International Business Machine (IBM) has successfully completed a program of corporate citizenship activity aimed at helping Cross River State compete in a global marketplace.
A first IBM Corporate Service Corps team completed a month long assignment in Calabar, Cross River State in late September, with a second team completing the work in early November.
The IBM Corporate Service Corps is an initiative designed to provide small businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations in emerging markets with sophisticated business consulting and skills development to help improve local conditions and foster job creation.
Now in its second year, the corporate version of the Peace Corps sends teams of 8-10 top employees from around the world representing IT, research, marketing, finance, and business development to emerging markets for one month. The employees work pro bono with local organizations and businesses on projects that intersect business, technology and society.
“IBM is well known for helping public and private sector organizations and companies around the world to leverage technology to drive innovation and do things smarter. In bringing the Corporate Service Corps Program to Nigeria we are able to offer our wealth of skills and experience to benefit local communities and transfer skills so that they can grow, prosper and compete in a global economy. IBM also benefits from the experience by growing its next generation of leaders with the skills required to lead in a globally integrated world,” said Endy Chiakpo country general manager, IBM West Africa.
The two teams that worked in Calabar consisted of 19 IBMers from 8 countries. The projects included, working with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development to help design an information system for the monitoring and documenting of child and maternal health as part of Nigeria’s first and only social welfare system; helping the Cross River State ICT development department create an information technology framework to manage the state computer network so that 18 different government departments can collaborate more effectively. Others are conducting a feasibility study and road map for an IT park located in the Calabar Energy City; assisting in the planning of an information system for Tinapa, a large scale business and leisure resort and helping TEMPO, a public/private non-profit organization, promote tourism in Cross River State.
“The IBM teams have had a profound impact on the region by bringing highly valued skills on local projects and helping to transfer those skills to emerging centers of business across Africa. The result has been to significantly advance projects that will have a sustained impact in the community and help lay the foundations for a 21st century global enterprise,” said Deidre White, president of the CDS Development Solutions, the Washington-based consultant who has partnered with IBM in this initiative across Africa.
The Nigerian initiative is part of a program of African activity which began in August this year and included 70 employees in 6 teams deployed in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana as well as Nigeria. IBM partners with the non-governmental organization (NGO) CDS Development Solutions to help identify the right projects and local organizations where IBM employees can have the most impact.
The Harvard Business School studied the impact of the IBM Corporate Service Corps 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.
The Corporate Service Corps is part of IBM’s Global Citizen’s Portfolio, a suite of investment programs to help IBM employees enhance their skills and expertise in order to become global leaders, professionals and empowered citizens of the 21st century work force.