Experienced strategy consultant Ditlev Schwanenflugel has volunteered his professional skills to three Impetus charities over the past four years. He describes his experience of working with Impetus, the overlap that he sees between the commercial and not-for-profit sectors, and what he finds most satisfying about contributing his expertise to Impetus charities.
You've been involved in several Impetus projects. What is your
background?
Well, I am a classical McKinsey-trained consultant. I've been
working in consulting for 12 years, and also at a large bank as
Director of Business Development. In the last couple of years I've
been working independently, mainly on large corporate strategy type
projects, and mostly through Eden McCallum, which is a novel-type
strategy firm based on independent consultants. I spend 70-80 per
cent of my time on those large projects, and then I like to make
myself available for interesting social projects in between. Eden
McCallum has a partnership with Impetus, and over the past 4 years,
I've been involved with three of the Impetus portfolio charities:
Naz Project London, (a sexual health charity focusing on
minorities), IntoUniversity (an educational
charity about access to university education for underprivileged
children), and Camfed (which provides educational support for rural
girls in Sub-Saharan Africa, to empower them to go on to support
their families and communities).
What's has it been like, working on each of these
projects?
On Naz Project London, one of the Impetus Investment Executives
met with me and provided some background about the people and
challenges they were facing. Then I went out and met the chief
exec, Bryan, and we just talked about what he wanted to do with his
organisation and what were the broad aspects of his strategy. After
a couple of hours, I went away and created a framework for a plan.
The way I did it was… I wrote the main headings and subheadings,
and then began to populate them. I worked with Bryan to make sure
we had the right information. I created some simple graphs, and he
put in the text. After about six weeks and maybe a total of a day
and a half, Bryan had his strategy presentation. There was a clear
structure and story line, there were some compelling facts, decent
graphics and a strong call to action. Like with most consulting,
the great part of the thinking had already been done - the
challenge is getting it down on the page and communicating to
others. An important part of the process is also talking about real
tradeoffs and choices. Resources will always be constrained, and
success comes from making (and being seen by funders to be making)
hard choices and focusing on the few areas where you can make a
real difference.
What did you do at IntoUniversity?
My work for IntoUniversity was also about
strategy, but it was of much shorter duration than Naz Project
London. It was a one-day, off site workshop for their Board. And as
is usually the case, there were a couple of agendas. One was to
explore different issues, both internal external, facing them, work
with them to explore their strategic choices, and make some
decisions. At the same time, we wanted to think about board
dynamics and make sure everyone was engaged. By the end of the day,
we wanted to establish a joint perspective on key salient
facts about what we are doing and what's happening in the outside
world; consider the decisions and tradeoffs, decide to do x and not
y; and also ensure that all Board members were engaged, not just
the majority.
It turned out a very good day, and I think the Board felt both
energised and aligned at the end of it.
And Camfed?
The Camfed relationship has been exceptionally interesting and
rewarding. I started off looking at ways of measuring impact, which
is both extremely important and also very challenging when you are
talking about life outcomes across multiple years and extended
families. I've subsequently become much more involved with
programme design and talent management, and done several field
trips to Zambia and Zimbabwe to work with the senior local teams.
Camfed is a very impressive organisation, and working this closely
with their key people, in town and in the remote villages, was
fantastic.
What differences have you spotted, working in the social
sector?
There's a lot of overlap between the commercial and the social
sector. Even the least commercial charity faces issues of strategy,
marketing, operations etc. and may occasionally benefit from some
of approaches of commercial world. But it's certainly not a one-way
learning street. The best charities are hugely entrepreneurial and
motivated organisations, achieving great impact on very lean
budgets, at least as inspirational as any successful Silicon Valley
start-up. The important thing is to not just come charging in with
your private-sector learnings as a take-it-or-leave-it package, but
to work in an iterative and collaborative way.
One important issue for me has been speed - because I do the pro
bono work on the side, I need to be quite efficient with my time.
But a high level of focus and quick cycle times is of course what
the charity directors want, too. They don't necessarily want the
"thump" factor of a weighty report that often goes hand in hand
with traditional consulting. I've found that what they want is a
close working relationship where we can together build something
that may not be perfect, but which is certainly better than what
they would have had before.
What would you say to others who are considering getting
involved with Impetus?
I found it incredibly rewarding and challenging, intellectually as
challenging as any of the corporate projects. It is also different
- it combines elements of commercial world (like strategy,
marketing, operations) with public policy challenges you don't face
in the private sector. You will meet a very inspiring set of
people - many as accomplished as any in the commercial world, but
often in a totally different way.
On a practical level, I've really enjoyed the flexibility - I've
been able to fit the Impetus work around the commercial work,
giving me access to the best of both worlds. I've also enjoyed
building deep and lasting relationships with the charities; you
become a partner not just a one-off problem solver.
Most importantly, there's the feeling of having real impact, both
at a general and at the individual, personal level.
Read about the experience of marketing specialist Amanda Walker and her work with Street League, and find out how to apply to volunteer your professional skills for an Impetus charity or social enteprise.
Impetus was a catalyst – we might have got there in the end but it would have been a slower, longer road without them.
Linda Astee
Regional Director (S & E), Speaking Up