Text of an article written for the British Brands Group Newsletter, October 2011

-I hope Richard Reed, of Innocent, will forgive the plagiarism of the title- shamelessly lifted from his excellent Brands Lecture 3 years ago.

I’ve just spent almost 2 years trying to help revitalize a village and its economy via enterprise. You may even have heard about it, as we were the subject of one of the 6 programmes that made up the BBC1 “Village SOS” series broadcast this summer, and presented by Sarah Beeny.

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(as published in 3rdi Magazine October 2011) 

Enterprise is getting social- can the principles and practices of private sector management be applied to the “third sector”?

You bet they can.

There’s a transformation going on in the UK.  The “third sector” – that piece of the economy which lies between the public and private sectors is growing, both in size and importance. If it’s not of professional interest to you, chances are you have some personal interest in a third sector organization as a user, donor, governor, or other stakeholder.

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Village SOS is a BBCTV series following 6 villages as they establish an enterprise that will inspire a rural revival in their communities. Each village has the help of an outside expert, (a “Village Champion”), and Tim has been Champion for Tideswell in the Peak District since November 2009. The episode featuring Tim and Tideswell was shown on Sept 7th at 8pm on BBC1. The programme showed the trials and tribulations of introducing change to a rural community, and how Tim took a lead role in planning and delivering the main elements of the project- a new Cookery School,  and a branded trust mark scheme, “Tideswell Made” , all part of the overall Taste Tideswell project. The programme’s impact on the village has been, predicatably, huge. Bookings at the Tideswell School of Food quadrupled in September and local stores are rushed off their feet. Tim retains some part time involvement in the Tideswell project as a non-exec Director and will be speaking at conferences and workshops connected with the “Village SOS Active”  campaign in order to pass on some of the learning and experience of the project. See Tims Blog for more background.

See Tim’s Best Bits in an edited version of Village SOS here.

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It’s been a year since I moved into Tideswell to become the so-called “Village Champion” and help get the Taste Tideswell project off the ground as part of the Lottery/BBC Village SOS programme.

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So how’s it going Tim?

I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve been asked that question, on and off camera. It’s great to have the support and interest of so many villagers in Tideswell, and indeed friends in my “home” village of Easton on the Hill and beyond. I know lots of my professional colleagues and clients are taking an active interest too, so I hope the recent furious “blogging in bullet points” below gives some idea of the work that’s going on, and this gives you a feel for the job I’m doing.

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