Tell us your name and what you do
My name is Tena Pick and I am the Head of Media at C3- Consult and Coach for a Cause.
Tell us about your background
I hold a Bachelors Degree in Entrepreneurial Economics and a Masters Degree in Social Entrepreneurship. Before deciding to focus on social entrepreneurship and non-profit management, I worked for one of the largest Central European banks in their HR department. After finishing my Masters degree, I moved to Dubai and decided to pursue my passion, which is helping organizations and individuals find best ways of creating positive social impact.
What company do you work for?
I work for C3- Consult and Coach for a Cause. C3 – Consult and Coach for a Cause is a UAE-based social enterprise set up to help unlock the potential of Middle Eastern social enterprises and maximize their impact on the community.
What is your specialist skill?
My core specialty is social impact measurement and social business models.
What learning and development strategies do C3 implement?
At C3, we do trainings for two very different groups of stakeholders. Firstly, we need to train our trainers and mentors, who then go and work directly with our entrepreneurs. Even though we are lucky enough to attract top talent when it comes to mentors and trainers, a certain level of training needs to happen because social business might not be something everyone is familiar with. On the second level, we work closely with our entrepreneurs, developing learning strategies that correspond with their needs in any given moment and stage of their career. This we do through one on one sessions and group sessions. One of our most popular learning programs is the Accelerator Program, which brings together mentors and tutors and social entrepreneurs who want to deepen their knowledge of social enterprise and leading experts in the field who are happy to share their knowledge.
Our Accelerator Program focuses strongly on what the entrepreneurs need, not on what we think they need. Because we make sure we are in close contact with our entrepreneurs and get their feedback on our programs, we can make sure we create a program that works for them. That is never easy if the training is targeting a wide range of professionals with different backgrounds, but we try and make sure everyone gets the takeaways they need to, in order to take their business to the next stage. We also partner with leading professionals, who volunteer their time to share their knowledge and make it accessible to our entrepreneurs. A lot of work goes into matching the skills of our volunteers with the needs of our entrepreneurs and we believe that is the key to the success of our workshops and programs.
What do you recommend our readers do with this strategy?
Always make sure you understand the needs of your stakeholders. Best learning programs can fall flat if your target audience has a completely different set our outputs they are looking to get. Take time to collect feedback and include it in the programming. Allow for the attendees to focus on the areas they find important- this works best in smaller groups.
How does your company help organizations?
As mentioned, we aim to help entrepreneurs identify their needs at every stage of their business, from creating the concept and writing the business plan to measuring their impact and scaling to new markets. We bring together volunteers from all walks of life and industries to make sure our entrepreneurs have someone to talk to with great expertise in their respective area, be it marketing or legal advice. We also connect them with other entrepreneurs, help them create a community of like minded individuals that collaborate on making a positive social impact.
How can our readers find out more about C3?
You can visit out website http://www.consultandcoachforacause.com/ and our blog http://consciouscapitalismblog.me/
