Danyal Sattar, supporting UK social enterprises

As a child growing up overseas, Danyal Sattar witnessed destitution at first hand. It was a profound experience that has coloured his life’s work. Having worked for Joseph Rowntree and the Esme Fairbairn Foundation he now heads up Big Issue Invest, providing finance to small and medium sized social enterprises, all of which positively influence the lives of people across the UK.

He is CEO of Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue, the magazine for homeless and vulnerably housed people across the UK. In setting up The Big Issue Magazine, Lord John Bird realised the difficulties of obtaining investment as a social enterprise. From this experience came Big Issue Invest, originally conceived as a ‘social brokers network.’

Loans under £150,000 to charities and social enterprises are the “bread and butter” of Big Issue Invest. It’s a niche that is unattractive to the high street banks, but Big Issue Invest have made it work, with low bad debt. While deploying and growing their existing portfolio the business is also looking ahead at products that will meet the needs of their lenders in 18 months time.

With more than one million people in a position of destitution in the UK, the need for the transformative services provided by their borrowers is acute. Examples include a Scottish organisation that is replicating a Dutch model for community care where technology permits reduction of the management overhead and consequently more money is available to pay the front line staff.

On leaving education Danyal spent five years with the New Economics Foundation think tank. His application for this role was inspired by seeing the living conditions of the previous wave of Rohinga Refugees in Bangladesh and appreciating that their position at that time was partly due to the economic driver imperative to clear fell trees in support of the Burmese/Myanmar economy.

Danyal explains the virtues of having the Big Issue brand behind Big Issue Invest: they are a social enterprise set up by a social enterprise. The third sector recognises them as “one of them.” And trust between lender and borrower is an important part of the equation.

Before taking up the role, Danyal asked the advice of other CEOs in the sector. David Gold asked Danyal to tell him what Danyal admired in other chief executives. This included trust, and consistent clarity of direction. Campbell Robb, at that time his CEO at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, cited focus, and prioritisation and the continued question, why are we doing this? Other CEOs pointed to the importance of repetition in relation to key messages and priorities and also continued explaining of the thinking behind them.

Danyal talks about the responsibility of following in the footsteps of inspiring entrepreneurial leaders and the responsibility for him and his staff to generate the next wave of ideas. The big challenge Big Issue Invest faces is growing into the autonomy and responsibility that has been delegated to the team. An innovation process has been put into place to ensure that everyone’s ideas receive due consideration.

Danyal practices Tai Chi for recreation, but it resonates with his leadership philosophy – the idea of dealing with violence without becoming violent yourself. Listening and self-awareness are at the heart of this. He particularly likes the 2008 commencement speech at Smith College by Margaret Edson.

In addition to the humanitarian crisis that Danyal witnessed in Bangladesh, he also draws his inspiration from the letters of Martin Luther King. He observes that “institutions can make us behave worse than as individuals” and cites the Macpherson Report as a further example. He underlines the importance of self-awareness.

Cycling is a big part of Danyal’s self-care regime. He describes it as “a reflection of childhood.”

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