<p>Attracting a generation of employees hungry for meaning in work requires thinking big. Photograph: Ingram Publishing / Alamy</p><p>A few years ago, I helped to guide a group of American business school students around England, studying social enterprises. We visited some great organisations the London Hubs, Divine Chocolate, Furniture Resource Group, Triodos Bank among others. As the idea of social enterprise was far more established here than in the US, the trip provoked rich discussion about the relationship between business and society. Did business exist to serve society or the other way around? What distinguishes a social enterprise from any other kind of business? Were Community Interest Companies (CICs) a helpful idea or a distraction?</p><p>The students went back to Boston but the questions have remained with me ever since. In particular, I remember a discussion after visiting Emma Bridgewater. This company doesn't call itself a social enterprise but it has social values at its heart. It is one of the few companies I've ever visited whose founders said that they wanted to create more jobs: that's what growth was for. That the company was based in Stoke-on-Trent was a deliberate, inconvenient and risky decision that had been taken because it felt like the right thing to do for social, not business, reasons. It struck me as one of the most vigorously pro-social businesses I'd ever visited.</p><p>Companies such as Divine and Emma Bridgewater start with a world class product. They understand that a social mission alone won't build the customer base that creates real impact. Purpose doesn't make business rules irrelevant; it makes them more important because it's only when you have a big, loyal customer base that any business truly makes an impact.</p><p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/social-enterprise-network/2014/mar/17/business-social-enterprise-society">Keep reading...</a></p>