Justice, Sustainability & Winning By Being Naughty – Adventures in India, New York, London & Milan

Delhi skyline in the midst of an Indian summer

As spring has finally begun to make its presence felt I have had a fascinating and busy month of global travel and experiences.  The highlight was a week spent between Delhi and Mumbai interviewing Indian business leaders for the IBLF and gaining some great insights into building sustainable business in a rapidly developing market.  While in Mumbai I also had a chance to spend time with the local team of an NGO which Sandy and I have recently started to support, which deals in a very pragmatic and effective way with the challenges of child trafficking.

Standing outside the Schubert Theatre in New York for Matilda premiere

A week later Sandy and I found ourselves seeing a very different example of child abuse – as we attended the stupendously successful New York premiere of the RSC-led musical Matilda.  The contrast between the parties with the great and the good of Manhattan and the backstreets in Mumbai could not have been greater!  This month has also seen us opening up our holiday homes in Italy and Devon in preparation for the summer and my trip to Como was particularly enlivened by narrowly avoiding a motorway bullion heist straight out of a Hollywood movie and an extended session with the local carabinieri.

Coughing, snuffling and sneezing in the corridors of power

This has been a very busy time for the Independent Commission too, with almost a full week of Board meetings, reviews and follow-up sessions including a personal appearance in front of the International Development Select Committee in parliament which coincided with a particularly debilitating bout of flu – the only good news was that the MPs took pity on my miserable state and kept the questioning relatively gentle.  That same week I croaked my way through the latest Leaders Council webinar for the IBLF – a fascinating discussion on the role of the Board in driving sustainability.  This was a theme which also arose in a special workshop I attended at Unilever in London to mark the second anniversary checkpoint of their Sustainable Living Plan.  I was asked to facilitate the table headed by Paul Polman, the CEO who has inspired the plan for the company and been a leading global proponent for the value of positive business engagement in society.

Fiona – our interior designer describes another mood board!

Meanwhile on more mundane matters this has been a big month for the development at 12 Cowley Street.  We have had our planning permission come through and have had some fun sessions with the structural engineers staring at holes in the foundations and with the interior designers envisioning the home that will (eventually) fill these holes!  The boys have returned to school after the Easter holidays ready to plunge into the final term of GCSE’s and ‘A’ Levels.  They have had the first (freezing) cricket games which were characterised by hail storms and very limited success with the bat!

Alex (centre with cup) and team-mates celebrate winning Surrey Primary League U18 Cup

On a more positive front Alex played his final game for Horsley Under 18 football club in the final of the Surrey Primary League Cup.  Not only did they win 2-0, but Alex actually scored the first goal and was named Man of the Match!  Matt and I went to watch Manchester City beat Chelsea at Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final.  Meanwhile my own soccer activities have been somewhat curtailed by travel and illness, though the team has still managed to ridicule the new boots I bought in India which are inscribed with name “Messi” on the side – I think they believe the “i’ should be a “y’ in my case!

Matt and friend Dan join me at the FA Cup Semi-FInal at Wembley

Two India’s – Luxury tower blocks rising over the slums of Mumbai

The trip to India was the second I have made this year in my role as Chair of the IBLF as part of a research project we are performing into “CEO Perspectives on the Role of Business and Society in 21st Century India.”  We have managed to connect up with over 25 CEO’s and Chairmen of major Indian national and multinational companies and they have all been very generous with their time and insights.  I was keen to engage with a good selection of the group to help form my own opinions as well develop the networks for the organisation.  In Delhi I met with Ravi Kant, the Vice Chair of Tata Motors, Ramakrishnan Mukundan, the MD of Tata Chemicals, Anand Burman, the Chairman of Dabur India Ltd, one of the biggest consumer goods and pharmaceutical groups in the country as well as Harsh Pati Singhania Chairman of JK Paper.  I also enjoyed a lively discussion with the head of the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs who has been driving much of the recent legislative action surrounding CSR reporting and the 2% CSR target for use of corporate profits in this space.  While in Delhi it was fun as ever to get together with former Accenture colleagues Sanjay Jain and Anish Gupta for a good catch-up in the bar overlooking the Delhi Golf Club.

Children in the backstreets of Mumbai

Meanwhile in Mumbai I spoke with Harsh Mariwala, Chairman of the consumer goods company Marico and also a very influential leader and thinker in the area of social responsibility in the country, and I had a fascinating hour and half with Nitin Paranjpe, the CEO of Unilever in India.  I reconnected with my old friend Subodh Bhargava, Chairman of Tata Communications for dinner and met the newly appointed Brand Champion of the whole Tata Group, Dr. Mukund Rajan.  We are now synthesising the output of these and the other interviews for a report whose publication has been sponsored in part by Tata and Infosys.  Key themes which are emerging include the deep personal connection which the leaders have with the development agenda in the country which arises from growing up in its midst.

A colourful tourist chariot outside the Taj hotel in Mumbai

There is an interesting spectrum of perspectives from the older, more traditional, players who see this through the lens of the evolving family firms and the newer generation of professional business leaders who are increasingly coming to the fore.  There was a common focus on the growing gap between the rich and the poor which has resulted from rapid and uneven economic development and some genuine concern that the newly rich were displaying more acquisitive and consumerist behaviours than sustainable and responsible attitudes to growth.  The role of business leaders as role models of good practice and ethics was seen as very important and attempts to “mandate” CSR by the government was generally seen as being counter-productive – even though it is an area where the Indian government has been a global innovator.  I did hear some great examples of innovation being led out of the Indian leaders however, from the passionate nurturing of greenhouses of rare ingredient plants described by Anand at Dabur, through the personal championing of community-factory relationships by younger leaders such as Ramkrishnan and the imaginative shaping of the role that Mukund has at Tata, combining Brand, Ethics and CSR in a single integrated and senior role reporting to the Group CEO & Chairman.

Mumbai kite-runner

The visit with the Mumbai team of the anti-trafficking NGO was as eye-opening as I expected it to be.  Their offices are in a backstreet in a run-down area and deliberately do not call attention to themselves, due to the sensitivity of their activities.  I met with the local leadership team and many of the working groups in a very engaged Q&A session.  I heard the stories of the investigative specialists who patrol the red-light and slum factory districts of the city infiltrating the local gangs and networks to identify potential target properties where underage workers and sex-workers are hidden.  They organise the police raids and whisk the victims away to safe houses and shelters across the city.  There a dedicated team of social workers help the mainly girls to begin the rehabilitation process, provide statements for the police, and liaise with their home villages across the country.  Many of the girls come from as far away as West Bengal and Bangladesh and there are often cases where members of their famiies are party to the trafficking scheme and, as a result, new long term homes have to be found.  The charity works to train the girls and provide them with skills to be self-sufficient.  I saw first hand some of the great home-made cards that some are taught to make.  I also met with the legal team who take up the prosecution process with the authorities and bring the cases to court.  The group has been having a high degree of conviction success given the inherent difficulties of the environment, including the corruption which pervades much of the police and justice system.  They are also making good progress in linking with sex-crime forces in the UK to help break the networks which flow back to the UK.  There was a tentative plan to take me to the red-light district to see close-up the environment that they operate in.  In the end the lead investigator, who was one of the few they felt could safely escort me, was involved in a raid and so I was spared that experience.  I did commit to visit some of the shelters on a future trip and all in all I came way even more impressed with the work of this small but very effective NGO.

Unilever’s Year Two Progress Report for the Sustainable Living Plan

The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan session was compelling in a very different way.  The meeting began with a progress report on the key goals and initiatives which the company set out two years ago and in particular the growing list of examples where the sustainable business strategy was behind measurable growth in the business.  Examples were drawn from the water, health and sanitation focus behind the success of Lifebouy in developing markets and the growth of Knorr attributable to its green raw material supplier management and labelling.  It was a privilege to spend a couple of hours with Paul Polman, other members of the senior team at the company and a group of very distinguished academic and NGO leaders to review the progress that is being made to mobilise business effectively to create social value and identify gaps for more progress.  I facilitated the group through questions on why more companies have not integrated business and society in their explicit business strategies, what the impact of short term thinking and measurement was, and how much the necessary changes in activity and behaviour would be consumer-led.

Matt in full flow at the Cubitt House Charity Day

It was clear from the participants that personal leadership and courageous advocacy from the business leaders was a prerequisite, as well as longer term commitment from investors and Boards, alongside better platforms for businesses to engage at scale.  We roved across the scenarios we have been discussing at IMD in Lausanne on government-led, business-led or consumer-led change and agreed that while the alignment of all three to a greater extent was a key enabler, the pull from society at large, especially an informed and socially-networked young world would be the biggest catalyst for change.  Paul concluded the session with his key takeaways and he focused specifically on the drive to create 20-30 clear issue-focused vehicles for collections of businesses, NGOs and other organisations to come together around, to help make progress on the next set of MDG targets.  This is a theme we have been championing in the IBLF and, while difficult to pull off, it does seem one of the few ways that we are going to get more businesses to make a difference at scale.

The partially-consumed cake from the Matilda After-Party in New York

The trip to New York could not have been more different or more frivolous than these weighty dialogues.  As a member of the Board of the Royal Shakespeare Company I have watched the success of the musical Matilda which we created with great pride.  I was also pleased to be one of the underwriters of the move from Stratford to London, where the show has been playing now to packed houses for well over a year.  The next stage of the journey was to take the show to New York.  This was a major undertaking, which the Commercial Board of the RSC on which I sit has overseen, and involved the marshalling of very substantial investment from the US artistic community.  New casts have had to be rehearsed and the show reset for a US audience and a New York theatre.  Finally the previews were over and the formal Opening Night was upon us.  Sandy and I flew over to join the pre-show event, see the performance and take part in the huge after-show party.   For all the confidence that we had in the show, we were unprepared for the superb production and the even more outstanding reviews which it garnered, even from the fiercest of New York critics.

The triumphant cast of Matilda take over the dance floor at the After Party

From the opening notes it was special to see the story of the young girl who triumphs over adversity by being “a little bit naughty” brought to life by a stupendous cast of children and adults, led by the incomparable Bertie Carvel as Mrs. Trunchbull.  The buzz at the over 1,000 strong party that night in the vast ballroom of a local hotel was amazing as the reviews came over the wire and were shared in astonishment on iPhones and Blackberries.  We had the joy of watching the cast of Matildas and the other children dancing late into the night as we all devoured an even bigger cake than that which features in the show.  We attended a special RSC party the next night to celebrate both Matilda and the opening of our production of Julius Caesar in the city and it was fun to rub shoulders with the comedian Tim Minchin who wrote the songs for Matilda and his cowriter Denis Kelly, as well as other great and good such as Sir Anthony Sher.   It was also good to see former Accenture colleague David Gartside and his wife who have become big supporters of the RSC in the US.  The rest of the trip was characterised by shopping in Soho and a great visit to the Museum of Modern Art.

A spectacular Matisse from the fantastic Museum of Modern Art in New York

The Provincia newspaper describes “Like in a Film – The Perfect Heist” – I was nearly part of the movie myself!

Speaking of winning by being naughty, the perpetrators of the dramatic gold bullion heist on the A9 autostrade in Italy seem to have got away with it.  I was surprised to find the motorway which I routinely take from the airport to our home on Lake Como blocked by a phalanx of police cars and burning flares and I switched on the radio to try to work out what was going on.  My rudimentary Italian picked out phrases such as “kalashnikov” and “fugitivi” and the next day I was amazed to read in the local paper how a gang had used a truck to block the highway in front of a van carrying huge quantities of gold over the border from Italy to Switzerland.  They had used automatic weapons to hold up the vehicle and make their getaway pursued by the Italian police.

Hailstorm clouds over Alex and cricket at Cranleigh School

This is certainly more exciting and action-packed than the recent political activity in Italy which has seen a coalition of the usual old suspects come together, despite the victory two months ago of a comedian in the elections.  Italy has been without leadership for a couple of months and I must admit it is not clear that it is much different from normal.  The natural spirit of the place is however being sapped by the austerity measures and successive failed political interventions.  Bureaucracy is everywhere.

Pizza from La Piazetta – our favourite restaurant on Lake Como – one of many things the Italians get right!

I was out in Italy to try to understand the latest attempt to fine us for not having the right sewage pipes in our villa and also to extricate a “denuncio” from the local police in make up for the complete absence of paperwork for my beloved Riva motorboat.  From the micro issues to the macro economic situation in the country there is little hope of improvement in the near term and this is bad news for the whole region.  It is still a lovely place to spend time however and the pizza is exceptional.

Spring lambs in front of Down End in Croyde

The sun shone on our trip to Devon though it was bitterly cold.  I did manage to go into the water once in a thick wet-suit.  The water is still unseasonably cold due to the non-movement of the Gulf Stream, a symptom of global warming which has combined with the non-movement of the Jet stream to leave the UK and northern Europe suffering from a very late spring.  The buds are finally pushing out at Winterfold, the daffodils are in flower and the forest is alive with the sound of cuckoos cuckooing, woodpeckers wood-pecking and Duke of Edinburgh backpackers back-packing.  This is my favourite time of the year and I am looking forward to the next month with excitement and anticipation.

Spring comes to the garden at Winterfold at last!

Plain Sailing & Plain Flour – Caribbean Cruising, Skurfing and a Bake-Off

Sandy, me and our friends Margaret and Mike on the bow of the Tilly Mint yacht

My life these days, and especially my role with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, takes me to some of the least developed, harshest environments on the planet as recent posts from the Congo, Bangladesh and Kenya attest.  This month has been characterised by a large chunk of time at the opposite extreme of luxury, sailing in a crewed 67ft yacht, the Tilly Mint, around Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean with some friends!  This was a fantastic opportunity to escape the continuing freeze in the UK and, despite claims of abandonment from our sons, a chance to spend some quality time with a university friend of over thirty years standing and her husband.

The Tilly Mint in Falmouth Harbour, Antigua

The month was not all sybaritic pleasure however and the other dimensions of my life all weighed in.  This was an important time for Peaslake School, which celebrated its 100th anniversary with a big community tea party and a bake-off, inspired by the recent TV competition in this space.  My own contribution (which features later in this post) sadly was not victorious but we had a great time.  We also had the latest successful checkpoint meeting of the process to become a Free School with the Department of Education.

….looking to the far horizon – to avoid being sea sick!

I attended the Fidessa Board meeting, where we celebrated the fact that the recent annual results announcement has led to a significant bounce in the share price of this financial software company.  There has also been a lot of review work on upcoming reports for the Commission leading to fascinating discussions on topics as diverse as health initiatives in Burma, road, airport and power plant capital projects in Monserrat (which I was also able to observe from a distance from the beach in Antigua!), the funding of NGOs and the use of external contractors to deliver aid.  We are also gearing up for the Mid-Term Review of the Independent Commission by the Cabinet Office which will determine the future of this innovative body over the remainder of this parliament.

The exhibition to mark 100 years of Peaslake School

This month there been a lot of activity in and around the International Business Leaders Forum, not least the move from the long term offices in Cornwall Terrace to the Grays Inn Road.  The Executive MD Tanuja Pandit and her team have put a tremendous amount of effort into establishing the organisation in its new, much more cost effective and fit-for-purpose home.  I also enjoyed a great meeting with Ian Cheshire, the CEO of Kingfisher where we discussed the challenge of catalysing meaningful action from business in the sustainability arena.

The set for Act II of Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall

One of the real pleasures was the annual Royal Shakespeare Company Board Strategy meeting, held this year in London.  We had a very enjoyable and lively discussion with Greg Doran, the new Artistic Director, and his team about how to maximise the impact of the five year cycle of the entire Shakespeare canon which he has planned.  It is going to be really exciting for audiences to experience each of these plays as a unique event, hopefully both in London and Stratford-Upon-Avon.  We also probed the approach to new work, brand development, global touring and the education remit of  the Company.  The venue was Vice Chair Lady Sainsbury’s office which is, by chance, directly opposite our new Westminster home – a location which this month was the scene of a number of freezing meetings with consultants and contractors as we prepare for the refurbishment project to begin big time!

Alex in goal for Horsley FC – not his favourite position!

The other highlight of the cultural action this month was attending a dramatic performance of the opera Carmen at the Royal Albert Hall as guests of my great friend John Downie and his wife Marie.  Sporting activity for the boys centred around football (Alex) and hockey (Matt) with no major injuries sustained.  I returned to the 7-a-side football scene and found myself playing alongside fellow Cranleigh School dad Graeme Le Saux, the former Chelsea and England footballer.  He is now a TV and radio pundit and commentator and, aside from being pretty useful as a team mate (i.e we just try to pass the ball to him and leave him to do the rest!), I was delighted to get some personal words of encouragement that my game was improving from him (off a very low base of course!)

A giant “sink hole” in Barbuda – is this how Germans must feel about the eurozone?

In the wider world the headlines have been dominated by the return of the eurozone to crisis with the potential financial system meltdown in Cyprus.  The subtext of money laundering and the imbalances caused by global tax havens has also raised some interesting questions.  Traveling in the Caribbean, one was reminded of the palm-fringed islands, many with sovereignty links to the UK and US, where the numbers of brass plates for tax-efficiently positioned global corporations vastly outnumber the inhabitants.  We have seen the rumbles of threatened nuclear conflict in Iran and North Korea and in both cases, while the rhetoric remains very scary, the reality of action does not seem in anyone’s interests.

Sunset over calm waters – better times ahead?

Despite these potentially major disruptions, the markets have generally continued to charge ahead.  It has been encouraging to see positive job news from the US and the relative peace of the Kenyan Presidential elections. This month also saw the fifth BRICS Summit in South Africa and reports from the meeting point towards ever greater co-operation between this dynamic but diverse set of new global players.  One of the most interesting ideas to gain momentum has been the creation of a BRICS Development Bank to encourage co-investment in the member countries and their respective regions.

The Tilly Mint between Antigua and Barbuda

The undoubted highlight of the past few weeks was nearly a fortnight spent in the sun, warm winds and sands of the Caribbean, firstly sailing in the lovely yacht Tilly Mint, and then staying at the beautiful Curtain Bluff resort on Antigua.  The sailing trip arose from a bid in the Peaslake School Auction of Promises a year ago where I bought a week on this yacht which is owned by a couple in the village.  We knew we were onto a good thing from the moment that we were greeted by Captain Bill and his partner Nathalie at the mooring in Falmouth Harbour in Antigua.  The yacht is one of only four of their kind that have been built and as we settled into the luxurious main double bow cabin and our friends Margaret and Mike moved into their similarly appointed room at the stern, and enjoyed our welcome cocktail, the tone was set for a week of fun, pampering and comfort afloat.

Sailing on an azure sea

The winds were not perfect for sailing but given that we, unlike most of the clients who charter the yacht, wanted to enjoy it more as a floating hotel than as an America’s Cup practice voyage, this was fine by us.   That said, we were able to get the sails up several times over the week (well actually Bill and Nathalie pressed the buttons that put the sails up while we watched admiringly and tried to think of appropriate boaty terms to impress them!).

The frigate bird reserve on Barbuda

We travelled over to the nearby island of Barbuda, a low lying piece of land with just 1,500 inhabitants some six hours out from Antigua.  On the way across we saw our first whale which breached impressively off the bow and splashed its huge tail above the waves – this rather spoilt us as we only saw one more on the whole trip – but exciting nonetheless.  Barbuda itself was interesting though on the day we went ashore our appreciation of its delights was muted by the fact that it appeared to be “shut”.

On the deserted K Club beach in Barbuda – not a royal in sight!

Visions of beach bars and a lazy lunch were soon dispelled when we discovered the one restaurant shack in the capital was closed – we visited the deserted ruins of the K Club Hotel – once the holiday destination of Princess Di and the boys and now crumbling on the fringe of the glorious white sand beach while its owner rather optimistically looks for $50m for a potential buyer!  Barbuda is home to one of the largest frigate bird colonies in the world and we sped out on power boats to float in the midst of the reserve under skies black with huge wheeling birds and to observe the red-puffed breasts of the young males yet to mate and fluffy white chicks calling out for food.

Frigate bird wheeling over Barbuda

After a rather basic lunch of biscuits and pringles from the lone shop on the island (not quite the fresh seafood we had hoped for!) we were taken inland to trek to what was described as the famous “sink hole”.  We found ourselves in the ruins of the Codrington Estate, former home to the slave owning founder of the island, who made his fortune from salvaging the many ships which foundered in the reefs in the 17th century.  The sink hole, which we reached through a forest of giant spiky cacti, turned out to be a chasm in the forest, filled with dangling liana and bright coloured soldier crabs.

I can’t think why the fish swam away!

We sailed back from Barbuda to Antigua the next day and began our circumnavigation of the island.  We moored near Nonsuch Bay and broke out the paddle boards for Mike and my first attempts at balancing and paddling through the waves.  We both did reasonable impressions of bambi on water but did finally make some progress.  We watched sunset over another fabulous meal cooked up by the ever innovative Nathalie, who managed to combine relative healthiness (there was not a french fry in sight!) with taste and presentation.

Brain coral on the reef off Nonsuch Bay, Antigua

The following day we snorkelled on the reef in the bay and went ashore to visit the Harmony Hall art gallery – a regular location for retail therapy in our many visits to the island.

Our trusty crew – Captain Bill and Nathalie

Our remaining days were filled with sailing, motoring and pausing at bays around Antigua for swimming, snorkelling and paddle-boarding.  It must be said that Sandy showed a natural talent for the latter which left Mike and I looking pretty amateur.  In St James Bay we stretched our nascent paddle board skills to new levels by being towed behind the rib in what is known as “skurfing”.

Skurfing – it is actually easier than just standing on the paddle board!

All too soon our week was over and I must admit that even though at full price the charter for the Tilly Mint would be $18-25,000 a week, we emerged very tempted to do it again with the kids sometime soon – and this time do some sailing ourselves (under supervision from Captain Bill of course!)

The calm beach at Curtain Bluff – with hobies ready to go

We disembarked at the Curtain Bluff resort, an American-owned hotel perched between a wild beach and a calm bay, which we have visited as a family many times over the past decade or so.  The place lived up to its usual standard of great informal service and just as we got used to terra firma again it was fun to be out on the hobie cats (actually sailing myself this time!), enjoying massages, snorkelling and lazing on the beach armed with rum punches.

Lining up a putt at Jolly Harbpur Golf Club – we were proud to both come in less than two times par!

Mike and I embarked upon a game of golf at the rather down-trodden ( and fortunately deserted!)  Jolly Harbour Golf Club.  Mike had not played since 1991 and I only ever play when we visit the island so perhaps we should not have been surprised when the girl behind the reception desk baulked at our request for twenty balls for a nine-hole round!  All good things do have to come to an end and finally after a great twelve days of good company in a fabulous environment,  we bade a final farewell to our Caribbean idyll to return to reports of snow drifts in the UK and the coldest March on recent record.

My creation – Mary Berry eat your heart out!

The snow fell on the morning of the Great Peaslake School Centenary Tea Party but that did not put off the 130 or so souls of all ages who braved the weather in the afternoon to enjoy a unique exhibition of the school through the ages and sample the wonderful cakes on show.  There were several categories for current and past pupils and supporters and the flyer for the event even challenged participants to “make a marzipan Mark Foster”.

Congratulating a winner in the Great Peaslake Bake-Off

Fortunately, after nearly 20 years as Chairman of the school Trust,  I was not met by an army of myself manufactured in yellow confectionary.  I entered my own contribution in the Ultimate Showstopper Category-  I had worked particularly hard on my chocolate brownie cake and was especially proud of the marzipan manifestation of the school that I had carved out and placed on the base.  Sad to say, even though there were only three cakes entered in this category, mine was judged as last by the panel of expert judges – even though many (including my very critical 18 year old son Alex) agreed that, once licence was given to tuck in, it did taste good!

Entries in the Current Pupils Category – we clearly have some very talented 5-7 year olds!

The event was overall a huge success and marked a fabulous way for the community to celebrate the fact that its school had survived both 80 years of being in the state system and twenty years of being run by the village.  As I mentioned in my speech to welcome everyone, we are now looking forward to the next 100 years with confidence as we look to re-enter the state system as a Free School.  As the month ended the buds were beginning to peek out from the frost and spring looked to be finally around the corner.  It is also clear that, after a few weeks of having way too much fun, I will need to get back to work!

Warm memories – the view from the spa over the bay at Curtain Bluff

Blowing Hot & Cold – Escaping Nemo & Cricket in the Cape

Matt and proud parents beside the pitch in Stellenbosch

I am always pleased that February is a relatively short month, coming as it does in the dullest part of winter before even a hint of spring is in the air, while readers of Postmark look forward to it in the (vain) hope that my blog will be proportionately curtailed!  This time around it has been a month of extremes – I have gone from dodging the snow and ice of winter storm Nemo in New York to the balmy sunshine of South Africa, following Matt on his school cricket tour.   While the highlight has certainly been the week or so that Sandy and I spent in the Cape (where the wine tasting may have been more memorable than the sport!), there has been a lot of work packed into the period as well.  Before we headed south the multiple strands of my life came together in a flurry of activity with the Board meeting for Heidrick & Struggles in New York, the Fidessa and IBLF Board meetings in London, the AGM for Peaslake School and the RSC Board.  We had the latest IBLF Leaders Council webinars on the topic of Green Growth and I led a session on growth (of any colour!) at the UK Partners meeting of Heidricks.

Matt steaming in from the Table Mountain end!

This month the ICAI Board meeting reviewed the progress made by the UK aid agency in its fight against corruption in fragile states around the world, as well as taking a first look at how the Foreign Office has responded to the needs arising from the Arab Spring.  Cultural activities have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, taking in a wonderful centenary concert by the Allegri Quartet on behalf of Peaslake School and an evening watching a Led Zeppelin tribute band!  Also, in a month which marked the second anniversary of my retirement I have caught up with several of my former Accenture colleagues for dinners, lunches and breakfasts, including Roxanne Taylor, Matt Reilly, Walt Shill and Bruno Berthon.

Winter storm Nemo looms over New York

The global economy has been blowing hot and cold this month too.  Just as the delegates returned from the relative optimism of Davos we have been hit by another European crisis, this time triggered by the comical (literally) election result in Italy and we have seen the US finally slip over some kind of fiscal cliff.  Meanwhile events in Egypt, Isreal, Syria and beyond point to ongoing turbulence in the Middle East and North Africa.  Closer to home the UK has lost its triple ‘A’ rating and the pound has sunk to its lowest level for several years.  Meanwhile the capital markets around the world have generally charged ahead, reaching record levels in many cases and it has been interesting (and rewarding!) to see Accenture stock riding high.  This volatile and uneven picture is putting pressure on organisations to navigate a sensible path forwards.  Nonetheless, the thawing of markets which we saw at the start of the year, and the readiness to consider deals again, seems to be a resilient trend, and in that movement (versus stagnation) lies hope.

Escape route – the train from NY pulls into Washington station

The Heidrick Board in New York took place in the impending grip of the winter storm Nemo and it was a serious session as we contemplated the annual results which were published this month.  The search marketplace has been a tough one for a while now, and the historical financial services centre of gravity of Heidricks, especially in the US, has challenged performance during the extended crisis in that industry.  Other industry sectors and global markets have begun to fill the gap and the recent acquisition of Senn Delaney Consulting has bolstered the culture change component of Heidrick’s Leadership Advisory proposition.  We heard from the senior management of the newly acquired group and were encouraged that the potential for joint working between the search side and the new C-suite relationships from the acquisition are already pointing to new momentum.

Great Fosters – scene of the UK Heidrick Partners meeting – where they heard from not-so-great Foster!

I joined the UK partner meeting of the organisation as well and witnessed first hand the energy and focus of this group as they put the business strategy into action in this critical marketplace.  I spent some time describing the journey we had undertaken to rebuild Accenture Management Consulting over the latter half of the last decade to provide some pointers to Heidrick’s growth approach for the region.  Back in New York I had spent much of the Board meeting looking out from the windows of the Heidrick offices over Bryant Square as the snow flurries thickened.  With the news channels awash with dire warnings and every airport on the East Coast closing fast I needed to make a plan of escape.  Fortunately, with JFK and Newark already shut, I managed to get one of the last train tickets south to Washington and the last BA plane ticket out of that airport before the worst of the storm hit.

A blustery and blue Cape Point in South Africa

I have been seeing the reality of business management in this environment in many other interactions this month.  The Fidessa Board was also held in the context of the year end picture and it was good to see that, despite also being at the centre of the global financial services industry, this innovative software company has managed to retain its footprint, scale and profitability.  By branching out into new markets, especially in Asia and Latin America, and new product lines – in this case derivatives, they have been able to weather the ongoing consolidation of clients in the industry worldwide.  The key challenge which they face, like many other organisations right now, is the degree of R&D investment to make in future products and services, while delivering on current commitments and maintaining profitability in an uncertain world.

A colourful tribal band entertains the crowd in Cape Town

My old friend Tom Spann, who I met in New York and who runs a health management start-up called Accolade, is grappling with the opportunities of growth while looking to meet the demands of current customers and his private equity backers.  With my IBLF Chair hat on I had a meeting with Ronan Dunne the CEO of O2, the UK arm of Telefonica.  He has been faced with the need to attract new customers to his brand in the face of the 4G shift beginning in the UK and after the initial coup of being the first provider of the iphone in the market a few years back (he is succeeding – his results this week were very good).  The focus on the customer experience and building trust in the use of the digital information explosion which is occurring were the topics which dominated our conversation.  I also had dinner with Lucy Dimes, the head of Alcatel Lucent UK, a technology and services organisation which finds itself under great competitive pressure as the shifting worlds of mobile and fixed-line telephony play themselves out across the globe.

Farewell to Cornwall Terrace – home of the IBLF since founding by Prince of Wales

Both Ronan and Lucy are members of the Leaders Council of the IBLF and we held our next pair of webinars with the CEO’s and Chairmen of global organisations which make up this group on the topic of the B20 and Green Growth.  Pierre Nanterme, the CEO and Chairman of Accenture and Bruno Berthon who heads up Strategy and Sustainability at my former stamping ground led the discussion. Together with leaders from Shell, Tata, Infosys, Diageo, Cisco, Network Rail, Deloitte and Microsoft amongst others we investigated the progress of the latest Davos meetings on B20 initiatives targeted at finding the investments required to “green” global growth over the next two decades.  The remit of this programme stretches beyond environmental and resource-related investments, seeking the $700bn of incremental money required on top of the need to “green” the existing $5 trillion per year of infrastructure projects foreseen over the period.

Hiking in the mountain fynbos above Franscchoek

Members acknowledged the importance and action-orientation of the work to date but pushed to see more tangible platforms for activity to be created at the national or city level to allow companies to engage and bring their investments to bear alongside funds from financial and government sources such as the EBRD.  In this, as in so many other ares, there is a lot of talk about public private partnerships but little evidence yet that we know how scale them to the levels necessary to make a difference.  The upcoming B20 meeting in St Petersburg will be a key test of resolve and pragmatism!

A former inmate describing the reality of life in the Robben Island prison

The IBLF Board met and endorsed the plans to build out our collaboration and leadership assets to help meet exactly the kind of challenge thrown up by the B20.  We have also this month left the headquarters building of Cornwall Terrace near Regents Park for smaller and more fit-for-purpose office space near Euston.  As I stated at the fun final farewell drinks party held for friends past and present, the spirit of the organisation will continue in its new home as we look to build on the legacy of all that has been achieved since the Prince of Wales inaugurated it 20 years ago.

Soaking up the rays by the pool at Mont Rochelle

The same story of maintaining spirit also underpinned the AGM of the Peaslake Schools Trust which I chaired this month at the school.  We had another great turnout of parents, staff, trustees and members of the community as we reviewed the progress of the school over another successful year and looked forward to its new life as Free School from September.  We formally marked the 100th anniversary of moving into the school building at the heart of the village with a fabulous concert in a nearby stately home by the Allegri Quartet.  I had invited Oxford friends Cathy Kneafsey, Melanie Davey and Steve Parissien to join us for what was a special performance of music by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Borodin.

Matt (centre) and the Cranleigh School Cricket team on tour

Two years ago Sandy and I joined our eldest Alex as he participated in the Cranleigh School cricket tour to South Africa and we had such a good time that we could not miss Matt doing the same tour this year.  So it was that we found ourselves heading down to Cape Town for just over a week of sunshine, match-watching and wine tasting in this fabulous place.  We based ourselves this time on the V&A Waterfront in the city and in the winelands and travelled to the various schools and pitches where Matt and the team were playing.  Pretty much every one of the matches took place in the shadow of Table Mountain and this formed a stupendous backdrop to a lot of very average cricket!

Another game in the spectacular shadow of Table Mountain

The boys had a lot of fun and Matt got a few runs and even got to bowl quite a bit – but sadly there was only one victory in the six games that they played.  Sandy and I took advantage of gaps in the excitement to travel around and took in the delights of the trip down to a blustery Cape Point as well as the boat trip out to Robben Island.  It was fascinating to hear a former inmate of this famous place of imprisonment for Nelson Mandela describe his personal experience of the brutality of the prison.   Matt and the team were similarly impressed by their exposure to this piece of recent history.  They also had a chance to visit a township and spent time training with the local children.

Sandy and I on top of Lion’s Head Rock above Cape Town

Sandy and I climbed the Lion’s Head mountain in the capital – which was harder work than it first appeared and took in the spectacular views along the coast and over the city.  We also hiked amid the luxuriant fynbos undergrowth in the hills around Franschhoek.  We were joined by fellow cricket parents Mike and Vivianne Clark for a memorable day’s wine tasting in the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek region – which was memorable until we woke up the next day!

Wine tasting with the Clarks at the beautiful Maison winery in Franscchoek

We stayed in the fabulous Mont Rochelle Hotel amid the vines in what has come to be our favourite part of a country which we have visited three times in the past four years.  On this occasion we found ourselves in South Africa in the aftermath of the Oscar Pistorius shooting and bail hearing.  Every newspaper and hoarding screamed out the latest updates on the investigation and court appearances.  Every taxi driver had a point of view and opinion was divided among those who still wanted to believe in Pistorius as the sporting hero he had been and those who found his defence incredible.

Matt in one of his brief but exciting sojourns at the crease!

The frozen fountain sculpted at Winterfold

We came back home to a frozen Winterfold – where icicles had formed tremendous shapes on the fountain in the front garden and where the house had survived a week of Alex’s tender care.  Both Alex and Matt have been playing sport a lot this month, with Matt playing hockey alongside the cricket.  He even managed to get his face mangled by a follow-through of a hockey stick in one match but luckily, despite the spectacular outpouring of blood which followed, he emerged relative unscathed with several cuts around the eye and no broken cheekbone.  Alex has been playing a lot of football with both the school and the local Horsley FC team.  He has been getting very fit, though the headers (which are his speciality) often leave him dazed after the matches.

Alex anticipates another jolt to his cranium for Horsely FC

Since Christmas I have been taking advantage of trips to see my father to interview him and record video of him talking about his life.  It has been a real joy and revelation to hear him, at 89, talk about his experience growing-up and latterly in the Second World War.  We have reached the bit where he is building bridges for the allied push across Germany in 1944 and it really puts the day to day crises we read about in context to think about the truly momentous upheavals that the previous generation lived through.  Perhaps when we look back at what we see now as a world of volatility and uncertainty which blows hot and cold, we will realise that we actually have it pretty good!

The view of the vineyards and mountains from Mont Rochelle in Franscchoek

Moguls & Motorbikes – Bridging the Poverty Gap in India & Bangladesh

Yours truly visiting the char villages of northern Bangladesh

I have had the privilege of spending four of the past six weeks in the Indian sub-continent as, following our family fortnight in Tamil Nadu and Kerala (which featured in last month’s post),  I have been back in India interviewing business leaders on behalf of the IBLF and spent over a week in Bangladesh reviewing aid projects in the northern part of the country.   All of this experience has allowed me to gain a unique insight into both the dynamism and growth potential of the region as well as the chronic nature of some of the issues that it faces.  Most interesting has been the overlap between these worlds which are possibly more closely juxtaposed here than in many parts of the planet.

Speaking to villagers in a poverty-stricken community

In a month which also saw the annual meeting at Davos I have been struck by the dislocation between the big ideas and concepts which characterise such an event and the practical challenges both short and long term faced by the world.  This came home to me most when, having bumped across the dunes and paddy fields of the sand bars in the Ganges riding pillion on a motorbike, I came face to face with desperate families who really did not know where their next meal was coming from, or if their home would survive the next river flood.  We should all be pleased that the overall tone of the WEF gathering this year was more positive, as some of the armageddon-level risks which have blighted recent meetings appear to have receded, but the fact remains that long term global challenges such as resource scarcity, climate change and massive youth unemployment have not gone away and the events in Syria, Algeria and Mali this month prove to us that issues in apparently distant places can impact all of us.

Lowering clouds over the beach at Down End

While the clear highlight this month was my time in India and Bangladesh, we enjoyed a lively New Year in London with friends and I did manage to squeeze in a quick trip in my trusty camper van down to our house in Devon for few days in early January.  Sandy and I enjoyed a dinner hosted by Sir Digby Jones on behalf of the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon targeted at engaging local business leaders with the work of the Company.  It was fun to find myself alongside the head of Jaguar Landrover in the UK just a few days after meeting the Tata Vice Chairman in India responsible for this business.

We also attended a very moving evening dinner held on behalf of the charity Justice & Care in London.  It is chaired by one of my Cranleigh footie dad friends.  Sandy and I were struck (apropos my comments above about real world issues) how effectively this relatively small organisation sought out trafficked children in the hands of gangs in Indian cities, freed them and prosecuted the perpetrators at no small risk to themselves.  In a world of large NGOs where the real impact of activities is sometimes hard to see this group texts its supporters each time an individual child is saved or a criminal is put away!

Ice skating (well standing on the ice!) at New Year by the Tower of London

I have enjoyed fascinating meals with former Accenture colleague Oday Abbosh, (who is now well into launching his revolutionary paper towel product in Tesco stores across the country!), Mark Spelman and his MP wife Caroline, as well as lunch with (Sir) Vernon Ellis whose many roles now include Chair of the British Council.  In my Board capacity I met with the CEO of Fidessa to review the product strategy for this financial software company and, closer to my competence, to discuss options for operating model and organisation change to make it more globally competitive.  This month also saw another Board, Heidrick & Struggles, undertake the most significant acquisition it has made for sometime with the c$70m purchase of Senn Delaney to bolster its Leadership Consulting capability and complement its top-end search business.  I have been providing quite a bit of input to the Board and the management team as to how to preserve the value of such a people-based business, leaning on my experience with the George Group acquisition at Accenture.  Back at home, despite the snow which had the family trapped in Winterfold for a few days, the boys have survived the torments of mock GCSE exams and A Level modules and are nursing aching limbs from the restart of the soccer and hockey seasons.

Matt playing hockey vs. Charterhouse School – just before he was hit in the face by a hockey stick!

The Taj Hotel in Mumbai

The trip to India this time was part of the Responsible Business Leadership programme of the IBLF.  Last year we undertook research into the way that western business leaders viewed the social impact of their organisations and this year we have decided to put a multipolar lens on the work by looking at Indian leaders.  I travelled to Bangalore and Mumbai to conduct four one-on-one interviews the CEO’s of Infosys, Goldman Sachs India, Metro India and the Vice Chairman of Tata Motors.  I wanted to see if their personal backgrounds and the context of India as a rapidly developing nation brought different factors to bear in the way they and their companies looked at the world and their role in it.  Each of them was very generous with their time and it was clear that the proximity to the poverty and development challenges all around them as they grew up, and the way that they each took advantage of specific personal opportunities for advancement, really did shape the priorities that they saw for the core activities of their companies, the CSR agenda in each situation and their personal philanthropic focus.  I came away with a sense that this more direct interaction with society and its systemic issues on their “doorstep” (sometimes literally!) reduced their patience for big intergalactic programmes and brought a sense of pragmatism to the interventions that they valued, whether it was skills building and education, agriculture and rural supply chain development, micro finance or community rights protection.

A fishing slum village just a few hundred yards from the Taj in Mumbai

All my interviewees displayed a thoughtful perspective on the growing divide between the rich and the poor in a country like India and saw the role of business as one of main forces for good, alongside better government and targeted civil society to help to close or at least limit the gap.  We reflected on the recent moves by the regulators in India such as the Voluntary Guidelines for the biggest companies to produce annual reports on their responsible business activities and the mandatory spending of 2% of profits on CSR.  Some saw this as useful stimulus to broaden good practice to less enlightened organisations, others as an attempt to shift the onus onto business to solve societal issues.  What was unambiguously recognised by all four leaders was the fact that the expectations of business in India to play a substantive role in social development, alongside economic activities, had increased enormously even over the past 5-6 years and that this would continue.  I am very much looking forward to working with other members of the IBLF team on a future round of interviews in the coming months and the synthesis of this thinking into a series of events.

Cycle rickshaws in Rangpur, Bangladesh

The Bangladesh trip was a real eye-opener.  In a few days I went from the luxury of the Taj hotel in Mumbai to the crazy streets of Dhaka and the deep poverty on the sandbanks of the Ganges.  Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, is a giant delta of a country, most of whose 160 million inhabitants live just above sea level.  It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with some third of the population living below the poverty line, and, as a result of decades of poor governance, basic services such as health and education do not reach much of the region.  It is also at risk from humanitarian disasters, being prone to floods, typhoons and earthquakes.

Talking with beneficiary villagers in the chars

The purpose of my visit was, on behalf of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, to see how effective DFID had been in using a third party contractor, in this case Maxwell Stamp Ltd, as a managing agent for a major aid programme.  The initiative under review was the Chars Livelihood Programme, which since 2005 has been seeking to lift out of extreme poverty the desperate people who live on the “chars” or sandbanks in the ever-changing river landscape.  I spent a few days in the capital Dhaka meeting with officials from the Government of Bangladesh, the major NGO’s, such as BRAC, and UK DFID personnel.  This gave me a good sense of the chronic need for support for this group of people, who are not reached by government services and for whom the constant upheaval of regular flooding and a corrupt feudal system are a major drag on economic progress.  Bangladesh has been a very aid-dependent country since its formation in 1971 and, although now the textile (and prawn!) industries and remittances from abroad (especially the Gulf) have led to steady GDP growth of 6%, it remains a key focus for global donors.  Dhaka itself is a vast spawling city which is now choked by cars and trucks as well as the pervasive brightly-painted cycle rickshaws.

A poor girl from the chars of Bangladesh peers out of the window of a makeshift Arabic lesson school

Paddy fields around the NGO HQ in Bogra

We travelled north out of Dhaka for seven hours to the Gaibanda region around Bogra where the programme is headquartered.  The very distance of the activities from the capital and the challenges of long term life for ex-pats is one of the reasons that a managing agent is used.  Organisations such as Maxwell Stamp have grown up as part of the aid delivery model around the world.  They consist of a core of key experienced consultants and programme managers and networks of contractors that can be drawn upon for particular projects.  In our rickety DFID 4X4 we crunched further out into the char areas accompanied by a couple of local policemen, posted with us out of concern for the safety of the “Commissioner”!

A boatload of villagers at a ghat on the Ganges

Eventually the road ran out and we boarded a boat to head over to the villages on the sand banks.  The river here is very broad and shallow.  It is five miles wide in places and small communities cling to the islands and sand bars, eking out a living.  We passed fishermen casting nets from skiffs to catch the meagre fish and farmers planting rice, tobacco and mustard in the poor sandy soil on the shorelines.  A few desultory goats were being herded by boys.  Our first visit was to a village which had been covered by the programme over two years ago.  We moved around between the tin shacks and huts picking random households to talk to.  In pretty much every case it was the woman householder we spoke with, as the men were mostly away working in far-flung fields on the mainland or working as itinerant delivery men in the towns.

Travelling by boat out to the chars

A proud young mother shows off her new garden after training from the programme

We saw first hand the raised platforms or “plinths” which are a key enabling part of the initiative designed to lift the homes a metre above the prevailing floods and to withstand successive inundations.  We also witnessed the cows and bulls – one of which is given to each householder, alongside a stipend for fodder and access to veterinary and insemination services, and from which they are expected to develop a sustainable economic livelihood.  You can not help but be impressed by the spirit and energy of these, mostly young, women, who are bringing up their families with great pride and who have already purchased land or improved their homes with money from selling the additional animals they rear.  They have also been taught how to tend gardens and given seeds to augment their diets as well as ongoing training in hygiene.

The precious cattle assets at the heart of the poverty alleviation programme

Each home has a new (relatively sophisticated!) latrine and concreted water pump – my expertise in this area just grows and grows (see the November post from DRC!).   It is good to see that overall there has been some real progress as a result of the initiative and the local NGOs involved are gradually working their way through the groups of targeted poor to put this holistic package of solutions in place.  It is still a fragile and tough existence however.  The local politicians and landowners continue to deprive the people of access to the “public” lands and each year some of the chars are still washed away.  Clinics and schools are just beginning to appear but we met one poor woman whose premature baby had died that morning.

Our motorbikes loaded onto the boat ready to travel over to a nearby char

Strikes or “hartals” are a part of everyday life in Bangladesh and our field work was blighted by three separate national and regional lock-downs ordered by different political groups jockeying for visibility in the run up to next year’s elections.  As a result we had to make some last minute plans to visit different villages in the chars around Rangpur – another two hours to the north.  This time we needed a 4X4, a boat and motorbikes to reach our destinations.  The motorbikes were loaded onto great wooden barges which transported them over the shallow river while we sat in the tented interiors.  As someone who has never ridden a motorbike before, it was somewhat interesting to find my first experience was riding pillion as we raced over sand dunes and along the mud ridges between paddy fields to seek out far flung communities!

Meeting one of the remarkable women we spoke with in the programme community

This time we visited a group which was still in the midst of the programme and were able to see the recently-built plinths (paid work in building these is also part of the plan) and the speed with which relatively fertile gardens could be created after the floods.  We saw cows that were pregnant with the precious calves that would, when nurtured to grow, raise up to £150 in the markets, and transform the life opportunities for the families.  One special experience was stumbling across a meeting of a school girl group led by a very confident older girl or “President”, who were discussing how to make the arguments for their respective parents as to why the girls should continue to go to secondary school.  Overall the confidence, focus and degree of house pride we saw blew us away, particularly as for all the villagers we met, we were the first white people they had ever seen or spoken to!

Travelling out by boat across the broad rivers which surround the chars

A low-lying homestead barely raised above the flood plain in a poor unsupported community

This was a far cry from the desperate hopelessness which characterised one village we visited that was not yet part of the initiative.  We had to leave our boat and bikes and make our way on foot across the sand bars, paddy fields and scrubby tobacco plants to find the sad homesteads perched on low mud banks.   Families, who lived clustered around dirty yards with a few scrawny goats and chickens, told of the hardships they had faced in being forced to find new homes when their home char was eroded away, and the difficulty of looking for new land and livelihoods in the brutal feudal environment.  They spoke of long journeys to access health services and schooling in far-flung towns and the low levels of earnings which family members brought back when they did return from trying to find work.

Sunset falls over the chilly waters of the Ganges

There was still resolve and evidence of community spirit but also a certain fatalism as they showed us how high up their homes the flood waters had come last time and explained how many of their few animals had been washed away in the surging waters.  Ironically even some of those we met, for all their hardship, were still not poor enough to meet the strict qualification criteria set by the programme with regard to complete lack of land, assets and livelihood.  It was therefore a subdued group of us who chugged back over the chill and still waters of the Ganges under a spectacular evening sky to return to our base.

Fishermen hauling in their catch in the shallow waters of the Ganges tributaries

One of the many brick factories on the road to Dhaka

It took us nine hours of hair-raising truck and bus-dodging to travel back down to Dhaka in our bumpy 4X4.  It is apparently one of the most dangerous roads in the world – but as we swerved along we passed through bright yellow mustard coloured fields, lively banana markets and serried ranks of brick-making chimneys belching black smoke into the sky.  We arrived in the midst of the Biswa Ijtema, the second largest regular gathering of muslims after the Haj at Mecca.  Incredibly this city which barely functions on a normal day, hosts some 4 million devotees over two weekends.  We saw vast green-roofed tents spread like carpets along the river banks in the suburbs of the city thronged with countless white-hatted visitors.

Vast crowd of pilgrims
under the tents of the Biswa Ijtema congregation by the shores of the River Turaj

My overall impression from over a week spent in this country was of huge numbers of people clustered at every available habitable location, constant movement and activity, men hauling loads on cycle rickshaws, vendors squatting in market stalls and workers toiling in the paddy fields and grain yards.  It is clear that economic development is coming to the country but it is far from evenly distributed.  We had the vast mansions of the wealthy land owners and politicians pointed out to us set amid the squalor of slums.  This is a country which comes very low down the Transparency International rankings and corruption is endemic.  So, as it develops, there will be another gap to be bridged.  At least we were able to see that the specific programme which we reviewed has found a way to make some difference – but there is a long way to go before the country is able to sustain the livelihoods of its millions of inhabitants in the face of continuing natural and man-made challenges.

Talking with an extremely poor and desperate family in north Bangladesh

Tamils, Temples, Tea…& Tinsel

Foster Family take in another temple in Tamil Nadu

This month has been a brilliant end to the year!  The clear highlight has been two weeks travelling with the family around Southern India taking in the delights of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  I was last in this part of the world in 1987 and it was exciting to see how much has changed….as well as enjoy the parts that remain timelessly Indian.  We returned just in time to celebrate a hastily-organised family Christmas at Winterfold.  Indeed, within a few hours of getting off the plane from Mumbai, Matt and I were out in our forest cutting down and hauling back the Christmas tree!   The run-up to the holiday was a frantic effort to get the festivities prepared, and a busy series of end of year activities in my various roles.  I squeezed in board duties for Heidrick, Fidessa and the RSC.

A rapt audience at the Peaslake consultation meeting!

Most important of all was the final Consultation meeting for Peaslake Free School which I chaired in the village hall.  We were pleased to welcome over forty village residents and supporters to hear the plans for the school and answer their questions on the next stage of its development.   I also managed to fit in the Cranleigh Footie Dads’ Christmas party (where my one goal his year was rated as a highlight!) as well as the IBLF Staff Christmas lunch.

The 7th Century Panth Rathas or Five Chariots at Mamallapuram

It was a quite a shock when our plane touched down in Chennai and the warm wet heat of Tamil Nadu hit our pale UK-wintered bodies.  This is an exciting state on the south eastern tip of India – the spiritual home of the Dravidians, southern indians who are fiercely proud of their difference from the northern Aryans.  Our driver for the trip Venky was soon weaving in and out of the chaotic traffic as we navigated our way out of the city and down the coast to the World Heritage site at Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram).  This is a truly spectacular series of temples and rock-hewn structures developed by the Palavi kings in the 7th-8th Centuries AD – including a giant balanced rock called “Shiva’s Butterball!”

Alex and Matt try to shift Shiva’s Butterball

Flower stall in the amazing market in Pondicherry

We spent a couple of days in the wonderful town of Pondicherry – the only former French colony in India, which looks a bit like an Indian New Orleans.  In the period after independence many of the former lower caste members and untouchables had left the town to make their fortunes in France and they are now returning to India with a greatly enhanced social status and many French customs alongside their traditional culture.  At the centre of the tree-lined streets in the old town is a famous Ashram (or school for meditation) where we witnessed devotees seated in prayer around a flower-filled courtyard.

Alex displaying his culinary skills in the Banik’s kitchen

The highlight of our visit was a cookery demonstration and dinner in the private home of our guide Bishwajit Banik and his wife Shyamala.  Alex, who has putative plans to train as a chalet cook this year, was pressed into service making samosas and delicious onion and cornflower preparations before we sat down to a feast of food from many regions of India which was so good we could barely rise from it!

Enjoying the hospitality of the Banik family in Pondicherry

Walking past the giant Nandi bull into Gangaikondacholapuram

The next day was temples all the way as we took in some of the holiest sites in the region at Chidambaram, Gangaikondacholapuram (yes it does have a name that long!), and Darasuram.   Chidambaram is revered as the site where Shiva (the Destroyer) performed his famous Cosmic Dance – we became quite expert on spotting this representation over time – as well as the 108 different dance moves!  We were blown away by the scale and peacefulness of the temple with the long name which means (The city of the Chola King who moved the Ganges) and which rose majestically beyond a giant caramel-coloured Nandi bull in an enclosed precinct in the midst of the countryside.

Traditional “Bull and Elephant” combined carving
at Darasuram

The final evening stop at the beautifully carved Darasuram temple was memorable for the incomprehensible guide who adopted Alex because he showed the greatest ability to nod in vaguely the right places and repeat the last statement made – that boy could be a management consultant yet!  We dodged the need to buy a statue in the fascinating bronze sculpture works but did succumb to a sari in a traditional weavers house.

A giant bronze statue of Shiva doing his Cosmic Dance in a “lost wax” bronze workshop near Tanjore

Carved entrance to the 11th Century Brihadishvara Temple at Tanjore

More giant temples awaited in Tanjore and Trichy.  I had a close encounter with a temple elephant at the entrance to the immense granite World Heritage site in Tanjore.  We climbed to the top of the Rock Fort in Trichy and spent a long time taking in the vast splendour of the Ranganathasvami temple to Vishnu – one of the largest in India.

Yours truly getting the “hair-dryer treatment” from an elephant in Tanjore

We took a stroll around the riverside ghat where stalls manned by brahmin priests rent out their blessing services to grieving and needy families amid incredible noise, smells, colour and bustle.   This location, and the lively markets that we saw across the country, were the places where we came face to face with the realities of rural indian life, with its strangeness and busy order amid the apparent chaos.

On the roof of the Ranganatha Temple to Vishnu in Srirangam, Trichy

Burmese teak pillars in the hallway of a typical Chettiar mansion near Karaikudi

We then moved inland to stay near Karaikudi in the heart of the fascinating Chettinad country – an area of India where a rich merchant and money-lending class – the Chettiars – developed  in the 19th century and built huge rose-wood and teak-timbered homes in the hills and villages.  Some of the traditional homes are now being developed into boutique hotels, though many others are in a state of crumbling splendour and filling the local antique stalls with their artifacts.

The “all you can eat buffet” Chettinad style

The houses are decorated with locally-made tiles and we visited a workshop where they displayed their exceptional hand tile-painting skills.  A highlight of the delightful hotel we stayed in – which was an oasis of peace away from the blaring of truck klaxons on the nearby road – were the lunches which consisted of seemingly endless ranges of spicy local delicacies served on banana leaves.

Traditional tile making and decorating in Chettinad country

Pilgrims inside the Sri Meenakshi temple at Madurai

We left the region and drove through spectacular rural scenery to the city of Madurai – and our final temple!  We had a daylight tour of the tremendous Sri Meenakshi Temple with its reputed 33 million sculptures!  We returned in the evening for the atmospheric rite of the Shiva’s “Going to Bed” ceremony.  Dhoti-clad pilgrims and long bearded brahmin priests mixed with devotees and tourists against a backdrop of clanging bells, pipe-playing bands and burning charcoals.

Shiva is carried in his palanquin to say goodnight to Meenakshi

These accompanied the palanquin carrying the symbol of Shiva which stopped off at various shrines around the temple before heading in for the night with his wife Meenakshi.  It is fair to say that after multiple explanations of the Hindu deities and several edited versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics during the trip we emerged thoroughly confused and Matt, our resident sceptic, was especially baffled by the religious fervour he witnessed.

Matt – still unconvinced by all this religious stuff!

Yours truly colour-coordinated amid the tea plants in Munnar

Our longest drive of the trip saw us wind up into the Cardomom Hills to the former hill station at Munnar.  We crossed into Kerala in the midst of jungle and plantations of cashew, mango, tamarind and bananas.   We stayed in a bungalow hotel perched over a spectacular view down to the Western Ghat mountains and trekked in the organic tea plantations which crowd this highest of tea-growing regions.

It really was more comfortable to walk than take the jeep!

The bright green patterned hillsides, populated by small clusters of pickers, extend high into the clouds and we bounced our way to the top of one area in a creaky jeep.  As my knees bounced off the seat in front and the rest of the family lurched from side to side over the rock strew roads there was much hilarity at our discomfort from both the guide…and Alex (who seemed more securely wedged than the rest of us!).  The trek to the tea factory was not as arduous as we had feared.  We passed through amazing mountain countryside with spectacular views and marvelled at the ancient British machinery still in use in the factory which nestled amid the highland mists.

Spectacular view from the tea plantation over the Western Ghats

Roadside monkeys on the way down to the backwaters

We left the relative cool of the hill station behind and wound our way down the long road through the jungle towards the western plains of Kerala.  Monkeys were a regular sight by the roadside and we were once again compelled to watch in fascinated awe as Venky used all parts of the available road (and several that were not!) to get us to our destination.  His capacity to use the warbling horn as part of an incessant process of catching the attention of giant truck drivers, tuk tuks and cattle carts alike was a wonder to behold – but became strangely comforting after a while as we grew to trust him!

A rice boat crossing the sunset from the Lake Resort at Kumarakom

Our reward was the luxury of the Lake Resort Kumarakom on the shores of the backwaters in Kerala.  This inland sea of brackish water lies along the western coast of the state and I remember travelling here twenty five years ago.  It is now a major tourist centre for both foreigners and Indians and I was struck by the proliferation of rice houseboats which now glide up and down the canals. It is a bird watchers paradise and I left the family in bed to enjoy a dawn paddle through the water hyacinths which now fill the canals.

A cormorant dries its wings in the backwaters

Sandy ring is removed with a more appropriate tool!

Our stay at the hotel was marked by two dramas – firstly Matt succumbed to some kind of food-based lurgy or sun stroke and had extended interactions with “ralph and huey on the great white telephone!”  Then Sandy managed to get her hand trapped between the door and the wall and squashed her engagement ring into a rectangle.  As the metal cut off the blood to her finger we sought help from the hotel staff whose initial attempt at cutting the ring off involved a two foot-handled set of garden shears!  Mercifully spared from this health and safety scare, Sandy finally had the offending ring removed in a local jeweller.

Our houseboat moored for the night in the backwaters

We spent a great day and night on one of the rice boats which had been converted into a houseboat.  We chugged up the canals – past palm-fringed villages, chatter-filled school bus boats, and dug-outs transporting fishermen and villagers and moored overnight deep in the jungle for an evening meal under the stars.

Typical backwater traffic

The chinese fishing nets at Kochi

The final stop of the holiday was in Kochi (Cochin), a delightful town on the coast of Kerala which has played a key role in its development since its discovery by the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama in the 15th Century.  I remembered the town from my last visit as a backpacker quarter of a century ago and it is fair to say that, while it has retained much of its charm, it is now tourist-central!

A traditional Kathakali dancer completes his make-up

I did enjoy a final piece of culture as (abandoned by the philistines in the rest of the family) I went to watch the traditional Kathakali dance performance, including the spectacular making-up of the dancers.  The final piece of drama on the trip resulted from more traffic than expected on the road the airport. As the normal 1-1.5 hour trip stretched to more than two hours, we barely made our connecting flight to Mumbai and then only after another hair-raising bus ride where any and all sides of the road were fair game and several bike riders, cattle carts and tuk tuk drivers were left in ditches!

Super-driver Venky bids farewell to Team Foster

The whole trip was a great success and India was as fascinating for us all as I knew it would be.  My reading as we travelled was a well-written history of post-indepedence India called “India after Ghandi” by Ramachandra Guha.  This book describes in detail the shifting political and social developments over the past sixty years.  While there are times when one despairs of the ongoing crises and conflicts at religious, national, caste and regional levels outlined in the history, the fundamental aspiration, spirit and hopefulness of the people comes through too.

A colourful temple vendor in Tamil Nadu

It is this aspect which I have seen on all my many visits to the sub continent for business or pleasure over the years.  That there is a real raising of living standards across large parts of the country is clear, as, sadly, is the fact that many more areas than one would expect remain mired in poverty.  We saw both sides of this on our trip and yet it was the energy and vibrancy that left the strongest impression.  I cannot wait to return – which I plan to in early January!

Celebrating Christmas at Winterfold

The contrast between southern India and the cold mists of Winterfold at Christmas could not have been greater but it has been fun to see how fast we could rustle up the festive spirit and welcome Sandy’s parents and my Dad to join in the seasonal excitement.  Curry has been replaced by turkey and we are now preparing for New Year celebrations.   This has been a tremendous year of activity on all fronts and we are looking forward to an equally busy and fun-filled 2013.  Happy New Year!

Falling Leaves, World Toilet Day & Parallel Universes

Autumn leaves in Winterfold

This month has seen as much variety as there have been colours in the trees in the Winterfold Forest.  There has not been a particular theme or focus other than the opportunity to get as much done as possible before the end of the year and the long awaited family trip to India in December.  In fact there has been so much going on my various lives and roles that at times I felt like I was a character in the award-winning play Constellations which I went to see this month in London.  In this excellent fast-paced two-hander, expertly played by Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins, the players switch continually between a hundred parallel story lines and versions of the plot.  It is by turns funny, tragic and poignant – which just about sums up my month!

Trafalgar Square in the Autumn sun

There have been a couple of reminders of my previous life at Accenture.  I joined many of my friends to celebrate the retirement of my long-term colleague Peter Franz – Peter was one of many key people who made me look good during my career, with his tenacious behind-the-scenes work on many fronts – and speaking of making me look good, it was also great to see Christina, Dani and Angie – Team Foster – back together again.

Invitation to 20 Year Reunion for Smart Store Europe in Windsor

This month I also helped to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Smart Store Europe in Windsor.  This was an innovation centre I was part of creating back in the early 90′s with John Hollis, David Symonds, Kevin Duffill and many others, to envision what the world of retail and consumer goods would be like in the future.  We reminisced about the dungeon set we built (to describe how companies were locked in the past), the giant “head of the consumer” which you could walk inside for presentations on customer-centricity and the half a Lada car which hung from the wall to describe new emerging markets. Terry Leahy the former CEO of Tesco has gone on record in his autobiography crediting the workshops which we ran there as a big part of the inspiration for launching Tesco online.  By coincidence I also met a former very senior member of the Sainsbury’s management team this month at a Heidrick and Struggles Chairmans Dinner and he also remembered the sessions there as strategically important.

Autumnal Winterfold Forest viewed from the North Downs

This has been a big month at the IBLF too where we held our Board meeting and the latest of our series of Leaders Council webinars – this time the subject was business engagement with “what next?” after the Millennium Development Goals which expire in 2015.  Paul Polman, the CEO of Unilever, one of two business delegates in the UN process to develop the new Strategic Development Goals, teed up the sessions with a specially recorded video and his colleague Gavin Neath led the debate.  We had one of the best attendances to date with CEO’s from Accenture, Firmenech, Infosys, Deloitte, Hilti, Tata Group joining senior leaders from Cisco, Shell, Microsoft as well as Sir Mark Moody Stewart who heads up the UN Global Compact Foundation.  The conversation identified five important priorities for Paul to take on board as part of the business input to Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon: (1) Business can use its core value chains to drive development (2) Business also has a key role in providing access to sources of development (e.g.technology), (3) Business can drive resource-efficient growth (4) Eradicating corruption is key to global development (5) Business needs the right goals and platforms to engage with.  This month the IBLF bade farewell to our CEO Clare Melford who has decided to focus on her upcoming role as a mother.  I have enjoyed working with Clare over the past two years and wish her well for the future.

….must remember to put 19th of November in the diary for next year!

It may have gone unnoticed by some that Monday 19th of November was World Toilet Day!  I celebrated by taking advantage of my new-found sanitation expertise (see last month’s post) and joining my friend Peter Piot at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine for a special viewing of their exhibition on the subject.  I must admit that even my constitution was stretched by going from canapes and drinks to handling plastic bowls of live squirming larvae of the black soldier fly – whose interesting dietary habits are one of the natural ways of waste removal being investigated by the school!

Black soldier fly larvae at work on a banana…for demonstration purposes!

Meanwhile over at the Independent Commission this has been a month of report preparation and reviews, as well as another session in front of the Independent Development Select Committee of MPs in the Houses of Parliament.  I joined the head of the Secretariat to discuss our Year 3 programme with the MPs.  We have agreed some important ways to ensure that we keep our agenda of investigations synchronised and there is a particular desire from the IDC to take advantage of our reports before they make visits.  We published a report on the Education aid programmes in Nigeria, which was critical of the delivery of basic education outcomes in this country despite long and significant aid investments.  Our Amber/Red rating garnered significant press coverage.  This assessment was heavily influenced by the evidence we had gained from embedding our review teams in select Nigerian villages to hear the direct perspectives of children and parents.

Lake Geneva – scene of the VC2020 Workshop at IMD

I enjoyed a day in Lausanne helping to co-host a workshop with senior Nestle executives on Measuring the Social Value of Businesses in the future.  This is one of the streams of research being conducted as part of the Value Chain 2020 Programme that I am supporting with Professor Carlos Cordon and others.  We, and the executives from Nestle were joined by several other IMD professors, as well my old friend Gib Bulloch head of Accenture Development Partnerships, to develop and test four scenarios for the future of business and society.  We were back in the land of parallel universes as we pushed the edges of four potential worlds: (1) “Grab” – where business carried on extrapolating its shorter term perspective and operated in a laissez-faire relationship with regulation, (2) “Control” – where the national governments took over and state capital models responded to resource shortages, (3) “Social Regulation” – where the pressures of increasingly informed and concerned consumers drove governments to regulate business in response to resource shortage and climate change (4) “Co-create” – where consumers, business and government interact together in a series of longer term partnerships to promote responsible and sustained growth. As ever one suspects that the real future will be, like the play, a mixture of these alternate realities.  The value for companies such as Nestle is thinking ahead about how to position its business to seize the opportunities and mitigate the risks.

Alex keeping his eye on the ball for Horsley FC

The boys have been in a busy round of sport and parties and Alex has been taking advantage of his new-found driving freedom.  On the soccer front I was part of a heroic fight back from 2-7 down at half time to a 10-8 win in a thrilling 5-a-side Dad’s football match. This month also saw us add to our property portfolio with the purchase of a house in Westminster and the beginning of an extended “project” to transform it into a future base for London living.  As we navigate our way through the joys of Westminster Planning and the myriad of advisors that are rapidly coming on board to help us with structure, design and fit-out it is clear that we are single-handedly doing our bit to kick-start the UK economy.

Our newest project…

Just a few hundred metres from our new house, the UK Government is grappling with a longer and longer downturn and ever more intractable deficit, while the UK’s position in a fragile Europe comes under greater and greater scrutiny. The long awaited transition of power in China has taken place and all eyes are focused on the new team.  It is interesting how much anti-corruption has been stressed in the early rhetoric and the importance of this to holding the current system in place.  President Obama secured a second term and, after a brief “honeymoon” trip to Burma, is back facing the domestic crisis of the fiscal cliff and the foreign policy complexities of intervention in Syria.  Meanwhile this month has seen the latest Isreali-Palestinian flare-up and destabilising moves by President Morsi in Egypt.  Now the world is looking to the US and China to be the main drivers of global growth and hoping that they are not blown off course by some combination of local issues, a turbulent Middle East or a European melt-down.  Just like in the play, there are multiple different ways that this can play out – let’s just hope that some of them have a happy ending!

Autumn sun in the Winterfold Forest

It’s A Dirty Job… But Someone’s Got To Do It – Investigating Latrines in the Congo

Yours truly inside a latrine in Bas-Congo!

This has been a spectacular month of diverse experiences and locations.  I had two chances to take advantage of the hostile environment training which I covered in last months’s note – first there was fascinating week in the Bas-Congo region of the Democratic Republic of Congo reviewing the work of UNICEF in water and sanitation projects – and second there was my son Alex’s 18th Birthday party where some 110 seventeen and eighteen year olds rampaged around the gardens of Winterfold!  Fortunately I lived to tell both tales and was also able to enjoy a great few days in the surf of Devon and some time in Lausanne teaching in an IMD workshop on future visions for business.  This month I joined a new FTSE 250 Board in London.  I welcomed the Independent Commission for Aid Impact to Winterfold for a mini-strategic summit and I returned to Accenture to join the Accenture Development Partnership virtual conference to speak about my experiences with the Commission.

Mum and Dad with Birthday boy Alex – before the mayhem!

Aside from Alex’s party, Sandy and I each celebrated birthdays this month and there was a chance to catch a lively Indian-themed production of Much Ado About Nothing by the RSC with Meera Syal as Beatrice, as well as see our other son Matt follow in the family tradition of dressing up in drag for his school revue.

Matt models a nice little red number at the Cubitt House comedy revue

Meanwhile the world is continuing to feel like it is in a kind of limbo waiting for the next set of strategic tectonic plates to fix into place.  We are catching glimpses of the once-in-a-decade transitions of power in China just as the engines of growth in this vast economy appear to be faltering.  We are also waiting for the extended theatre of the American Presidential election to come to a conclusion with significant implications for the tone of global interactions in the coming period.  The economic signals from both the US and Europe are contradictory and the odd piece of positive jobs or manufacturing news is balanced by evidence of macro slow down across much of Europe as Germany finally catches its euro cold.

Watching surfers catch the October waves from our house in Croyde, Devon

Here in the UK we can apparently celebrate emerging from a double dip recession – for at least this quarter – having benefitted from an Olympics-led bounce.  None of this is yet releasing business leaders from the constraints of risk averse investment strategies and the wallowing markets reflect a lack of clear direction which looks set to last well into 2013.

Children waving me off from a visit to a “Healthy School” in DRC

The highlight of the month was undoubtedly the week I spent in the DRC in my role as Commissioner.  We are conducting a review of the relationship between the UK Aid Agency DFID and UNICEF.  We are looking at the work of the organisations in three countries – Sierra Leone, Ghana and DRC and I, as Lead Commissioner for this report, joined the ICAI team trip to Kinshasa.  The DRC is one of the most fragile and conflict impacted countries in the world and it lies at the bottom of pretty much all development indices.  Some 60% 0f its 60 million people live on less than $1.25 a day and it is off track to meet all the Millennium Development Goals.

A typical Kikongo village in the Bas-Congo Province

The country is rich in natural resources of all kinds but this has only led to repeated periods of civil war, invasion from surrounding countries and generations of despotic leadership.  Just a few months ago there was an incursion from neighbouring Rwanda which resulted in the President Joseph Kabila mobilising the army for battles in the East of the country and tensions remain very high.  As a result my visit was (fortunately) concentrated on the Western side of the country in Bas-Congo which lies three hours outside Kinshasa and borders Angola.

A mother washes herself and her dishes in a stream which has not been managed for hygiene

There is massive endemic malaria, diarrhoea and a current cholera epidemic afflicting the country and less than 50% of the people have access to clean water and less than 14% to sanitation.  While the overall country covers a huge area the size of France and much of the terrain is impenetrable jungle only accessible by air, the Bas-Congo is one of the more easy to travel around provinces and has a large focus on agriculture.   My visit consisted of several days travelling to very poor villages in the region from a base in the town of Mbanza Ngugu.  We bumped down dirt tracks for many hours, slipping and sliding in the ever increasing mud as the rainy season began to kick in.  UNICEF has been funded by DFID to work with the government of DRC to create “Healthy Villages and Schools” or Villages et Ecoles Assainies and over the past four years has been rolling out a programme of well construction, latrine building and health awareness training to some 2,500 villages across the country.

Chairing a village meeting to consult on the effectiveness of the UNICEF programme

Our key objectives were to understand the degree to which the activities were reaching the most needy and in the most efficient way to touch the most people with meaningful improvements.  This mainly involved convening village meetings with the chief of the village and the community committees formed for the programme and as many villagers as possible.  I sat under the trees, using my school-boy French, and worked with local translators of the patois to try to get a clear perspective from the planned beneficiaries.  We delved into the original state of the villages that prompted the activity, how they went about getting support and how well they were sustaining the environment after being certified as a Healthy Village.

A consolidated and improved natural spring with steady flow of clean water – note fencing to keep livestock and people away from the source

Each village visit involved a trek down to the local spring to investigate the work done to consolidate the flow and make it easier to get at clean water.  Pretty much all of these were at least half a kilometre away down slippery well-trodden paths which the women-folk and children of the community take three to four times a day.  The well work itself tends to involve digging back into the source of the spring, creating a foundation of stones to act as a rudimentary filter and placing pipes in a concrete facing and basin to replace the often stagnant pools which villages relied upon in the past.  This basic intervention which includes fencing off the spring area from livestock has a hugely positive impact on incidence of malaria and water-borne diseases.

A “good” latrine with a reusable concrete base, a cover and an ash container for hand cleaning and fly dispersion

The next part of the village visit was a review of the latrines behind each hut – we were looking to understand firstly if the villages had moved away from open bush defecation to the use of latrines, and then to see whether they were using the cleaner and easier to maintain concrete based models or just holes in the ground.  I and the team became experts in latrine construction and evaluation – and I have more pictures of this than I thought possible!  The final part of our rigorous review related to the hygiene practices in the communities.  We checked to see if they had clean water bottles hanging outside their doorways, whether they were using them before eating and after using the latrines.  We also checked whether they were using ash for both hand cleaning (in the absence of soap) and for latrine covering (rather than water) to keep the flies away from the toilets.

A child uses one of the basic water bottle hand cleaning stations positioned outside each hut

We also visited a couple of the Healthy Schools to see how these ideas were carried into the school context.  Again we saw evidence of water storage solutions in each school, new segregated latrines for boys and girls and hand washing bowls outside each classroom.

Taking part in a hygiene and health class in a Healthy School

We joined in hygiene lessons with the children and it was interesting to see how much they had picked up about the importance of healthy living and cleanliness for avoidance of disease.  It was also clear that this next generation were having a big impact on their parents by taking home their lessons.  One boy told me how he shouted at his mother to “lave les mains” before touching his baby sister after going to the toilet!  Ironically one of the challenges of the programme in DRC is that the Healthy Schools are run by the Education Ministry and the Healthy Villages by the Health Ministry and they do not coordinate – so joined-up access to hygiene by parents and their children is a rarity.

Wife of a village chief passionately explaining the transformation in health in her community

The good news from the visit was that we certainly saw evidence that work had been done, changes had occurred and lives had been positively impacted by the DFID-funded UNICEF work.  Our subsequent investigations have centred on the time and bureaucracy of the processes involved in gaining buy-in from the villagers, government alignment and local NGO engagement.  There area huge number of villages and schools in this vast country and the challenges are all around pace of coverage for what are basic but vital interventions.  At the same time it is clear that the sustainability of the solutions is strongly influenced by degree to which the recipients are involved in shaping and directing the activity.

Children still suffering from malnutrition and lack of access to education in many villages

This is a country of such natural richness and vibrant culture it is so sad to see the last relics of colonial infrastructure such as the rail system rotting in sidings and very little investment to really connect the people to enterprise, trade and wealth creation, outside the exploitation by the few.  Even in the relatively affluent region of Bas-Congo there was evidence of malnutrition everywhere we went.  Meanwhile the capital Kinshasa was a frenzy of road building, street brushing and painting in national colours for the upcoming Francophone Africa Conference at which all the surrounding country Presidents were expected.

Luxury – Mbanza Ngugu style – sadly what food there was did not partake in the cabaret!

The trip was also enlivened by staying at a near derelict annex of the only hotel in Mbanza Ngugu – the marvellously named “Poulet Show” – which failed to live up to its billing in two ways – the chicken and chips were invariably cold and there were no dancing chickens in the cabaret.

Alex doing some heavy lifting in Zambia

This month my eldest son Alex also had the opportunity to experience Africa with a trip to a school in Zambia supported by his school.  He did some building work and teaching but, most interestingly, conducted a survey of the children of the community which involved structured interviews.  He was clearly affected by the very difficult life stories of many of the children and their resilience in the face of adversity.  Many were orphaned or had suffered from malaria and other illnesses.

Alex and friends get ready to party….

I was pleased that he had a chance to see outside the bubble of life in leafy Surrey and it was about as big a contrast as one could get to the marquee in the garden of Winterfold and the black tie 18th Birthday party which he and two friends celebrated just a few days before.  The guests were checked in by three bouncers (in case of Facebook leakage!) en route to enjoying the cocktail bar, hog roast and DJ.   Fortunately my hostile environment training was not called upon and we got off pretty lightly with just one minor fight, a fair amount of random vomiting in the bushes and only one case of “mixed doubles” on the tennis court!

…Things getting livelier a little later on…!

Members of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact meeting at Winterfold Cottage

Winterfold Cottage was also host to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and we held a Board meeting and strategy session in the room at the house which I had used over the years for the Winterfold Summits for my management teams at Accenture.   They would have recognised the way the flip chart paper slowly enveloped the room, the way I kept hold of the pen and even the traditional walk in the woods over lunch.  This was an excellent opportunity to reflect upon our learning over the past eighteen months as a Commission and draw out the key areas of focus for the years ahead.  I gave a summary presentation on the work of ICAI to the Accenture Development Partnership annual virtual meeting in my old offices at Fenchurch Street.  In a packed telepresence session which included participants in London, Washington, New York and several other offices we certainly stretched health and safety guidelines with a total group of over 70.  I really appreciated the way we were able to put the ADP ideas around private sector involvement with development in the context of my experiences with a big aid donor and it was good to see friends such as Gib Bulloch and Louise James from ADP and Olly Benzecry, Christina Dyer (and bump) and Claire Allen as I walked the old floors.

Fidessa announcement in the Times – Fame at last…?

This month I also joined the Board of Fidessa – a FTSE 250 software company which serves the global financial services industry with trading systems for equities and derivatives.  They are now the largest UK-headquartered independent software company and I am really looking forward to getting to know both the management team and my new Board colleagues as we navigate what are still volatile times for their customer base of banks and investment houses.  Much to my surprise my appointment garnered a feature as the “Business Big Shot” in the Times.  It came complete with a reference to Lucy Kellaway’s FT piece on me from a few years back  - it is clear that this will haunt me forever – but I guess there are worse things to be infamous for than a poorly written memo!

Autumn Sunset over Croyde Bay