IBM Corporate Services Corps (CSC)

The CSC program is quite unique in that it delivers a triple benefit: high quality problem solving for communities, one of a kind leadership development for participants and enhanced reputation and brand image and market knowledge for IBM. Our team in South Africa is comprised of 14 members who are among 500 participants chosen last year from 7000 global applicants. Originally we were slated for projects in Abuja, Nigeria but security precautions resulted in our re-assignment to the Eastern Cape, a relatively poor province of South Africa. We have been preparing for more than three months with weekly assignments covering such topics as cultural awareness, media training, and consulting methods. Weekly conference calls helped us to get to know our team-mates, coming from nine different countries before finally meeting face-to-face in Jo'burg. Global teaming, working closely with people from many cultures and backgrounds and getting to know them well on both a personal and professional level are important parts of the experience.

Ours is the first CSC team to travel to the Eastern Cape and we are stationed in East London, about 2/3 of the way down the coast of the Indian Ocean toward the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the country. The largest cities are Port Elizabeth and East London which between them host five automobile manufacturers, the dominant industry.

Our IBM contingent has been assigned to four different projects ... two with the Department of Education to  work on an IT strategy and to enhance the Kidsmart program, one to work on leadership development with Fort Hare, the oldest black university in South Africa, and another (to which I have been assigned) with the Eastern Cape Rural Finance Corporation (ECRFA).

Each of us on my project team have different skills although none of us knows the ECRFC core business of providing micro finance loans to the poorest of the rural unemployed. For the first few days we will be sponges, absorbing as much as we can about the client's business and the many challenges they face - even as we build our own team and start really getting to know one another.

The ECRFA team is comprised of Anna (Brazil), Marco (Germany), Jason (Australia) and me (Canada) - so we come from four different continents and are converging to help a client in a fifth continent ... how cool is that?

                                         CSC team with Clients at kickoff dinner, East London