Pilotlight broadens your mind
Claire Dobie, director of Braxted Marketing Measures, says working with Pilotlight has broadened her experience of the world and made it seem a wider and more interesting place
What motivated you to get involved with Pilotlight?
It sounded like a well organised way of working with charities. I had known about it for some time through going into Brunswick’s offices – it seemed like a well-backed charity.
How have you helped the charities and social enterprises?
I’ve worked with six, including Centre of the Cell, Fine Cell Work, Unlock and Safeguarding Children’s Services.
I’m always surprised that charities think that Pilotlighters have helped them so much as it seems like a pretty painless way of helping – there is no blood sweat and tears. It requires skills that many business people have already. We help charities by prompting, nurturing and talking about focus – this seems to be the most consistent theme I’ve come across. Charities usually want to do 500 things but only have the resources to do three or four. This is actually pretty similar to business, so the skills transfer easily.
I’ve also helped with marketing, particularly for Fine Cell Work. It has an amazing, charismatic founder who gets a ridiculous amount done for the size of the charity but they needed to focus their energy. We had some very constructive chats about which activities should be continued.
What have you learned from the experience?
It has broadened my experience of the world and made it seem a wider and more interesting place. Working in the City can give you a very narrow focus but through Pilotlight, I’ve learned more about prisons, children who need residential care and mental health issues.
I’ve enjoyed working with founders of charities who are entrepreneurial, risk takers and often over-worked.
The other Pilotlighters on the teams have taught me a lot – I’ve been very fortunate to work with brilliant people, who can follow a thread of conversation and gently but firmly bring it back to the key point. It is a masterclass and I’m not above stealing ideas to help me in my own business. I am now able to adapt my style to different situations, for example, one minute I can be talking to a charity leader working in a tough environment and the next a fixed income trader.
What would you say to other people thinking about becoming Pilotlighters?
Pilotlight provides a very comfortable environment for business people to volunteer their time – meetings start and end on time, they are well organised, with agendas and meeting notes. This is a big selling point. The experience broadens your mind and helps you to develop your own skills.
