In less than one week's time, I will have arrived in Calabar, Nigeria after 38 hours of travelling from Sydney, Australia. Landed in a city, country and continent that I have never set foot upon before. Words cannot describe the spine-tingling fog of excitement and anticipation that I am gliding through. This grin cannot be wiped off my face. (Yes, I think perfect strangers walking past me in the last week have been slightly alarmed at my spontaneous deranged smile).
How is it that I have come to start this countdown and what on earth is it that I am doing in Nigeria?
I am actually going to Nigeria for work as part of IBM's Corporate Services Corp. The program is best described by the company itself:
"The Corporate Service Corps (CSC) exposes high performance IBM employees to the 21st century context for doing business --- emerging markets, global teaming, diverse cultures, working outside the traditional office, and increased societal expectations for more responsible and sustainable business practices. CSC participants perform community-driven economic development projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, working at the intersection of business, technology and society."
There are 12 of us in this team - ranging from countries such as Hungary, Germany, USA, Canada, India, South Korea, the Phillipines. We have been divided into smaller teams of two to work on individual assignments. Our main client is the Cross River State Governor and the projects we will be working on are for the Foresty Commission, the University of Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the ICT Department and the Ministry of Agriculture. We have one month to make an impact and produce our final deliverables to our clients. In essence, it is a high level consulting assignment but I won't make many assumptions until I am there listening and learning.
In future posts, I will elaborate bit more about my team and my specific project. We have spent the last 3 months doing the prep work around our statements of work, cultural intelligence and consulting through collaboration tools such as Lotus Connections. It has been incredibly fun, though whilst I am a strong advocate for social media, I think nothing beats meeting someone face-to-face for the first time and putting those photos and voices to a face.
I think I can say, without hyperbole, this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, both professionally and personally. I will make relationships with colleagues from around the world and learn how to make some kind of sustainable impact with limited resources in challenging environments. Most of all, I am really thrilled to have the chance to learn about Nigerian culture, customs, food and getting to know the people. Not in a weird anthropologist way, but in a yay I get to meet new people and try new cuisine way. :) I also hope to be challenged as a human being - it's not the lack of electricity, the cold showers, the lack of motivation that trouble me - it's the fact that 75% of the state lives in poverty and opportunities are limited. What can we do, what can I do as an individual, to help alleviate poverty.
For IBM, the benefits are also abundant - 1. good philanthropist PR image 2. developing staff which boosts morale and retention and 3. which in my personal humble opinion is the most significant long term advantage - build networks, connections and an understanding of clients in these developing markets which will serve well when commercial tenders take place later down the track.
So before I board that flight on Thursday night, I still have mountains of work ahead of me. I haven't even started packing!! And I haven't even mentioned my 2 week holiday in Namibia post-Calabar.... Or the fact that I'm going to Africa during the World Cup!!!! :-)
How is it that I have come to start this countdown and what on earth is it that I am doing in Nigeria?
I am actually going to Nigeria for work as part of IBM's Corporate Services Corp. The program is best described by the company itself:
"The Corporate Service Corps (CSC) exposes high performance IBM employees to the 21st century context for doing business --- emerging markets, global teaming, diverse cultures, working outside the traditional office, and increased societal expectations for more responsible and sustainable business practices. CSC participants perform community-driven economic development projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, working at the intersection of business, technology and society."
There are 12 of us in this team - ranging from countries such as Hungary, Germany, USA, Canada, India, South Korea, the Phillipines. We have been divided into smaller teams of two to work on individual assignments. Our main client is the Cross River State Governor and the projects we will be working on are for the Foresty Commission, the University of Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the ICT Department and the Ministry of Agriculture. We have one month to make an impact and produce our final deliverables to our clients. In essence, it is a high level consulting assignment but I won't make many assumptions until I am there listening and learning.
In future posts, I will elaborate bit more about my team and my specific project. We have spent the last 3 months doing the prep work around our statements of work, cultural intelligence and consulting through collaboration tools such as Lotus Connections. It has been incredibly fun, though whilst I am a strong advocate for social media, I think nothing beats meeting someone face-to-face for the first time and putting those photos and voices to a face.
I think I can say, without hyperbole, this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, both professionally and personally. I will make relationships with colleagues from around the world and learn how to make some kind of sustainable impact with limited resources in challenging environments. Most of all, I am really thrilled to have the chance to learn about Nigerian culture, customs, food and getting to know the people. Not in a weird anthropologist way, but in a yay I get to meet new people and try new cuisine way. :) I also hope to be challenged as a human being - it's not the lack of electricity, the cold showers, the lack of motivation that trouble me - it's the fact that 75% of the state lives in poverty and opportunities are limited. What can we do, what can I do as an individual, to help alleviate poverty.
For IBM, the benefits are also abundant - 1. good philanthropist PR image 2. developing staff which boosts morale and retention and 3. which in my personal humble opinion is the most significant long term advantage - build networks, connections and an understanding of clients in these developing markets which will serve well when commercial tenders take place later down the track.
So before I board that flight on Thursday night, I still have mountains of work ahead of me. I haven't even started packing!! And I haven't even mentioned my 2 week holiday in Namibia post-Calabar.... Or the fact that I'm going to Africa during the World Cup!!!! :-)
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