Extracting Good from Good Works

Boots and suits Directors, from left, Sahar Hashemi, Ed Butler and Dr. Hugo Slim

PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY PAL HANSEN

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That kind of diversity, however, means CforC teams "look at the world in a new way and can create something new," Slim says. For instance, he adds, "it allows us to think seamlessly about our clients' social and core business interests, recommending community and commercial opportunities simultaneously." Each team is given a mission, resources and a deadline. "Then we let them go and do it," Butler says. Telecom giant Vodafone, which recently bought Ghana Telecom, is using CforC to help it find useful projects in Ghana to get involved in. CforC's team includes an African anthropologist, an academic expert on aid flow in Ghana and a former NGO executive. Says Vodafone chairman John Bond enthusiastically: "CforC works in some extremely difficult parts of the world, and they know what's needed. They're an enormously talented team." There may be a comfort factor too in that CforC is a business for which profit isn't a dirty word. Yet it is close enough to the NGO world to understand the kinds of projects that are most critic-proof.

Its resourcefulness seems to be paying off. As CforC enters its second year, Butler says, its business plan is on track, despite the economic slowdown. Memo to team members: Better keep your boots handy.