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Of late, there's been much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the matter of investment in social enterprise. Justifiable fears that by widening what social enterprise means, we'll end up serving the interests of corporations rather than social mission.

A couple of days ago, I described how we began with a definition of a non dividend distributing model for social purpose and how it aligns with the social business model conceived by Muhammad Yunus, Both emphasise a bottom line with a human dimension, serving the most vulnerable.

What do we mean by the statement: "P-CED takes the bottom line one step further: to people, past numbers" ? 

It begins in 1996 with the question of how the economy could better serve humanity. It was delivered in a white paper for the US President.which described a business model with a primary social purpose and began with this question:

"At first glance, it might seem redundant to emphasize people as the central focus of economics. After all, isn't the purpose of economics, as well as business, people? Aren't people automatically the central focus of business and economic activities? Yes and no."

Ten years later 'Profit for a Purpose' is the subject of a discussion on Skoll Social Edge, bringing together the academics and practitioners supporting this self sustaining approach     

The recently published Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade, the manifesto which the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) hopes will drive forward the co–operative concept up to and beyond 2020, claims that "by putting human need and utility at the centre of their organisational purpose, rather than profit, co-operatives do not suffer from the same problem of short-termism that afflicts all manner of financial and non-financial firms".

Pope Francis in his first papal treatise, Evangelii Gaudium, has criticised the "New Idolatry Of Money," and "The Denial Of The Primacy Of The Human Person."

Today in 2013, writing of where the moral compass meets the bottom line, Unilever CEO Paul Polman says:

"When people talk about new forms of capitalism, this is what I have in mind: companies that show, in all transparency, that they are contributing to society, now and for many generations to come. Not taking from it.

It is nothing less than a new business model. One that focuses on the long term. One that sees business as part of society, not separate from it. One where companies seek to address the big social and environmental issues that threaten social stability. One where the needs of citizens and communities carry the same weight as the demands of shareholders."

 With a working 'profit for purpose model' we began researching and designing strategies to tackle global poverty   From the paper 'Microeconomic Development and Social Enterprise - a 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine 2006

' In order to understand the overwhelming critical need for social enterprise and a formal national center to facilitate social enterprise, an operational definition for social enterprise is essential.

Enterprise is any organizational activity aimed at a specific output or outcome. Once the output or outcome – the primary objective – is clear, an organization operating to fulfill the objective is by definition an enterprise. Business is the most prominent example of enterprise. A business plan, or organizational map, provides a reference regarding how an organizational scheme will operate to produce a specific outcome: provision of products or services in a way to create profit. Profit in turn is measured numerically in terms of monetary gains, the “bottom line.” '

In the news today, the story of how Haliburton profited from the war in Iraq to the tune of many billions. Here's another footprint in time which like 'Death Camps for Children', was responded to with furious denial.

MP George Galloway had challenged US government over this matter when summoned to appear in front of the Senate.

It's a story which goes back to when I relocated to the Forest of Dean in 2005 bringing the social enterprise we'd started up in London with me. My colleague and founder, a man with ambient disabilities was by then established in Ukraine in his human rights activism for disabled and institutionalised children. In 2003, he'd fasted for US government to ratify the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.  

You’ll find Nick Hurd on the Guardian Social Enterprise pages this morning, singing the praises of BSC and a done deal on social enterprise incubators with the usual corporate suspects.

Predistribution wasn’t a word I knew until fairly recently, yet as I read about it as Ed Miliband's new big idea,  it became increasing familiar.as   what we call people-centered economic development.

To begin, some words from a late colleague and friend:

"You've come here to create business and then give it away to other people. Are you some new kind of communist or just crazy?" 

The comment was made in Russia at the time founder Terry Hallman was working on the Tomsk Regional Initiative and I was reminded of it this morning in an exchange of comments with Adam Lent  who wrote:

The Marxist revolution has begun but no-one's really noticed yet.

An expression, attributed in recent times to British PM David Cameron, speaking of the government's response to the riots of 2011. 

"The worst things in life come free to us and we're all under the upper hand"