IBM Gets a 4-for-1 in CSR

Global corporations have been sending their top employees to gain experience overseas for decades but IBM has put a new twist on the practice that may change the game.

According to a recent article in the New York Times:

"In July, a team of 8 to 10 I.B.M. employees will travel to Ghana to help tiny businesses make their operations more professional. Another team will help entrepreneurs seek microloans in Turkey, while yet another will create training programs on information technology in Vietnam. Local entrepreneurs in Kumasi, Ghana, will receive training from I.B.M. employees in its Corporate Service Corps program. I.B.M. said it would have 600 participants over the next three years.

The projects, which were devised by I.B.M's citizenship group and are being coordinated through nonprofit organizations, have all the trappings of corporate philanthropy. But that is not why they were created, or how they are being used. 'This is a management development exercise for high-potential people at I.B.M.,' said Randy MacDonald, senior vice president for human resources."

Citizens Development Corporation is one of the newer initiatives from a strong overall research effort IBM has been developing as part of its Corporate Citizenship initiative. You can find a growing list of resources from here and from the IBM Institute for Business Value.

Some of the challenges these IBM employees will face will make the old stint in the London office seem like a cake walk. Allan R. Cohen, dean of the Olin Graduate School at Babson College, says it best in the article: "As a development tool, this is a four-for-one. It's stretching to work in another culture, to work in a nonprofit where the measurement of accomplishment isn't clear, to take a sabbatical from your everyday routine and to learn to accomplish things when you can't just bark orders."

No truer words have been said.

Carla E. Dearing