Our Vision, Mission and Strategy
The CEIS Group is dedicated to creating a fairer, more inclusive Scotland that is a great place to live and work for all. This is how we plan to do this, and how each group company contributes to our overall vision, mission and strategy.
Our Companies
CEIS provides impactful and trusted business support services and market building activity for all forms of social, community and impact focused enterprise. Our vision is a Scotland where through enterprise and innovation, every organisation has a positive impact on our country and the world. We are Scotland’s most trusted and recognised leader and partner in the international movement to build a more inclusive economy.
DSL Business Finance provides accessible finance and expert guidance to start-ups, SMEs, and social enterprises across Scotland. We envision a Scotland where everyone, regardless of background, will have access to finance and expert guidance to start or grow a business that has a positive impact on the communities they serve. We aim to be Scotland’s most accessible and impactful finance provider.
CEIS Ayrshire offers a comprehensive package of innovative and flexible employability, commercial training and workforce development solutions throughout Southwest Scotland and beyond. We work towards a world in which every individual, community and enterprise has the skills and opportunities to meet their full potential. We strive to be Scotland’s most innovative and impactful skills, commercial training and employability agency that is a key partner for local and national stakeholders.
Social Value Lab supports organisations in building more robust and sustainable projects, enterprises and communities through impact monitoring, research and evaluation. Our vision is to create a better world for people and planet, where social and economic change is driven by evidence-based decision-making. We aim to be Scotland’s foremost impact measurement and social research consultancy.
Together, these companies form a group uniquely positioned to support and develop Scotland’s social and impact economy, working collaboratively to achieve our shared vision of a more inclusive economy.
Our Economic Vision
We envision an economy that:
- Extends benefit, ownership and participation to all
- Values and develops complementary forms of Economic, Social and Environmental Capital
- Delivers positive impact through enterprising and innovative solutions across various business models
- Is built on partnership working to tackle local and global challenge
Strategic Vision and Mission
Our strategic vision is for the CEIS Group to become internationally synonymous with putting inclusive ownership, innovation and impact at the heart of the economy. Our mission is to ensure that anyone who wants to build entrepreneurial approaches combining social, economic and environmental impact has the skills, capacity and confidence to do so.
Our Strategy
The CEIS Group is committed to creating a more inclusive economy that makes Scotland a better place to live and work. Our strategy focuses on putting innovation and impact at the centre of everything we do.
Key Strategic Priorities
Across our group companies, we’re focusing on several key areas:
- Expanding our reach: We’re looking to grow beyond our traditional sectors, bringing our expertise to cooperatives, employee-owned businesses, and mainstream businesses committed to maximising their social impact.
- Fostering social innovation: We’re developing strategic partnerships with universities and local authorities to build on our existing social innovation work.
- Enhancing coordination: We’re leveraging our track record in multi-agency work to offer strategic partners a single point of entry into building programmes in the Social and Impact Economy.
- Growing internationally: We’re positioning CEIS as Scotland’s international Social and Impact Economy experts, participating in international projects and selling our services globally.
- Diversifying funding streams: We’re working to secure funding from a variety of sources to offer a wider range of financial support options.
- Developing future skills: We’re creating approaches to ensure that future skills needs are met in Scotland and beyond.
Our Growth Plan
To achieve our strategic goals, we’re investing in operational capacity, improving profitability through process re-engineering, and expanding our geographic and sectoral scope. We’re also creating strategic partnerships to enter new markets in key areas.
Over the next three years, we aim to:
- Put innovation and impact at the centre of what we do
- Develop mission-based approaches to changing the economy
- Implement a mission-based approach across all our activities
Through this strategy, we’re committed to strengthening our position as leaders in the social and impact economy, developing strategic partnerships, innovating our services, and becoming widely recognised as a great place for people to develop their skills and careers.
