Ecuador Beckons – It All Begins With An Email

So this is how my story begins.

On 16th August 2016 I received an email at work. Well, I received a few emails at work that day, a bunch of them not worth opening. A typical day. But not so typical, because there was one very unique and special email that arrived.

“Dear Stephen:

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program!

The CSC provides the opportunity for you to transform yourself and hone your global leadership skills, while making a strategic contribution to a community on behalf of IBM. You will join the ranks of over 3,000 IBMers who have described their experiences as life-changing…..”

My story actually started a few months earlier when I chose to apply for CSC, but, given the fact that typically only 15% of applicants are accepted, it wasn’t real for me until that email arrived.

Well, approximately 18 months after the email arrived (i.e. in 4 weeks from now) I’ll be part of an international IBM team that heads to Cuenca, Ecuador for a month. I’ll be working on a project that will support empowering women in Southern Ecuador in order to help reduce poverty in families there. But more about that next time. First of all, let me use today’s post to tell you a little about the IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC).

Some things in life can be win-win or lose-lose or win-lose. CSC is different: it’s win-win-win. The whole premise of CSC is to perform philanthropic community-driven economic development projects, working at the intersection of business, technology, and society. It’s win for the community that receives the benefit of the pro bono work. It’s win for IBM in building its profile in developing countries. And it’s win for those of us who get selected to participate in terms of the professional and personal development experience it offers.

Launched ten years ago, the IBM CSC program has sent over 3000 participants on over 275 teams to nearly 40 countries around the developing world, executing over 1000 projects. As a member of a team of 16 IBMers from 11 different countries who will be delivering 4 projects in small teams of 4, I’m very excited to be part of the next team to go. We’ll be the 4th group to go and work in Ecuador since the program began and we have some very meaningful and valuable work to do. I’ll tell you much more about that in due course.

In the meantime, if you stay connected with this blog you can follow my story as it evolves over the coming weeks. I’m very excited and I’m keen to share it.

Hasta pronto

Stephen

#IBMCSC