nathan Fearn about his plans to change the way we do CSR.


Philip Webb is a man with a vision – and that vision has the potential to create waves in the way businesses go about their CSR activity. Managing Director of Investors in Community, a social


business which offers a unique way for both organisations and individuals to find and engage in CSR projects that matter, Philip can call on an extensive knowledge of tech systems and a track record in delivering CSR in a career that saw him start out at a global multi-billion-pound company. “I worked for IBM for most of the 1980s and was made a


European Technical Support Specialist at 23, however I decided to leave in 1989 to set up my first computer company in Derby,” he explains. “We started off in a bedroom in Littleover and within


four years we were turning over £6.7m and employing 42 people. We traded for another two years after that before selling to a PLC in 1996. “I then set up a joint venture with accountancy firm BDO


in Manchester, delivering IT and management consultancy, and grew that substantially before selling my shares – London wanted to buy Manchester so all the franchises were brought back under the same umbrella and my shareholder agreement stipulated I sell at that point. “Following that, I set up a high growth start-up business


in Sheffield, mentoring around 130 businesses over the course of a two-and-a-half year period before selling the business in 2005.” The path that would take Philip into the world of CSR


then began to present itself, with the opportunity provided by a longstanding friend providing the catalyst in what would later become a perfect blend of technology, innovation and enterprise. “In 2006 I started TAM (UK), an acronym for Team


Action Management, which is a programme I inherited from the now sadly deceased Albert Humphry, a friend of mine who authored The SWOT Analysis. “I worked with Albert for 15 years and he handed me all


his research notes, including the TAM programme, and we have been delivering bespoke consultancy change management programmes and acting as an organisational development consultancy ever since.” As the business went from strength to strength, an


analysis of business practice the other side of the Atlantic sparked something in Philip – leading to the creation of Investors in Community which exists alongside his role as Managing Director at TAM (UK). “I came across a problem in the marketplace, basically in


the CSR space. I looked at an organisation in Kansas City, and it was showing civic projects that were going for co- funding; basically a crowdfunding platform,” says Philip. “I found that very interesting so started doing some research and found a few key problems.


38 business network July/August 2018 Firstly, the charities – large and small – were failing to


get engagement with people who wanted to give. The smaller charities had no marketing and little management expertise and were having difficulties because local government funding had dried up and they were struggling to find any traction or support. “With the bigger charities, I sensed people were getting


a little tired of giving their £10 or so because they didn’t know what happened to it. These issues were compounded by the fact that these charities were being charged to use crowdfunding platforms in a very fragmented way. Some platforms basically just handle money and take five per cent or so before it gets to the charity and then the charity is charged a monthly fee to use it. Five per cent doesn’t sound a lot but in bigger cases that can amount to tens of thousands of pounds – which is a lot of money for a few clicks on a website.” Realising that there was a clear appetite for businesses


of all sizes to engage in CSR – and a similar appetite by charitable and community-based organisations to accept gestures of goodwill from the business community – Philip suspected that more innovative technology coupled with out-the-box thinking could create outstanding results. “My opportunity at this time lay in the fact that I was,


and still am, a non-executive director of a crowdfunding company based in Leeds. I’m very good friends with the owner and he allowed us to copy the software. We took the top bit off – the loans and repayments – and put in the volunteering element and with that, we created a new platform,” explains Philip. “A year later after working practically 24/7 to get the


specification and coding sorted we eventually ended up with a prototype earlier this year which we took to market and got immediate traction with the likes of Costa Coffee, Legal and General, Derbyshire Police and the East Midlands Chamber; while many other major organisations are very interested.” So how does Investors in Community’s platform work,


how can it enhance the CSR landscape moving forward and what’s the long-term vision? “It’s a diverse platform open to many types of businesses


– large and small – and the cost model of membership is geared towards the fact that nobody should be excluded from wanting to take part in this platform,” explains Philip. “Business members pay a fee each year which covers the


cost of the platform and this makes it free for charities. To get that number of people on board quickly we need to recapitalise the business and we’re in the middle of a funding round at the moment to put an injection of cash into the company, sufficient to take on another five or six new people. “There are four types of giving – cash donations; pro


bono volunteering; general volunteering and gifting. They are handled uniquely in our platform and there’s nothing else on the market we’ve identified that


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76