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MENTORING IN THE SHADOW OF THE HIMALAYAS
There was no clue for Phil Buckle during his career in the steel industry and as former managing director of Qualcast and Armitage Shanks, that one day he would be working in a remote region of Nepal. Yet for six months, Phil found himself acting as an advisor to the entrepreneurial leader of an INGO that helps tens of thousands of severely disadvantaged youngsters each year.
"When Brent Thomas of PrimeTimers, who supply business inspired solutions to the third sector, approached me with this project it seemed to be the right time for an adventure and the challenge of a consultancy role in Pokhara was extremely appealing" Phil explained. PrimeTimers has a membership of over 120 highly experienced business people and specialises in providing charities and social enterprises with carefully selected and matched interim senior managers, mentors, and consultants.
"On volunteering for the project I understood that it was in a management consultancy role – in fact the reality was very different. When I arrived in Pokhara I realised that their strategic plan had been put together from books off the internet and they needed something much more pragmatic!"
Child Welfare Scheme Nepal and Child Welfare Scheme were founded twelve years ago by Douglas Maclagan and, for the first ten years were run entrepreneurially by practical enthusiastic people with no management training or large organisational experience. Funds were raised through private donors who required little formal reporting.
CWS is now growing rapidly through large grants from major donors including Comic Relief and The Big Lottery Fund and Douglas realised that he needed help to move from a ‘seat of the pants' operation to something more formal and structured.
"The main challenge was for Douglas to move from entrepreneur to manager and instead of having a new idea every day, he had to come in and make the previous idea work" Phil continued. "CWSN needed to become sustainable and independent from CWS and Douglas needed to trust and allow a senior lieutenant to run it without referring back to him, and Douglas needed to give him the space to do it.
"The challenging nature of this project demanded a multi-faceted approach and mentoring both Douglas and the Nepalese CEO of CWSN to help them to develop their management styles was just one aspect. Another key task was to assist in the preparation of strategic plans for both organisations and I also acted as project co-ordinator in the development of donor reporting" Phil went on to explain.
Today, employing 150 mostly Nepalese people, the two organisations run clinics for children in Pokhara and other remote villages, provide refuges for village and street children, and vocational training for severely disadvantaged teenagers. The charities pay for children to be transferred to hospital to have simple but life changing operations that transform their lives.
In a country where the charity sector produces a huge proportion of the gdp and 16% of the national income comes from Nepalese workers abroad, there is minimal inward investment and economic development and CWS's input of £500,000 a year goes a long way.
"Waking up each morning to go to work in the shadow of Annapurna , at 8,000 metres the world's tenth highest mountain, was an unforgettable experience and I am delighted to be able to say that much progress has been made. I have been invited to return for a short follow up visit later this year which I'm looking forward to immensely" Phil concluded.
