Currently...

I am the COO of http://www.seethedifference.org/" title="">See the Difference - a brand new not-for-profit video website where you can choose and see exactly where your charitable donations go – connecting you directly to the people you are helping. We want to make giving social. 

Before I escaped...

Before See The Difference I was at Accenture for 8 years as a Senior Manager in Retail Consulting, although started off as a graduate at Marks & Spencer.

I started thinking about a change in 2006 when I travelled around the world while on 6 months leave from Accenture. I thought I should ‘give something back’ as part of the trip so I tried to teach English in Brazil, however I was pretty hopeless and soon realised that I was not very good at volunteering ‘in the Field’.

In 2009, an opportunity came up through Accenture Development Partnerships to join See The Difference on a 3 month secondment to help getting it set up. It was a perfect role to use my skills effectively in the not for profit sector that would in turn benefit many charities! I subsequently left Accenture in May 2009, continued as a volunteer for 8 months and was then appointed COO at the beginning of this year.

My moment of truth...

To be honest the opportunity to help set up See The Difference came at the perfect time. I was getting bored and needed a change. My motto in life is that things happen for a reason. 

I was hugely inspired by the idea and those involved. It was also a fantastic learning opportunity to start up an organisation from scratch, whilst experiencing the Third Sector and building an online business, all with the backdrop of being not for profit!

Planning for it...

I made sure that my hand was very high in the air when the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy came about, and made it clear that I wanted to make a difference to the charity sector!

The worst and best bits...

Where shall I start....?! Well the best has got to be the autonomy in being a start up compared to the bureaucracy and red tape of being in large organisations. But overall it has to be the pure variety of things I have had to do (and learn!).

From talking to Moses, a doctor in Kenya who cures ‘Jiggers’ (a painful infection in children’s feet) for a small charity called Ace Africa to getting the See The Difference trademark registered, responding to journalist enquiries to analysing the web analytics, taking tweet school for a bunch of city folk to defining editorial standards for charities making films, the list is endless...

As part of a ‘start up’ I have been involved in every aspect of a business operation. But the best part has to be knowing I have been part of creating something new that will engage a younger audience to support many of the different charities that are part of See The Difference, from some of the largest such as Oxfam, Macmillan and NSPCC to those that are much smaller and less well know like Plymouth Music Zone, Hope Foundation and Brathay Trust.

And the worst things (well shall we say most challenging) have been having to set up the infrastructure of an organisation from scratch, having no one to call when the printer gets jammed... oh and mopping the office kitchen floor while Dom our Founder cleaned the toilets! (I am pleased to say we now have a cleaner for the office). But the most memorable has to be when blamed by facilities management for cutting off all communications to a 13 storey building in the heart of the City of London for over 48 hours!

Best advice...

• Leadership is very different to management!
  
• Skills and expertise are way more important that enthusiasm and motivation.
  
• To succeed you need a robust business plan and a definite customer need that you can meet.
  
• And finally, start small so that you can learn from real customer behaviour. Whatever you think will happen is sure to be different so get real data to make better decisions.
  

Useful resources and information...

People have been the biggest help in setting up See The Difference. We are widely supported by a range of senior and influential advisors in technology, media, marketing, charity and finance.

The world is a very small and connected place. Seek introductions to those with expertise who can help you and ask their advice. After all, ‘if you don’t ask you don’t get!’