Read: A virtuous circle where productivity and profit drive social purpose
There is little dispute these days that ensuring opportunity is available to everyone, everywhere, no matter what their background, makes good business sense. More and more of our leading businesses are demonstrating that widening the talent pool is key to their creativity and their competitiveness.
The best are going even further and using the profits that their success brings to invest in their communities, giving back to make them better places to live. That’s exactly the approach that David Harrison, Chair of financial services and technology firm, True Potential, and founder of the Harrison Foundation, has taken. He has spent four decades building successful businesses, supporting local communities and championing education and social mobility, including jointly founding the Social Mobility Pledge with former Education Secretary, Justine Greening, in 2018. This year he was recognised for his services to business and social mobility with a Knighthood.
Generating profit and using it to create long-lasting social impact is an approach shared by another Harrison - Daniel Harrison, True Potential’s Chief Executive and fellow trustee of the Harrison Foundation. He has taken up the mantle from his father, David, and grown both the business and the community impact it has.
True Potential now manages over £22bn of people's savings and investments. Last year saw the firm achieve record growth with an 80 per cent rise in profits. This was largely as a result of long-term investment in technology and hybrid financial advice models, which attracted smaller savers and investors normally excluded from investing in stocks and shares because of the exorbitant minimum deposit limits set by traditional providers.
A proportion of True Potential’s profits funds the Harrison Foundation, a privately run charity, which nurtures specific projects that make a measurable difference to local areas. This year has seen a significant expansion of its flagship initiative, the Harrison Centre for Social Mobility (HCSM), which first opened in Sunderland in 2017 in partnership with Sunderland Football Club. It works with hundreds of young people in the UK to provide the tuition and training they need to help them grow in confidence and secure a job. It also supports a growing number of charities and organisations that work to tackle low social mobility by working with young people and connecting them up to employment.
A further four Harrison Centres have opened this year, one in partnership with Newcastle United at its new esports arena and one in Darlington with local employability and skills charity, First Stop. It has also opened its first digital learning Centre with the Open University, with a suite of education and development courses available free of charge to members of the public and accessed through the OU’s OpenLearn platform. It aims to give millions of people across the UK the chance to upskill and improve their employability prospects. The first overseas, purpose-built Centre was launched in Antigua with a multi-million dollar grant to establish the Harrison Centre Antigua and Barbuda Institute for Continuing Education, which will provide technical and vocational training in skills that are critical for the economic development of the country.
David Harrison said: “I’ve always been a big believer in the power of a job to improve social mobility and that has also been my personal experience. Education is the building block to achieving that and it’s why I am proud of the work that we are doing through the Harrison Centres with our partners. Businesses themselves are great drivers of social mobility. Many of the digital Harrison Centre courses are aimed at creating an understanding of the commercial world and include courses which support people with household finances, investing and budgeting all of which are particularly relevant at this time in our economy.”
Looking to the future, Daniel Harrison hopes that, through the Harrison Centres, some of those who are furthest away from opportunities will be able to acquire new skills, discover hidden talents and find new routes into employment, including at True Potential.
Speaking at the launch of the Harrison Centre Newcastle, Daniel said: “The Harrison Foundation’s mission is to give a hand up to people who need it most and help them into employment. It’s clear to me that this partnership with the Newcastle United Foundation has every chance of being a game-changer for our young people. I was particularly keen to establish one of our Harrison Centres for Social Mobility here to support the esports and STEM facilities because they bring together competition, learning and teamwork into an environment that is engaging and fun. It’s a fantastic facility that everyone involved can be proud of. I’m excited to see how it develops over the coming years.”
The Harrison Centre initiative is an inspiring example of how a successful business has generated profits partly as a result of making the financial services sector more accessible, has leaned into its communities to find out what would make opportunity more accessible for people living there and invested in those projects to stimulate aspiration and growth.
