Mary-Clare Tomes

What I do … 

Strategic planning
I design and facilitate strategic planning sessions that harness the collective knowledge of the participants, to create plans that result in improved business performance.

Planning & Dashboard Creation
With a sound set of objectives and high-level goals now in place, the real challenge is now to implement them. My role then shifts to supporting the team leaders to create clear and realistic project plans that will deliver results. I ensure that the initial momentum for the plans is sustained and potential roadblocks are quickly removed. Together we create a clear and integrated dashboard so that key milestones can be tracked and the overall project monitoring and evaluation is fast and efficient. Through this process, team leaders are up-skilled and gain valuable facilitation and project management experience

Custom Workshops
There is often a need for specific interventions … such as mapping a complex process to identify the bottle-necks, resolving an area of conflict in the organization, or running creative sessions to develop new product.

More about Me …

To take on the role of a strategic facilitator there is no substitute for practical hands-on experience managing and leading diverse groups of people across 27 countries in four continents.

Complex Organisations
The starting point for my career was in the communications unit of the British Government … that provided real insight into how people behave in complex structures, predominantly bureaucratic in nature

New Markets
After a career move to publishing, I relocated to Vietnam in 1995 to set up Oxford University Press in Vietnam expanded operations into Laos, and Cambodia as well as developing the existing markets of India, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Africa
I was appointed managing director of Longman Africa … controlling 11 specialist education publishing businesses in 11 sub-Saharan African countries in 2003.

This was not a typical MD role … the education publishing business in Africa means meeting Government and Education officials on their turf and negotiating deals in different languages, with contractual terms and shipping and logistics challenges that are often unimaginable.

This is where my real passion for strategic facilitation grew and her need to find practical tools that could harness the collective thinking of diverse groups of people.

Leadership Style
My own leadership style strives to blend an un-wavering sense of fairness and a quiet toughness that drives people to deliver what is required of them.

Truck Driving
And to complete the picture … I also spent 3-years as the driver of a 15 ton truck for an Africa overland adventure company. Which I believe has given me a rare cross-section of skills that I still draw on today to get the best out of people.

Contact

Email: Mary-Clare.Tomes@pitch.co.za
Website: www.pitch.co.za
Linked in: za.linkedin.com/in/maryclaretomes