TMG Consultancy (TMG-C)

TMG-C Member and Consultant Dr Joe Tabe with engineering trainees in Papua New Guinea

In 2008, TMG set up TMG Consultancy Ltd (TMGC) with a remit to provide consultancy services to key sectors of the developing world using African Diaspora professionals as consultants. For its first 2+ years of operation, TMGC has focussed on knowledge transfer in the areas of Information and Communications Technologies to telecommunications organisations in developing countries. TMGC identifies key areas - often through the help of sector stakeholders such as developing country telecommunications regulatory agencies and funders such as the Commonwealth. Calibre professionals from amongst the Diaspora, found either through personal contacts or professional circles are then recruited as consultants who work with TMGC and trainee organisations to design bespoke training courses. The consultant then travels to the trainee organisation at a mutually convenient time and delivers the training.

TMG-C Director and Consultant Dr S Atungsiri (front centre, dark glasses) with engineering trainees in South Africa (Oct 2009)

Business Process Management

• Project Management
• Human Resource Management
• Strategic Marketing
• Customer Relationship Management
• Product , Services Development and Pricing
• Commercial Dispute Resolution

TMGC also works with regulators in developing countries to help them formulate and develop national ICT policies covering such areas as:

• National Telecommunications Numbering Plan
• National Radio Spectrum Management Policy

TMGC has consultants who live in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa. Why should a Diaspora African be interested in becoming a TMGC consultant? Assignments in the developing country are either one or two weeks long and consultants typically take them during their annual leave from their day job. Apart from financial benefits, consultants therefore also get to go - at TMGC's expense - to some of the most exotic locations in the world. As well as the immense satisfaction one gets from passing their hard earned knowledge and skills to an organisation that is badly in need of such knowledge, consultants also make quality contacts with key professionals in the developing world that may be useful in their own professional development.
What does a developing country organisation gain from working with TMGC? Staff of the organisation work with an expert of a similar background to theirs who typically has a good understanding of the culture and the motivations of the trainees. As one trainee in Papua New Guinea put it to a TMGC consultant - 'Despite speaking in English, I will say you speak my language better than a white trainer because you recognise our experiences since you too have lived them. I have enjoyed this week's training course and gained more from it than in any other throughout my professional life'. In S. Africa where one of our consultants was training trainers for Telekom SA, a young black trainee wrote in his feedback questionnaire: 'Even though the material was difficult, I persevered to understand because I felt that if a fellow black African could so understand it that he is expert in it, then it was within my own reach. You made us so proud when you took patience to explain complicated technical concepts even to our white colleagues'. Another key benefit is of course value for money. TMGC Consultants typically do the work more in the spirit of 'giving something back' than for financial benefit.

TMG-C Member and Consultant Dr Joe Tabe (seated, 5th from right in glasses) with engineering trainees in Papua New Guinea