What does a day as a volunteering ‘Business Mentor’ in Tonga’ look like? Well, it is first and foremost about people – people in business doing business with other people.
I work for an organization called Tonga Skills, and it’s my privilege to partner with a local colleague, who has particular expertise in the hospitality industry. Over the last two weeks, together we visited an initial 20 businesses – across two Tongan islands – which have asked for mentoring support. These businesses are all quite different and range from beach resorts to construction companies, from whale-swim-operators to furniture manufacturers, and from wood carvers to restaurants. While each business has its own set of success criteria, the underlying business principles are very much the same. Over the next two months, we expect a multiplying of requests for our Business Mentoring service, particularly as we plan to travel to Tonga’s other two island groups. I’m sure I won’t be out of work anytime soon!
Of particular interest to me is to understand the underlying reasons why people wish to make their businesses grow or perform better. And these reasons are often very personal and directly connected to their families, their communities, their churches. In the Tongan culture, these are all very much intertwined. Talking with business managers across kitchen tables, boardrooms or Café tables, I hear examples like:
My son wants to join me in my business and I need to increase my sales to provide an income for him.
Or: I never had the opportunity for a proper education. I want to set up this new business so I have the money to send my children to University.
Or: I rapidly need to learn how to manage our family business as it has been handed down to me from the previous generation and I never had any business training.
And these are the reasons, too, why Sabine and I are here on our volunteering assignments. It is our privilege to be involved in these people’s lives and to walk alongside them for a season. We are conscious that our work is unlikely to make much of an impact on Tonga’s GDP figures, but we hope that some individuals, families or communities will be better equipped with some new options in their lives.
I so enjoy reading what you are doing in Tonga. You give us a real insight into your life there and how you can get along side people and help them
It sounds like you will get a good overview of the life of Tonga Rolf. As the months unfold, it will be interesting to see whether any of the family businesses you work with have an indirect impact on any of the families Sabine encounters in her work; maybe through employment prospects, increased income etc. Although you’re coming at it from different angles, you’re kind of aiming for the same results.