General Management of consulting and digital deployment company covering opportunities in East Africa and Middle East
Providing consultancy services to plan (feasibility, finance, capability, resourcing, partnering) and execute projects to improve business value through deployment of digital technologies, and to drive regional/rural development through use of communications technology and innovative business models.
Most of the work was addressing IT solutions or usage in public sector or commerical organisations, managed as relatively small projects, but we also spent considerable effort (years) in developing a specific rural development programme utilising innovative digital and communications technology in conjunction with solar power and containerised (portable) production facilities to enhance remote capability to process and market local produce and provide affordable education and communication systems. Gained support of multiple and varied stakeholders, from international engineering firms, government agencies, and UN agencies, through to small NGOs and microfinance banks, but the funding model we proposed was not in line with some key stakeholder's strategies and we could not convince them to change or find a way around them. However, it was an excellent lesson in stakeholder management and the importance of initiation work, and the need to have a comprehensive communication and collaboration framework, as well as the need for a central database to help set common and shared context, enable credible model and feasibility study building, and reduce uncertainties. Without these we would not have been able to build solid and useful program controls to help reassure stakeholders that all deliverables and benefits could be measured, governed and controlled sufficiently to meet international standards and manage growth and ensure sustainability.