From Scotland to South India – supporting SPASTN

Chennai, Southern India may be 7,500 miles away from HBOS in Edinburgh, yet for Craig Guthrie it was skills he’d spent twenty years honing in the UK that enabled him to leave a lasting impression on the Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu (SPASTN)

SPASTN is a multi award winning NGO working hard to empower and enable people with various disabilities, including Cerebral Palsy, to reach their full potential through therapy, education, training and employment. Over the course of four weeks, Craig helped them develop a business strategy for their vocational training unit – Able Art - to shape the services they offered with the aim of making it self-sustaining.

“I’ve never really travelled very far from home before,” admits Craig. “In fact my overwhelming reason to take part in the Discovery programme was because it scared me so much! I thought that if I could complete the assignment successfully, then nothing in my normal working life would ever seem too difficult or different again. Has this proved to be the case? Well yes, since coming back I’ve certainly had to deal with a number of challenging situations that haven’t phased me and I’d say overall I have a lot more self-belief.

“I’m quite analytical by nature but at this stage in my career I’m in a situation where I need to make quick and correct decisions based on the information available to me. The assignment was a fantastic opportunity to test this – a subject I knew nothing about, a completely different environment, a fixed timescale and a clear set of deliverables. All of this meant that I had to rely on my gut instinct and go with what felt right. Overall, I think the lasting memory for me will be the experience of working with people who are motivated by making a tangible difference to people’s lives and not just making money for a big PLC.

“To sum it up, I've been the luckiest person in the world to get the opportunity to participate in HBOS Discovery. Before I went to India I spent weeks trying to come up with any reason not to go, because it scared me so much! If my story has a moral, then I guess it must be this - if you get an opportunity to try something outside of your comfort-zone – go for it! Even if it scares the hell out of you, it might just be the best thing you ever do.”

HBOS Discovery was a leadership development programme organized for HBOS by Emerging World.  Over the course of three years (2005-2008), 23 leaders within the organization underatook four-week assignments with a range of organizations across Southern India.