On a Mission

Radical change

So the other day a friend asks me: ‘Are you a missionary now then?” I nearly died. But I get the point. Being part of Tear Fund is radically different to anything I have done before in the professional field. Quite a few friends and colleagues are asking me why I made such a life change and I do want people to understand why I took the leap.

Why Tear Fund?

I joined Tear Fund because they have fantastic values and I just have to be part of that vision. No I’m not a missionary but yes, I am on a mission. A mission to transform Tear Fund Finance, I.T and Craft to a point where we are best in class. I want us to be the best because I know there’s room for people to be even more fulfilled than they ever have been are and more motivated than ever before.

Long term hunger

Long term I have a hunger to see the corporate world to become more involved in Third World issues. To that end I see myself as being a link between Tear Fund and the corporate sector. I’m not sure yet how I am going to do it but that’s my mission. Watch this space.#

Next week

But before I go here’s a preview of next week’s blog about ‘How I came to Tear Fund’:

“I was working for the FD Centre for 7 years and absolutely loving it but feeling that, for some reason I was working very hard for someone else’s agenda. It came to a point where I had to decide if I wanted to become a shareholder in a purely corporate vision or share in a humanitarian vision. Then, when we were on holiday I prayed with Pete, my husband, about my career because I was just thinking that it might be time for something new. Ten minutes later I got an email from a Christian friend of mine asking if I knew of anyone who would be interested in being the Finance Director at Tear Fund. I thought you have got to be joking!”

Ali

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Heroes Throw Down The Gauntlet

Shock of the new

I was chatting the other day with a business friend about Help for Heroes, a charity that’s just come from out of nowhere to becoming one of the most effective in the U.K. Years back, when I was working for Dell Computers, we came in and knocked the socks off IBM and Compaq because they’d just stuck to the ground on which they’d originally built their businesses - Main Frame Computers. Then Dell came along. We were nimble, we moved fast and we knocked the socks off them – taking the rug from under their feet in terms of the PC market.

Wake up call?

I wonder how the old established charities are reacting to the Help for Heroes model. It may be that there’s a certain amount of outdated practice in the charitable sector just like there was in IBM and Compaq. That would mean that those established charities may no longer be the best in class. I think there’s a lot to be said for having people with corporate experience coming into charities and removing any layers of dust that may have settled there. But I’m aware of the debate around whether corporate culture and charitable organisations can push and pull on a two handed saw to good effect.

Heaven on earth?

At the end of the day any organisation has to be able to tell the world what its end goal is. Charities might well be able to demonstrate what they are doing and why they are doing it, but the fact that they’re working on a seemingly never-ending task with limited funds may, understandably have caused them to lose sight of their original goal. But I was pretty taken with Tear Fund’s five year strategy when I looked through it recently. I guess any charity’s ultimate goal would, bizarrely, be to close itself down due to the fact that they’re just not needed any more – job done so to speak. Now doesn't that sound like heaven on earth.

 Ali

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