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Our Story: Starting an International Corporate Volunteer Program

Our Story: Starting an International Corporate Volunteer Program

Laura Asiala | March 8th, 2012

International Corporate Volunteerism

This guest blog article, by Laura Asiala, Director of Corporate Citizenship, Dow Corning, originally appeared on Dow Corning's Citizen Service Corps website.

I am often asked how the Citizen Service Corps got started at the Dow Corning Corporation.  The truth is that there isn’t one answer.  While many individuals have answers and worked hard to finally bring this idea to fruition, these are my recollections.

In the summer of 2009, then Dow Corning CEO, Stephanie Burns, returned from a meeting at GlaxoSmithKline where she was a member of the board energized by a presentation she had heard regarding their new international corporate volunteer program, PULSE, presented by Ahysia Posner Mencin, Ph. D.  We sat discussing the program and its approach with vice president Marie Eckstein, and I mused, “I’ve often thought a service-learning approach would help us to see opportunities at the ‘Base of the Pyramid.’”  Stephanie turned to me, pointed, and said emphatically, “I want that.”

Um. Ok. (Note:  don’t “bounce” an idea off your CEO unless you have some clue as to how to deliver it). 

I started down the path of the “do it yourself” approach with my colleague, Ed Colbert (director of Talent Management), and ran into quicksand in about 15 minutes.  My first project idea was to partner with a non-profit solar organization with whom we had supported financially.  They were not experienced with using volunteers, and they were off-off-off the grid (days of jeep travel away from the nearest major medical facility).  Ed wondered if we needed to go to the “basement” of the “base of the pyramid” on our inaugural project, and then we made the decision to give the first gift and critical success factor to our program:  Linda Roundtree.

Not only was Linda instrumental in helping craft the guidelines, criteria, and questionnaires which were necessary to operationalize such a program, but she also found a case study on this approach, written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter and published by Harvard Business Review.  It was the “how to guide” to develop and implement an effective, economical, international corporate volunteer program.  We were on our way.

And it was from that helpful guide we found CDC Development Solutions (CDS), and the amazing Kate Ahearn and Deirdre White (among other brilliant staff members there).

I remember my first conversation with Kate around the first of December in 2009. In my experience, whenever anything was too good to be true, it usually wasn’t. But I had talked to Kevin Thompson at IBM who discussed at length the different organizations he had solicited and investigated as they had set up their program, and how successful their Corporate Service Corps experience had been with CDS.  Notably, they were very efficient, which meant the program was affordable. 

The year of 2009 marked the end of a long and successful career at Dow Corning for Marie Eckstein, and her retirement brought with it a re-organization of our department.  “How much do you need for the service learning program (we hadn’t name it yet)?” she asked.  I gave her the answer.  As she made the necessary transitions toward 2010, she gave the second gift and critical success factor to the program: the budget.

By February 2010, I had talked to Kate at CDS a number of times, but I hadn’t actually met her in person. That was until I had an impromptu opportunity to fly to Washington D.C., giving her a less than 48 hour notice. But, it turned out to be a moment of perfect syzygy:  not only was Kate available, but so was Deirdre, Michael Levett (then chairman of CDS) and the managers of their programs in both India and Brazil – our two initial target countries. 

By the end of the day, the most difficult questions (inspired by my worst nightmares) had been answered satisfactorily. We started the process of developing a scope of work and identifying appropriate host organizations and projects.  As it happened, CDS was planning their first conference for International Corporate Volunteerism and invited me to participate. This was the third gift and critical success factor to our program because it was there I met Dr. Phil Mirvis.

Prior to the conference, I had already identified the three objectives which I thought the program would be able to meet synergistically:

  1. Employee and leadership development
  2. Corporate social responsibility (through service)
  3. Business ideation and development

During the conference, however, Phil’s insight impressed upon me two things:

  1. Know your first priority.  Yes, programs like this can meet multiple objectives, but it’s critical to understand what they are in order.  (My very own “Jack Palance” moment—remember “City Slickers”?— only this was with Phil, and without the one-armed push-ups).
  2. Recognize the importance of relationships in all of these efforts, and understand the investment you are making is to develop and secure authentic relationships, because that is what ultimately leads you to the business return.

And our primary objective?  We go back to the beginning: insight for innovation.  As a specialty materials supplier—the people who make the materials which “goes-into” other products—we had no way of understanding a market for which we had no experience, and no way to gain experience, save going there.  As we moved forward with the design, this in and of itself, became a critical insight.  And, that’s where our Citizen Service Corps story begins.

 

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