#15: Sam Gardner - Enterprise Works

Sam Gardner is Director of Enterprise Works, the University of York’s enterprise hub. His work focuses on accelerating high-growth companies and advancing “Enterprise for All”. Through targeted, research-led interventions and strong partnerships, Enterprise Works removes barriers to participation and scale in under-recognised entrepreneurship, enabling more diverse founders and ventures to realise their potential, and translate enterprise talent and innovation into social value and economic growth.Many of you will already have come across Enterprise Works in the work they’ve been doing to support local business, but you may not know how much of a focus they have on developing social value. In this episode we talk about some of that work, and why Enterprise Works is focusing on social value and not just economic value. We talk about the cultural changes taking place that are helping to reinforce the narrative around community wealth building, the need to connect York to the rest of the region, the requirements that need to be put in place for changes in procurement to actually go ahead, as well the pitfall that community wealth builders can fall into which will hinder its chances of actually working. https://www.instagram.com/uoyenterpriseworks https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/enterprise-works-at-the-university-of-york/posts/?feedView=all This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wearefieldwork.substack.com