Singapore - When country communications manager of IBM Singapore, Selvi R., went to the Philippines to provide extensive training sessions for a tourism company in Philippines, Davao Tourism Association, she learnt the importance of balancing work and personal commitments.
Now in its second year, the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) programme is part of IBM's Global Citizen's portfolio initiative, which involves a suite of programmes for IBM employees to enhance their skills to become the next leaders and professionals in the 21st century workforce. IBM employees such as Selvi are sent overseas to work on projects that intersect economic development and information technology in the areas of information technology, business consulting, marketing, finance and supply chain management.
IBM worked on 36 projects last year, helping local businesses, non-profit organisations, and governmental institutions improve their use of new technologies and expand their global reach. This year, they plan to send 200 employees to nine emerging markets.
The Harvard Business School evaluated the CSC programme and found that participants significantly increased their cultural intelligence and resilience as leaders upon completion. There was also improvement shown in their internal business processes and a stronger ability to forge strong partnerships.
"We found that the experience gained by people working in teams on-the-ground in emerging markets made them much better equipped to deal with adversity and challenges - an important factor in today's global age of distributed work, where there is a high level of ambiguity and lack of control," says assistant professor of Harvard Business School Christopher Marquis.
The CSC programme also "gave me the opportunity to work with colleagues from all parts of IBM’s global community, to collaborate and to learn from them - IBMers whom I would not normally get to work with from different parts of the world," says marketing & communications Manager, ASEAN Financial Services Sector, Au Soo Wei.
