This is an excellent post by Joe Carter, called How Managers Can Help Save the World.
He notes that most short-term missions trips do not empower those being served or lead to lasting impact because they simply give a fish, so to speak, rather than each how to fish.
Together with this, he notes that one reason for the productivity gap between poor countries and wealthier countries is often overlooked: management practices.
Hence:
A potentially more productive short-term service project would be to use the time to help teach businesses in developing countries how to be more productive. Many of the millions of Americans who go on mission trips have some experience in management, or could at least be trained to teach basic management skills. In many countries the productive gap is so large that almost any knowledge we could pass along could be transformative.
Christians long ago recognized that for long-term spiritual success, missionaries had to train up pastors and teachers from within a country. Perhaps it’s time we applied that same thinking to improving the long-term material success of countries in need. By sharing our abundance of managerial knowledge, we could teach others how to be more productive—helping them create wealth for themselves and their neighbors.
Well said! Read the whole thing. And as a starting point in learning good management practices, the book The First Time Manager is very helpful with many of the nuts and bolts. For a slightly more advanced look, see my article Management in Light of the Supremacy of God.