Collection: The Good Leaders Podcast
Good Leaders Podcast Episode 3 – Alice Williams: ‘Everything I've learned has been on the job’
At Pioneers Post, we’re interested in a specific kind of leader: those who are both trying to make a difference and doing business differently. In our Good Leaders podcast, founding editor Tim West meets some of the best and brightest of social enterprise, impact investing and mission-driven business for a series of candid conversations – expect to be surprised. This month: Alice Williams of the award-winning Luminary Bakery.
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Alice Williams, co-founder and CEO of award-winning social enterprise Luminary Bakery, didn’t set out to run a company: she just wanted to help women.
SE100 award-winning Luminary Bakery makes sweet baked goods to create job opportunities for women who have experienced gender-based violence and multiple disadvantages. Over the past 10 years, it has supported 155 women with training and employment.
- Find out what made Luminary Bakery stand out in the 2021 NatWest SE100 Social Business Awards
Baking was not the purpose of starting Luminary when it was created: the co-founders wanted to give women facing extreme poverty, disadvantage and violence an opportunity to build a future for themselves. Baking fitted the bill for such a mission: one can learn it at any age and no specific qualification is needed to become a professional baker, making it a great skill to learn to start afresh – and it’s also a way of building a community.
Leading a social enterprise has been a huge learning curve
Luminary Bakery started with a handful of women baking cakes in church halls; now it has two cafes in London and supports dozens of women. And just a few weeks ago, Williams received an MBE for services to women and charity.
But she admits having a bit of imposter syndrome.
She says: “Leading a social enterprise has been a huge learning curve, particularly because I don't have a business degree, I haven't been a CEO of another company… I'm quite aware that everything I've really learned at Luminary has been on the job.”
She talks about the highs and lows of being a social business leader – from seeing the results of your impact, to financial struggles and having to let staff go.
Podcast produced and edited by Laura Joffre.
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