October 2011

Jailan Adly: ICV Success Factors

Jailan Adly, Program Manager at CDC Development Solutions, traveled with the IBM Coimbatore, India team during their first week on assignment and discussed some takeaways from her trip in a recent blog post. She discusses some factors that can make International Corporate Volunteer programs successful, and it doesn’t necessarily involve working with large NGOs or organizations. “It is not the size of the organization that matters, but the quality of its leadership and services.”

Jailan outlines that the key to ICV success is to partner with organizations “that have the capacity and innovation to capitalize on the resources they receive from their [volunteer] advisors.” Isha Vidhya, Sankara Eye Care Institutions, and Siruthuli are all organizations that were selected to receive assistance from IBM Corporate Service Corps volunteers because they are highly successful in their current scope and have made significant impact in their target communities.

Shaun Doherty: Challenges in Local Supplier Development

Shaun Doherty, Practice Area Leader of Supply Chain Development at CDS, conducted a workshop at the IQPC 7th Annual Local Content Summit in London this past September. Shaun shared his experience in a recent blog post while also discussing some of the challenges that are faced when developing comprehensive supplier development programs.

One of the main challenges Shaun writes about is the extensive collaboration between government, industry, multilaterals, and NGOs that is required for a truly coordinated and impactful program. Shauns writes, "Our example from Angola was that we started talking about a program with the industry prior to 2002 and only in 2005 was it implemented. So over three years were spent getting agreement on a program everyone agreed was critical to the development of the local supplier base."

Triin Visnapuu – MBAs Without Borders

Triin Visnapu recently started her assignment in Marrakech, Morocco to provide advisory services to Al Kawtar, a non-profit association offering embroidery workshops and apprenticeships to disabled young girls and women who would like to learn a craft. Al Kawtar’s primary goals are to provide women with the opportunity to earn a living in a safe environment, to encourage literacy, and to promote overall spiritual and physical well-being of all its members.

As an association, it is difficult for Al Kawtar to provide national health insurance and pension plans for its employees. The organization plans on restructuring as a cooperative closely related with the association and Triin is on site to assist with the transitional period. She’ll develop and implement a strategic plan for the reorganization while also helping to train the employees on how to manage the co-op.

In her first blog post since she has been on assignment, Triin outlines how the organization has grown quickly over the years and why there is a need for a more focused effort on organizational structure and management. She also discusses the optimism, joy, and the excitement for new technologies that her colleagues at Al Kawtar have shown and how they affect her own positive feelings on meeting the challenges the organization faces.

Atmore Baggot – MBAs Without Borders

Atmore Baggot supports the USAID funded SHOPS Project in Paraguay, implemented by Abt Associates Inc. The SHOPS Project, which stands for “Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector” works to involve nongovernmental organizations and for-profit entities in addressing the many health needs of people in developing countries. Atmore’s work focuses on providing technical assistance to two NGO’s in Paraguay and is directly responsible for designing business implementation plans based on market positioning strategies developed by the SHOPS Paraguay team. Atmore works alongside SHOPS and the organization’s staff in the design and initial implementation of these plans and provides strategic guidance and recommendations. Atmore graduated in 2009 from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona with an MBA in Global Management with a focus on economic development finance and a MA in Global Affairs and Management. He currently holds the FINRA (NASD) Series 7 Securities License and NASAA Series 66 Investment Advisor License.

Since he has been in Paraguay, Atmore has been blogging and this month he updated us on his work with Kuña Aty, a “highly respected Paraguayan NGO in Asunción, and one of the leading women’s organizations in the country.” He and the SHOPS Paraguay team have been working to make Kuña Aty sustainable through new data gathering and financial systems along with a work plan around transforming the organization’s business model and better align it with the environment it is operating within.

Tess Smith: Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Tess Smith, FedEx Corporation Manager of Human Resources, talks about the brand new Global Leadership Corps in her BCCCC blog article, “Brazil volunteer experience sparks FedEx Global Leadership Corps.” Tess explores the origins of their ICV program with the pilot program in Brazil accompanying IBM. Discussing how their new ICV initiative is designed as a leadership development program, she also talks about how the positive effects of ICV programs are seen not only in the employees, but in the company as a whole.