A champion of social entrepreneurship, Ruth Turner is a woman to watch but is also difficult to categorise.
In 32 years Ruth Turner has achieved more than some do in a lifetime and is now exploring a new approach to business. A co-founder and former chairman of the Big Issue in the north she is now a director of Vision21, a Manchester-based social research company and a representative for Nesta. Rachel Bristowe interrupts her packed work schedule to take her to lunch.
Classifying, labelling, pigeonholing - we're all guilty of it. After all, it's human nature to want to understand where someone or something sits in the grand scheme of things.
Indubitably, society is afraid of what it doesn't understand - a truth that "social entrepreneur" and "political campaigner" Ruth Turner knows only too well.
"Only when a term is applied does something become recognised, funded and supported, and also criticised, which is important," she says.
"Social entrepreneurship - it took us a while to learn how to spell it," jokes Turner as she orders her first drink of the afternoon, a carbonated - not fizzy, sparkling or bubbly water. Take note of the proper terminology - let's start as we mean to go on.
We meet at Bistro West 156, an attractive, friendly and unassuming cafxe9 (pretty much the adjectives you could ascribe to our interviewee) situated in leafy West Didsbury, where she lives. She's busy and has taken the trouble to fit Insider into her hectic schedule which at the moment includes working ten days a month as a representative for NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) in the North West and across Yorkshire & Humber.
The role encourages creative individuals to realise and develop their talents, signposting both private and public funding opportunities and establishing links with organisations in science, technology and the arts. Her aptitude for coaxing businesses to donate money to worthwhile causes has, after all, put her in the position she is today. Various projects at Vision 21, a social research and consultation company, take up the other 21 days in the month.
Add to that Turner's appearances on numerous boards in the North West (Sustainability North West to name but one), her political work (she's on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party), her public addresses to various establishments in the region and beyond (she spoke at her old school's 40th anniversary in Bristol recently and confessed to feeling "terrified") and her crusades to promote other people's ideas.
Reluctantly or otherwise she has become identified as a champion of social businesses, a concept the government has latched on to in its quest for ideas and strategies that can be branded "new" or the "third way" between capitalism and charity. The Social Enterprise Unit within the Department of Trade and Industry aims to support the sector and to encourage social businesses to be well run enterprises, much like the Big Issue in the North, the magazine sold by homeless street vendors, which Turner co-founded in 1992 and left two years ago.
Consequently she's in demand as someone who can explain the world as she sees it. We're delighted too that she'll be the guest speaker at Insider's 42 Under 42 dinner in October. It's important, she says, to find time for people. Associates Insider has contacted confirm she doesn't discriminate between homeless drunks, the elderly, a businessman wanting to pick her brains on the voluntary sector or even a journalist who was forced to cancel lunch because of a blow to the head. She is sure to recognise your plight and go out of her way to offer reassurance.
So the label which we attach to her, "social entrepreneur", is probably the closest we'll get for now. But even as a student at Salford University she was interested in the way the world worked and wanted to think creatively about how to make it better, rather than following a prescribed path into politics or the professions.
She's quick to acknowledge that her naivety concerning social deprivation has been both a strength and a weakness, particularly in the early days of the Big Issue in the North.
Adamant she didn't want to start a career "wearing thin tights" on her way to the top (Turner's protestations have since been forgotten and she admits to donning her fair share of Pretty Polly barely black numbers), within a year of leaving univer-sity she had put her business acumen, editorial know- how and blind enthusiasm into running a magazine and a social business which, a decade on, sells 55,000 copies in over 55 towns and cities in the North.
Turner says that ten years ago both the private and voluntary sectors were suspicious of its motives. "We weren't volunteer led, we were me and Anne led (Anne McNamara is a co-founder of the Big Issue in the North) and we made no bones about wanting it to be a successful company.
"The realisation we had to put profits first in order to be a successful business, which would in turn allow us to do what we wanted, didn't go down too well with some sections of the voluntary sector. And I think there were a few raised eyebrows when we applied for membership to the Chamber of Commerce.
"The Big Issue in the North made people think that perhaps the structure of ownership wasn't the most defining characteristic of an organisation.
"To be honest, we didn't care. We just wanted an organisation that was effective, well run and helped homeless people."
Despite the achievements of social businesses like the Big Issue in the North, its charity and the numerous initiatives and policies put in place by the present government to encourage social busi-nesses, the social enterprise sector still suffers from a lack of understanding. Social businesses tend to be defined by what they aren't (a charity) as much as what they are (sort of a not- for- profit company, sort of a co- operative). Labels and logos, again.
But Turner is convinced the government is working hard to find solutions. "I don't think anyone should doubt the genuine desire of the government to change things. I think the difficulty lies in the way that government is structured. It is huge, can be really slow and very bureaucratic," she says.
"It can also be very nervous. Governments are always worried that if they have public money, they have it on trust and they are going to get flak about how they spend it. You can get yourself wound up by bureaucracy and before you know it the whole purpose has been lost. They need to try and let go of the deci-sions and the purse strings to a regional level," she says passionately. Turner is a contradiction in terms - an idealist and a realist, worldly wise yet youthful in outlook and attitude, gentle but cogent, serious yet facetious.
Claiming to be the only politician who refused to take part in an interview with the BBC North West's political editor, Jim Hancock, on the eve of a Euro election because she had a previous engagement in Blackpool - a raucous hen night to be precise - her political leanings demand further investigation.
"I hadn't really any intention of joining the Labour Party, I just fell in with the wrong crowd," she chuckles.
"I'm under no illusions about how disappointing and frustrating a political organisation can be - it drives me mad sometimes. And I can't stand the petty personal politics - some of it is just nasty. But there is no point in getting angry and passionate about the world if you're not prepared to get your hands dirty."
And though she has a powerful position on the National Executive Committee of the governing party and stood for election as an MEP, she has no burning desire to be a full-time politician. "I'd campaign again but I wouldn't want to be an MP or even an MEP. My life has moved on - I like working too much," she enthuses.
As we tuck into our calorific salads, she fills me in on Vision 21's latest project for the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body set up by the government to make clinical judgements about drugs and treatments. Vision 21 is in the process of establishing a 30 strong council made up of members of the public who will meet twice a year to discuss a range of health issues. She's spent a hectic couple of weeks on the phones recruiting and she admits she needs time out.
But with the imminent opening of another office in Dublin, she will have little time to devote to anything else. "With Vision 21 I feel like we're able to find answers to things. It's really wrong to do research if there is no purpose to it, otherwise it's just nosey, intrusive and disrespectful. I want to help make Vision 21 a more profitable and busy business, working with a mix of clients and good staff that feel part of it," she says.
Turner is - to use an appalling phrase - a people person who thrives on the energy of others and is committed to putting something back into society. But she confesses to having a number of flaws. "I do get upset about the world. I get exhausted, take on too much and then get really worried about letting people down.
But I haven't yet got cynical - I think that would floor me. "I also think I'm a bit too informal with people - I find it hard not to be. Someone once gave me this really nice notebook; it was so girly with sequins on the front. I took it into a meeting with a room full of suited men 20 years older than me and just thought, oh my God what have I done?" Our advice is keep doing it, whatever you call it.
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