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| IBM partners with NGOs and not-for-profit government organizations for its CSC program |
| Announcement / Corporate Nov 13, 2009, 21:31 IST |
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IBM today announced the successful completion of the first two phases of deployment of its Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program in India. Through this program, IBM has tied up with 11 different NGOs and not-for-profit government organizations to bring 40 IBM professionals from 19 different countries to India and work on critical projects for these partner organizations. Mumbai and Ahmedabad were selected as the first destinations in India, when the country was announced as a host for the second phase of IBM’s most competitive global program.
IBM also announced three new cities that will play host to the CSC teams in 2010. These are: Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, and the first batch of around 30 CSC participants from around the world will arrive in February 2010 to work on a number of key socio-economic development projects.
Over the last four months, 40 IBM professionals worked closely with organizations like SEWA, IndiCorps, Tribal Development Department of Gujarat, Ashoka, Friends of Women’s World Banking, India (FWWB-I), Pratham, MITRA, iVolunteer, The Avert Society, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Yuva to implement a variety of development projects. These 40 global professionals were selected after rigorous evaluation process to work with organizations in Ahmedabad and Mumbai on projects that enables the government to improve livelihoods of rural tribal community, increase income safety and security of self-employed women to increasing marketability of a local volunteer program and leverage technology to connect remote locations to centralized information hubs related disaster warnings, weather reports and others.
IBM Corporate Services Corp places IBM’s most highly valued assets, their employees, into emerging and developing countries to address core societal, educational and environmental challenges. It provides international leadership development experiences for IBM employees. It also helps employees develop 21st century skill-set and leadership experience by exposing them to diverse cultures, complex policy environments and changing societal expectations of corporate behavior.
“As a global citizen, we at IBM firmly believe that the challenges facing the world are too critical and far too urgent—and the opportunities to make meaningful progress on them - immediate. We have been able to effectively merge our HR and citizenship strategy to build a comprehensive programme like CSC to address these challenges. The larger objective is to help people become smarter, and to develop future leaders capable of improving the quality of life for themselves and their communities — thereby building a smarter planet,” says Shanker Annaswamy, Managing Director, IBM India Pvt. Ltd.
Into its second year, IBM’s CSC program saw 430 of IBM's future leaders from 44 countries being selected for similar international assignments. In 2009, CSC deployed IBM’s high performing talent in emerging markets such as India, Brazil, China, Malaysia and South Africa to use the skills and expertise IBM employees possess in areas such as information technology, business consulting, marketing, finance and supply chain to work on a variety of socio-economic development projects.
The partner organizations are a key part of the programme’s success, helping to identify the right projects where IBM’s emerging leaders, and the skills they currently possess, can have the most impact.
The projects in India attracted IBMers from Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Peru, Sweden, China, France, Romania, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Finland, US, Netherlands, Denmark and Hungary. Below are some of the key projects that the IBM CSC teams in India were involved in:
MUMBAI
TISS: Working with TISS and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council to design a plan for collecting, processing and marketing ‘Sea-buckthorn’ to create sustainable livelihoods for Ladakh people.
MITRA and iVolunteer: Assisting with developing a strategy on effectively marketing their programs, to local and foreign corporations.
BCCI: Assisting the chamber in developing an MIS that is more dynamic, capable of creating awareness of chamber services to members.
The Avert Society: Conducting an evaluation of the ICT system and to make recommendations accordingly to meet current and future needs based on user complaints of the current ICT system.
Pratham: Creating a new design of ICT/MIS for Pratham that meets its operational needs and its budget and that includes recommendations on training staff in its use and in piloting the system.
Yuva: Developing strategy and related action plan to link and support local savings group for growth, sustainability and local control.
AHMEDABAD
SEWA: Leveraging ICT to enable SEWA streamline its internal process and communication and develop a multiple marketing strategy for SEWA's "RUDI Ben" program.
Tribal Development Department of Gujarat: Improving livelihoods of rural tribal areas in the state of Gujarat.
Ashoka: Developing a strategic plan for incremental housing in the urban slums of Ahmedabad.
Indicorps: Developing a strategic impact evaluation and implementation plan for this NGO.
FWWB: Developing a risk management strategy for FWWB's NBFC to manage risks associated with lending to a wide range of MFIs.
“Corporate Services Corp 2009 is strengthening IBM’s commitment to community development in India and helping IBM India employees fulfill their aspirations. In 2008, 16 IBM India employees travelled to six emerging markets and by the end of early next year 120+ IBM India employees would have traveled to five different locations to assist in solving a variety of socio-economic problems. As part of CSC, IBM plans to deploy about 1500 employees globally over a three year period with the objective of building true global leaders. CSC enables employees to bring different perspectives and expertise to solving problems, as well as encourage interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds and traditions,” adds Julie Coyne, Manager - Corporate Citizenship & Community Affairs, IBM Growth Markets.
IBM Corporate Service Corps is the corporate version of the Peace Corps. More than 15,000 high-potential employees have applied to the program so far and about 750 employees were selected, making this one of the most competitive employee programs ever created by the company.
Corporate Service Corp is a suite of investments and programs to help IBM employees enhance their skills and expertise in order to become global leaders, professionals and empowered citizens in the 21st century workforce. It includes matching accounts for lifelong learning and enhanced transition services to create second career opportunities.
Prior to departure, the IBM teams engage in three months of preparatory work to learn about local customs, culture, language, project goals and the socioeconomic and political realities of their destination countries. An important design point for the program is to provide high performance employees the chance to build networks with people they might never interact with.
At Harvard Business School, Assistant Professor Christopher Marquis studied the impact of the IBM Corporate Service Corps (https://www-146.ibm.com/corporateservicecorps/evaluation) and surveyed 31 of the local "project hosts" to assess their satisfaction with the program. The vast majority cited improvements in their internal business processes and their ability to forge new and stronger partnerships with other private sector, NGO and governmental agencies in-country as a result of their work with the IBM Corporate Service Corps. In addition, the IBM participants significantly increased their cultural intelligence and resilience as a leader as a result of the program.
IBM spends $150 million annually on CSR initiatives worldwide and is in constant lookout for new areas, where a difference can be made.
About IBM
For more information about IBM, go to: www.ibm.com
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