Dorset Does It - and does it well!
Support and promote great Dorset businesses through knowledge sharing. collaboration and promotion of best practice.
A network of Dorset businesses organisations making great things and providing outstanding services for happy customers people.
You may be aware of the excellent service provided by Dorset AONB 
for Dorset food and drink suppliers.
Dorset is more than just the Jurassic coast and good food and drink. We also have many excellent providers of goods and services and not just of food and drink.
We need a shop window and a body within which we can support each other and raise the profile of Dorset as the go-to (come-to?) place for excellent businesses. We are building just such a network. We call it Dorset Does It.
Premier Crew can get it going but in the long run we feel it must be independent, collaborative, share and promote best-practices and perhaps most importantly run by its members.
So:
- If you run a Dorset organisation, what would you like to get from Dorset Does It?
- How would you like to contribute?
- How should it be funded and run?
- Who would be eligible to join and why?
- Outside of what you would like to gain from it, what else could it do?
- Any other thoughts or ideas?
Premier Crew have identified a small number (and growing) of well-run and inspiring Dorset businesses that could stand as markers of best practice. Over the coming weeks and months we will be interviewing owners and staff at these businesses and attempting to identify what they are doing which makes them stand out - and why.
If you run, work for or know of an outstanding Dorset organisation (it's not just businesses that make Dorset great) please get in touch.
What makes an organisation outstanding?
This is a difficult question but there are some examples of ways that "outstanding" can be measured. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a pretty robust system for measuring health-care providers. Although some of the tactics employed by one of the companies recently engaged to carry out checks on behalf of the CQC cast a shadow over the process.
B-Corp also have some interesting ways of measuring "good" and maybe becoming a B-Corp could be an aim for some Dorset Does It companies?
How we evaluate members should, we believe, be decided by the members, perhaps informed by the examples above.
Enspiral, a group of New Zealand businesses who collaborate in a very loosely connected way, might provide a model or at least food for thought. More information can be found on the Enspiral web site and the Loomio website.
Loomio is the tool that Enspiral built to help in decision making.
Perhaps a South-West Powerhouse?
It seems this is not an original thought:
Western Morning News - July 8 2015 - West MPs unite to make the case for South West powerhouse
Western Morning News - October 07, 2015 - Comment: What the South West Powerhouse means for business
Western Daily Press - October 8 2015 - Business needs a true South West Powerhouse
The Breeze - August 15 2015 - 'South West Powerhouse' Could Become Reality
The Economist - July 11 2015 - South-western powerhouse - Cornwall pitches for more local powers .
Centre for Policy Studies - July 10 2015 - We need a South-West Powerhouse
The Guardian- February 4 2015 - Time for a southwest super-city? Bristol, Cardiff and Newport unite to unveil plan
Insider Media - November 6 2015 - Airbus chief hails “South Western Powerhouse”
In case you missed it, Insider Media also run an event called South West Awards
Contact William to get involved or to just share your thoughts.