From Corporate Career to Social Enterprise: How Purpose Changed My Path

Fifteen years ago, I was sitting in a classroom at Melbourne Business School listening to Rebecca Scott speak about social enterprise.

At the time, STREAT was still a relatively young social enterprise, but it was already making big waves.

What started as a single street food cart helping young people experiencing homelessness gain hospitality skills was proving that business could be a powerful force for social change.

It challenged many of the assumptions about what a business could be.

I was so inspired by what Rebecca was building that I later interviewed her for a leadership assignment as part of my MBA.

I had no idea that conversation would stay with me for years.

And I certainly had no idea that it would eventually contribute to changing the direction of my own career.

When an MBA changes the direction you thought you were heading

When I started my MBA, I thought I knew what I wanted.

I wanted a corporate career.

I imagined progressing into senior leadership, taking on bigger roles, bigger responsibilities and, if I'm honest, perhaps eventually having one of those impressive corporate titles.

But somewhere along the way, my MBA started to do something I hadn't expected.

It started to make me question what I actually wanted from my career.

Learning about business, leadership and the role organisations can play in society made me increasingly interested in a different question:

What if business could be about more than making money?

Rebecca's story was one of the experiences that planted that idea.

STREAT demonstrated that commercial activity and social impact did not have to sit on opposite sides of the table. A business could create revenue while also creating opportunities, changing lives and addressing social problems.

That idea stayed with me.

I continued along my corporate career path for many years. I learned a huge amount, worked on complex transformation programs and experienced the rewards and challenges of corporate life.

But gradually, my definition of success changed.

The title mattered less.

The corporate ladder mattered less.

I became much more interested in work that had a tangible purpose and created an impact beyond the organisation itself.

From corporate life to purpose-led work

Eventually, that shift led me out of the corporate workforce and into the not-for-profit sector.

And alongside that, my husband Scott and I built Karuna Dawn.

Karuna Dawn is a certified social enterprise with a focus on people and planet. We create products that give agricultural by-products and waste materials another life, while supporting artisan communities.

Building a social enterprise has been very different from the corporate career I once imagined for myself.

But strangely, it also feels like the most natural progression.

The idea that first captured my attention in that classroom, that business can be a force for good, is now something I get to put into practice.

This is what purpose-led business means to me.

It isn't about choosing between purpose and commerce.

It is about finding ways for them to strengthen each other.

Then life came full circle

Recently, that journey came full circle in a way I could never have planned.

Karuna Dawn is now partnering with STREAT through the Purpose Precinct at Queen Victoria Market, a collaborative hub bringing purpose-led businesses together and demonstrating what can happen when social enterprises work alongside one another.

And there is another layer to the story that makes this partnership particularly special.

Some of Karuna Dawn's products are made from coffee silverskin, a by-product of coffee roasting that would otherwise go to waste.

So here we are.

STREAT, a social enterprise whose story began with coffee, is now helping tell the story of another material born from coffee.

It feels like such a natural fit.

And perhaps more than that, it feels like one of those moments when you look back and suddenly see the connections between different parts of your life.

The MBA classroom.

The conversation with Rebecca.

A leadership assignment.

Years spent building a corporate career.

The decision to move into the not-for-profit sector.

Building Karuna Dawn.

And now, standing alongside STREAT in the Purpose Precinct.

The unexpected path to a career with purpose

One of the things I have learned is that we don't always recognise the significance of an experience when it happens.

Sometimes a conversation stays with you long after you have forgotten the details.

Sometimes an idea takes years to take root.

Sometimes the career path you think you want leads you somewhere completely different.

My MBA was supposed to help me build the corporate career I thought I wanted.

Funnily enough, it helped lead me away from it.

Today, I am much more interested in the question of how business can create positive social and environmental impact.

That doesn't mean I stopped believing in business.

Quite the opposite.

I believe strongly in the power of business.

I just believe business can be designed to create more than financial value.

It can create opportunity.

It can support communities.

It can reduce waste.

It can create meaningful employment.

It can bring people together around a shared purpose.

And it can demonstrate that doing good and doing business well are not mutually exclusive.

That is what drew me to social enterprise all those years ago.

And that is what keeps me building Karuna Dawn today.

Sometimes the people who inspire you become the people you work alongside

Fifteen years ago, Rebecca Scott was someone I listened to in a Melbourne Business School classroom.

Today, I have the privilege of having Karuna Dawn welcomed into a space created by the organisation she helped build.

I couldn't have planned that journey.

And perhaps that's the point.

We spend a lot of time planning our careers and defining where we want to go.

But sometimes the experiences that shape us are not the ones we planned for.

Sometimes the people who inspire us at one stage of life become the people we have the privilege of working alongside years later.

I am incredibly grateful to be part of a community of purpose-led businesses showing that there is another way to think about commerce.

Purpose and commerce don't have to compete. They can strengthen each other.

And sometimes, the path that takes you furthest from where you thought you were going is the one that leads you exactly where you were meant to be.

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