Since Jeff Skoll set up the philanthropic Skoll Foundation in 1999, the social enterprise movement has really gathered pace. As Sustainability's John Elkington said in March this year: "These people are set to have a profound impact on the world's most complex societal and environmental challenges. Their impact may be limited by their current scale... but we see this as the next wave of change."

Alastair Wilson "chucked in" his job at ICL/Fujitsu in California because he was "attracted by the idea of combining social impact with entrepreneurship". He says: "I loved cracking a deal, but I also wanted to do something of consequence, to make a difference to people's lives."

So he left the US to spend a year "action learning" as a student at the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), which led him to start up his own social enterprise Homeless Direct. He returned to the SSE four years later, first as development director and latterly as chief executive.

He says the schools (the SSE network currently includes Fife, East Midlands, Belfast, Liverpool, Aston and London) are operated on a "social franchise" basis. "The people running the schools are local," says Wilson. "We work like a best practice club where we all support each other to make things happen. It's like a 'social franchise'—it's not for profit."

His objective is to double the number of schools in the UK—"we need to have comprehensive delivery throughout the country"—and then think about expanding overseas. "There's massive interest from Japan, Korea, the US and India. What we do here is very different—people are learning by doing. They come with an idea for a social enterprise, see a gap and make it happen. It's not a bullsh*t environment, so we get TV crews and people from all around the world coming to find out what we do," says Wilson.

So does he think all businesses, including those chasing a profit, will have to embrace social enterprise as a matter of course? "Society has become dissatisfied with unbridled free market commerce," he says. "Politicians, as hard as they try, find it difficult to impact on the business model and the globalisation that is ruling our lives. We live in a free market system where commerce rules the roost, so we must embrace that model and make it fit and fair for the world." He says the time is ripe for people to take action on a local level, adding: "They're interested in backing things that are ethical and that make a difference. The social enterprise market is growing exponentially—it's capturing people's imagination."

From his position as CEO of the SSE, he can see why. "I see belting ideas from some amazing people who are utterly determined to get their ideas off the ground," says Wilson. "When they start the course, they're not necessarily the most confident or educated, and it's often at a huge personal cost. But when their dream comes true, it has a hugely positive social impact." He adds: "To be honest, it's difficult to think of a bad bit to this job."

www.sse.org.uk