| Mick James talks to Craig Gillham, founder of Cape Ventures, who believes consultants can be a force for making the world a better place. |
| Changing the world with many little steps |
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| | By Mick James
I’ve argued in these
pages before that
consultancy is, at least
implicitly, a
progressive force. The
consultant’s remit is,
after all, to make
things better, and while
this remit may be
expressed and measured
in financial terms, it’s
clear that in at least
some circumstances
consultancy could be
characterised as a force
for good: waste
minimisation and
efficiency, for example,
dovetails neatly with
environmental
aspirations, and the
creation of businesses
that are prosperous and
sustainable on an
individual level is the
foundation for a
successful economy.
But what if the
explicit mission of a
consultancy was to be a
force for good? To
engage with clients in
such a way that, not
only did they achieve
their business
objectives, but the | |
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| | world itself became a
better place?
That’s the mission of
Craig Gillham, who
founded his own
consultancy, Cape
Ventures, five years ago
and has been working out
ever since the ways in
which he can make a
contribution to society.
He was clear in the
first instance that, as
a career consultant, the
best way to approach
this was to do what he
does best, consultancy,
and to built a nice,
profitable business
focusing on the energy
and banking industries.
The immediate option
for any successful
businessman is “giving
back”, whether your time
or your money, and Cape
Ventures does indeed
sport a charitable
foundation to which it
donates 20% of its
profits. But Gillham
wants to move beyond
that.
“A lot of companies
do what they think is
politically correct in a
given socio-economic | |
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| | situation,” he says. “It
looks good if you
support green issues, or
if you contribute 1% of
turnover to carbon
reduction, you get a tax
reduction.”
Gillham wants to find
a different way to
operate: “I can create a
profitable business and
use that to drive a
charitable foundation,”
he says. “I want to have
a model where the
consultancy itself is a
product of the charity.”
Gillham says that he
is still learning about
how this model might
evolve.
“How do you sell this
to clients?” he asks.
“You can’t just go in
and say ‘do you want to
give?’ If you get real
value from a
consultancy, does it
make you feel any better
to know that 20% of the
profits go to charity?”
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