Unfortunately, we have hundreds and thousands of young adults who lack skill or support to lead a decent life.  I was fortunate to be involved in an organization that supports underprivileged youth set up small businesses with money and mentor guidance.  The mentors are drawn from corporate sector to provide knowledge and skill.   Though some of these young people might have had some basic skill in one aspect of their trade, they may not have many other soft skills that would enhance their employability. This experience gave me an opportunity to understand the gaps in their learning and how as a responsible citizen or corporation we can help these sections of the society progress.   Let me share with you some of thoughts that I have as a result of this engagement and also working with number of NGOs doing excellent work.

Many of these youth take up jobs in these workshops or small businesses to merely get a job to start with and then develop skills.  If you ask any of them what they want to do in the future or what their dreams are, invariably, you hear them saying ‘I want to set up a workshop of my own’ or ‘I want to set up a factory’ or’ I want to become an entrepreneur’.  How do they realize their dream when they have not learnt their skill in a structured fashion in a school, they don’t have a certificate to prove that they have the basic skill of tinkering or welding or family background to approach a bank for a loan or catch up with the developments in their industry /trade?

As a nation we have a large skill gap and need to develop the skills in this section of the society to bring in progress in their lives.  It is just not the skills, but a host of other things that small interventions can help develop the youth as a responsible citizen of this country.  A 17 year old coming from an underprivileged environment hardly has a role model.  The environment at home does not provide the right learning opportunities.  By being part of a structured learning environment, these young people not only learn the skill of their trade, but also how to behave in a group, how to communicate, learn to think differently, dress well and learn to express their thoughts.

I have seen young entrepreneurs grow with mentoring from being self-employed to becoming an employment provider.   These are journeys that they cannot do on their own.  This is where, individuals, corporate, government and NGOs can make a significant difference.   Through corporate volunteer programs, we can help organizations that are engaged in skill development to address the skill gaps.  These engagements will provide them a role model that they so badly lack, direction and opportunities to grow to ultimately contribute to the nation.

Let’s join hands to change lives, and shape India’s future. It’s time to nurture the future. And, the time to act is now.

http://www.indiaonward.com/skills-development/how-can-we-bridge-indias-skill-gap/

By Mamtha Sharma

The blogger is the leader for Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs for IBM in India / South Asia

The project was part of the Corporate Service Corps (CSC), launched in 2008 to help provide IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering high quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. The CSC program has contributed over 1,500 participants on over 150 teams, to more than 30 countries around the world.

This year, till now, there are 920 applications have poured in and the number of applications has been increasing.

Trupty teamed up with IBMers participants from Brazil, Netherlands, Canada, USA, Mexico, Italy, Ireland.

The team also carried out field surveys in the village to gather data for poor people and to provide suggestion on improvements on gathering the data for 4.3 M Households.

Among the recommendations made by the team were:

- Reliable and faster data processing.

- To define an integrated database system.

- To identify suitable technology for implementation of network infrastructure

- To improve staff skills in Information management to  enable them to provide a higher level of service to the community

Suggested recommendations were presented to Secretary Governor of Bandung (Indonesia), the Head of BAPPEDA and the client team. The solutions were greatly accepted and they have ensured to implement.

The field surveys in the village were carried out to gather data for poor people and to provide suggestion on improvements on gathering the data for 4.3 M Households.

While on work the team were taken to the Library where IBM Indonesia donated 6 KIDS SMART computers and team has performed various activities with school children. It was a unique experience interacting with children when neither could understand each others language.

Trupty says, “The overall experience was highly enriching as I got a chance to team up with IBMers with diverse backgrounds to further build and deliver solutions to clients from yet another culturally very rich but a foreign culture.”

This year, IBMers again have got an opportunity to do a Trupty Gautam and make a difference to the community.

Please see the link – http://bit.ly/19i9dpe

Shlok’s primary area of focus is English and Computer Education for rural/semi urban primary school children. Shlok is currently engaged in teaching about 150 primary school students on one day of the week. In its nine months of existence, Shlok has partnered along with leading NGOs like Akshara Foundation to help develop content and curriculum.

The On Demand Community is a great crowd sourcing portal for IBMers who share a similar vision of giving back to the society. Ashwin Natarajan, IBMer and thought leader tried multiple avenues to get volunteers but failed miserably during his first few attempts. “I tried calling all the major corporate houses in Bangalore, to help raise volunteers and support the idea of education in Government school, only to receive  muted or diplomatic responses”, he says. He then opened an ODC page asking volunteers to join the cause, and within the first few months he had a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers from IBM meet him and who set the ball rolling.

So far Shlok, has steadily grown its volunteer base by managing to rope in several IBMers from IBM Bangalore and IBM Chennai and several friends and relatives of IBMers by way of the ODC and internal IBM communications. Shlok is extremely thankful to the internal communication efforts of ODC champions Shobha Mani and Geeta Philip without whose help we would not have been able to spread the message and rope in more volunteers.

We have been fortunate enough to have had access to education and technology during our upbringing that few government schools in rural and semi-urban areas can offer its children. We believe by volunteering time and championing the cause of education in your neighborhood government school, each one of us can make a significant difference supplementing the learning processes existing in these schools. The consequences of our actions may take a while to manifest in real change, but the need of the moment is to act thoughtfully and improve, ideate and collaborate to scale challenges along the way.

If you are interested in signing up with Shlok and championing the cause of education in your neighbourhood, please register on the ODC at the below link.

https://w3-03.ibm.com/communityrelations/volunteer/ccrvol.nsf/WED?OpenForm&3F7FF3D96A321674852579FD0029E4CE&Region=1&Country=5&State=16&City=1&Page=2

Kolkata: This IT executive packed his bag last weekend and dashed off to a tea garden in the Dooars. Nothing unusual for IT employees to cool their heels off, away from the city’s cacophony on weekends. But when Subhadip Mukherjee, the advisory system analyst with IBM, left for the Dooars last Saturday he went down with a mission and bagful of dream for children of tea garden labourers who are vulnerable to trafficking.

Mukherjee was deeply moved by TOI’s report on the missing girls of the tea gardens of North Bengal. Since then the software developer has been trying to chalk out a way to do something for these girls that would keep the traffickers at bay. Mukherjee hired a professional bamboo craft artist from Kolkata and went down to train a group of young girls and boys on making handicraft items. The week long training session is still on.

“Originally, I hail from a place in Budrwan and as a child I would often interact with Santhal people in the area. Their simplicity stuck a cord in my heart and since then I have a special kind of bonding for them. I was upset when I read about the vulnerability of tribal girls of the North Bengal tea gardens in TOI and promised myself to do something for them,” said Mukherjee.

Mukherjee was still wondering what he was supposed to do when he chanced upon a hawker selling bamboo handicraft items in front of the DLF building on way to his office and the hawker was doing god business. That is when the idea struck.

He spoke to the hawker Tapan Sarkar who himself was also the craft man. After working out on the viability with Sarkar, Mukherjee roped in Sarkar to be the trainer. Mukherjee then doled out the fund for Sarkar’s trip, pay for the seven day work and the raw material. The duo left the city last Saturday.

To start with, 20, of them 15 girls and five boys (all teenagers), of Sathkyah tea garden are being trained in the first batch. The likes of Priyanka Minj, Moni Oraon and Victor Lakra who are quick learners are picking up their lessons.

Mukherjee is planning to sell the products by the group through hawkers in Kolkata. Sarkar himself has volunteered to sell some of the products. Once the group becomes sustainable, the IBM executive plans to replicate the model in other tea gardens.

Source: Times of India

How IBM’s corporate service corps solves problems, grows leaders, and builds markets.

By Stanley Litow

Corporate responsibility has its beginnings in philanthropy, which in America has a long history. It began in earnest with individuals of great wealth, such as Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. They amassed outsized fortunes through their business activities and then used that wealth to create foundations to distribute large amounts of cash directed at specific issues they were interested in. Carnegie’s activities in support of public libraries are an example. The philanthropy of these individuals, which has survived for more than a century, is now complemented by Bill Gates and other individuals of great wealth. Foundations funded by great personal wealth can be transformative by providing needed support to worthy causes. But the tradition of amassing personal wealth and then distributing it through foundations seldom has involved incorporating a culture of citizenship and service into business practices.

 Link http://www.thecro.com/content/spare-change-real-change

That began to change in the latter half of the 20th Century, as the nature of corporate leadership began to change—at times under legislative, regulatory, or societal pressure. The practice of “giving back” and engaging with communities to address community concerns eventually became common. Often, this engagement mirrored the private philanthropic model, i.e., creating guidelines for the solicitation of proposals and a decision-making process leading to the distribution of cash. Eventually, corporate citizenship departed from mere philanthropy and affected broader elements of corporate behavior, including environmental performance, supply chain and labor practices, innovation, investments and corporate governance, and the practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate citizenship.

In the 21st Century, these practices have evolved into what some refer to as shared value—connecting societal values to business values in an integrated manner. The end of the first decade of the 21st Century has heralded even more significant developments in corporate philanthropy, as it has been coupled with corporate business practices to reach beyond shared value toward the creation of real and sustained value. This new type of value is created through the connection of a company’s core business strategy to a broader and more comprehensive integration with societal goals such as economic growth, improved educational performance, or sustainability delivered via high performance. A case in point is IBM’s experience beginning five years ago with our Corporate Service Corps and Smarter Cities Challenge programs. But to examine the genesis of this approach, let’s first take a step back.

More Than Money
In the 1990s, IBM (unlike many companies) evolved its citizenship strategy, moving from so-called “checkbook philanthropy” into an integrated approach that included gifts of innovation and technology targeted at specific issues such as educational improvement. Most companies have an interest in education, but instead of simply funding tutoring programs IBM made a 15-year commitment to inventing “Reading Companion,” a new way to teach children and adults to read by using top quality voice recognition software created by IBM Research. As documented by independent evaluators, “Reading Companion” has helped half a million children and adults to learn to read. Access to this free and powerful tool is now enabled by IBM cloud computing technology.

Then, beginning eight years ago, IBM invented “World Community Grid” (as an alternative to donating supercomputers or funding research) to address the lack of infrastructure support for cancer and AIDS research. “World Community Grid” uses grid technology built on millions of individual devices to create a virtual, shared, and scalable supercomputer for humanitarian research. Access is free, and it already is enabling breakthroughs in research efforts related to energy efficiency and environmental sustainability—in addition to combating disease.

IBM’s citizenship innovations combine leading-edge technology and world-class talent, and leverage them against critical societal needs. Our efforts involve millions of dollars’ worth of sustained contributions of time and expertise that produce a “multiplier effect” of service. The result is the creation of sustainable value that is connected to our company’s core competencies—way beyond what could be achieved by simply donating cash. Simultaneously, IBM has broadened its focus to encompass a global perspective, as we connect our work to making markets—especially in the developing world. IBM contributes a greater percentage of its resources to growth markets than any other company headquartered in the United States.

IBM entered the next phase of interweaving philanthropy with business strategy with the 2008 launch of the “Smarter Planet” initiative. More than just advertising or marketing, “Smarter Planet” was a new business model designed to transform IBM from an international company into a globally integrated enterprise. Smarter Planet has inspired major new investments in research to develop and realize the benefits of such breakthrough technologies as big data, cloud computing, mobile computing, cognitive computing and social business. These developments have the power to transform the operations of both public and private enterprises, to help them make smarter decisions based on data analytics, and to make our planet more sustainable. This is where business and societal goals intersect. But to manage a changing world intelligently—to realize the full benefits of innovation—we need to evolve our approach to leadership development.

Leader Generation
The drive to improve leadership development for the globally integrated enterprise takes us back to 2008 and the creation of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC)—an initiative to leverage the expertise of IBM’s top talent to complement our contributions of innovative technology. Thousands of IBM’s top emerging leaders compete each year for coveted opportunities to work on team assignments in the developing world, as we share our best technology and talent in service to solving critical problems. The goal is to transform both leaders and communities.

Case in point: Among 700 projects delivered by more than 2,000 IBMers across 30 countries, an interdisciplinary IBM team in Nigeria’s Cross River State collaborated with the government on a large-scale effort to provide free health care to underprivileged women and children. The societal benefit of this engagement was clear and demonstrable, but the CSC participants also developed new skills in collaboration, teaming and cultural adaptability—skills that will continue to benefit them and IBM long after the conclusion of the project. Corporate Service Corps began with 200 participants per year, expanded to 500 participants after the first year, and in 2010 began to include executives in addition to top-tier employees. The result has been a global magnification of the “triple benefit” of the program—communities have their problems solved, IBMers receive leadership training and development, and IBM develops new markets and global leaders.

Evaluations from CSC participants have been exceedingly strong, and have produced solid metrics documenting the program’s effect on skills development and retention of top talent—at a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches. More than 90 percent of program participants report that the CSC experience has helped them perform their day jobs, and over 80 percent say the experience has dramatically increased the likelihood that they will finish their careers with IBM. A look at the variety and importance of the engagements reveals why CSC alumni are so enthusiastic:

• In Africa, CSC teams have worked with public and private sector entities to address transportation and infrastructure challenges in Kenya, drive strategies to increase awareness for cervical cancer screening and treatment in Ghana, and develop public safety plans in Johannesburg, South Africa.

• In Asia, a team of executives deployed to Ho Chi Minh City to work with the government on food and supply chain strategies to address core growth and competitiveness issues, while another team focused on improving water quality in DaNang. CSC executive teams have worked specifically on projects to help cities become smarter and more effective.

• In Europe and the Americas, CSC teams have helped create new economic development strategies for Milwaukee (built around aquaponic agriculture), addressed public safety issues for St. Louis, worked with Louisville to improve public health, and collaborated with Malaga, Spain on strategies for economic growth.

Urban Intelligence

With several thousand CSC participants going on literally hundreds of team assignments, we decided to take advantage of the program’s global scale and direct some of its transformative power into an initiative focused on cities in both mature and growth markets. In 2011, we announced the 100-city IBM “Smarter Cities Challenge” (SCC)—a program that uses the CSC’s approach of sending teams of top-talent employees and executives to collaborate with civic and community leaders on ways to make cities smarter and more livable. By the end of 2012, IBM had deployed nearly 400 top leaders in teams of six to more than 60 cities from Syracuse, New York to Siracusa, Italy. The results have expanded and sustained the promise of the Corporate Service Corps.

As we’ve moved into 2013, we believe that our Corporate Service Corps and Smarter Cities Challenge efforts have transformed leadership development and delivered the “triple benefit” to communities, individuals, and IBM. If billed at existing rates, the total value of our CSC and SCC engagements would exceed USD$55 million. Moreover, we have extended the influence and heightened the impact of our programs by incorporating service team members from IBM clients such as Federal Express, John Deere, and Shell. These companies now have the opportunity to participate in our high-value corporate citizenship model and realize its concrete results. By sharing these programs with our clients—at virtually no cost to them—IBM delivers value and builds collaborative partnerships that amplify business benefits for all parties.

Far removed from so-called “checkbook philanthropy,” IBM’s corporate citizenship efforts are connected directly to an innovative and sustainable business strategy. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter has characterized IBM’s approach to citizenship as moving us “from spare change to real change” as we create models of public-private partnerships with local, regional and national governments.

Moving forward, IBM’s model for corporate behavior is a scalable approach that can be shared with other communities, governments and other companies. We recently began to focus our innovative citizenship model on helping to strengthen America’s economic competitiveness by forging more direct connections between education and employment. Working with policy experts and high school and postsecondary educators, we developed a new model for career and technical education—a grades 9-through-14 school that confers both a high school diploma and an associate degree in computer technology. The first such school—New York’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH)—acts directly upon the principles of IBM’s “Smarter Planet” and “Smarter Cities” agendas by helping to prepare young people with the skills they’ll need to take the jobs of the 21st Century. IBM developed this innovative approach to addressing America’s skills crisis by using the problem-solving talents of our team, giving of our time and expertise instead of simply writing a check.

So, what lessons can IBM offer other companies as they consider incorporating citizenship into their overall business strategies? First, it is vital that citizenship is regarded in the same light as any other high-yield corporate function. This means that a corporate citizenship function requires clear goals and objectives that are connected to business strategy. At IBM, for example, corporate citizenship is integrated into our company’s 2015 Roadmap.

Second, corporate citizenship needs an implementation strategy that is easy to put into operation. In decades past, people were fond of saying that companies needed to “think globally and act locally.” But in the 21st Century, companies need to do more than think globally. They need to act globally as well, which entails taking a coordinated approach to integrating citizenship with core business functions. At IBM, citizenship is a centralized and coordinated function.

Third, corporate citizenship programs need to have metrics that permit assessment of performance and continuous improvement. At IBM, metrics include citizenship’s effect on talent recruitment and retention, and on the creation of the intellectual capital used to make year-to-year changes.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the incorporation of citizenship into business strategy requires the engagement and support of a company’s senior management and board of directors. Citizenship begins and ends with the company’s CEO, and at IBM this means her full involvement.

IBM was fortunate to receive top honors in 2012 from a range of independent corporate citizenship ratings agencies, including the “America’s Most Community-Minded Company” designation by The Civic 50, the Chairman’s Award from the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), and No. 1 rankings from CERES and Covalence. While such recognition is gratifying, we will never rest on our laurels because innovation—whether applied to business or societal engagement—is not a static concept. Innovation provides the challenge for the next phase of development as we strive to make our planet smarter.

Stanley S. Litow is IBM’s vice president of corporate citizenship & corporate affairs and president of the IBM International Foundation.

Below is the blog link -

www.teamcscindonesia4.blogspot.in

Original video at:
Low resolution: http://youtu.be/q_CiQrbjwOE
High resolution: http://youtu.be/tRfhv7bzY3s

Fleet of 10 cars loaded with 50 enthusiastic IBMers proceeded towards Tapkan, a remotest village in Mewat district, approximately 50 Kms from the corporate/industrial hub of Gurgaon, to experience the real rural India and how a technology enriched organization have made use of common operating machine purposely used to education & research to educate tomorrow’s leaders; an incredible joint effort that touches lives of 500 children every day.

Pleasant climate, rain droplets, chilling breeze, empty roads, panoramic greenery and sky-touching scenic Aravali hills encouraged the drive and added to the expectation of a great day ahead. The very inquisitive IBMers introduced AETNA healthcare process outsourcing team. The IBMers were much ready and eager to learn about their organization’s social engineering initiatives and various facets of development, in the thematic intercession of education, in a region where education is considered an expense. While the 2-hr drive the team was also very interested knowing the fruitful impact and meaningful changes in the lives of children, youths and community at large, making their place in the country.

These 50 IBMers can be titled as the best employee engaging activity for an organization they work for and gives them pride, gratification and honor to be associated with. A reasonably justifiable satisfaction believed to reflect credit upon oneself.

Mr. Ayub Khan, Head Master along with SRFF team & IBMers planned days’ activity and delegated the various teams with respective responsibilities. Set of 10 employees facilitated the painting competition and distributed the stationary to group of 15 children in two sets each.

The employees were very interactive and each of the 10 employees sat with 3 children each as their group among the lot. Interaction went on talking their ideas, understanding their thoughts, which color-pencil-scale to be used and thus motivating them rigorously to win. Children were much pampered and in no-time started sharing, talking & mingling. Few children penned down a colorful tree projecting that if they are not, we are no-where. Others drew tri-colored national flag voicing that this is ours too. And few showcased their own aspiration of a model village community system.

Often, employees were sharping pencils, talking ideas, exploring aspirations in order to chart a master-piece on the paper. Finally 3 boys and 3 girls were selected as ‘Painting Competition’ winners.

The breeze was in the mood, which kept the day going and made a great start for much fun to happen as the children were never so involved. Children resembled as bright sunlight, aspiring to rise from the dark mountains to grow than sky and make themselves worthy. The urban-rural gap was bridged and employees too lived the moment and learned that nothing more in life is crucial than life itself.

Other set of employees enjoyed playing cricket with the middle school children. This sport seemed so secular that people from different creed found enjoying bat-boll and screaming for their team’s victory. They looked-like tomorrow’s Dhoni & Tendulkar. Clouds were dropping down, the air was misty; when in middle of hardly-seen mountains, all that was visible was IBM & SRFF banner voicing up that our relationship serves the neediest. Some of the employees even took the lead on the blackboard; started teaching, rhyming poems and making the children do so.

The best appreciation of all the employees was that they got bifurcated in groups and took the lead of different activities to be done in time-crunched deadlines, talking in their language and simply being a part of them with them.

The final activity of the day was super-exciting as the mid-day meal was replaced with Maggi serving to the children. Employees, teachers, staff, children-they all loved it; and as the rain didn’t halt, so as their excitement. IBMers took the charge and served buckets of Maggi to each student individually and seeing them eat was immense joyful. Their eyes were sparkling and moist with happiness. Children thoroughly enjoyed their ‘New Mid-Day Meal’ with masala of care and noodles of always being there. They were talking among themselves and liked the unusual day.

Towards the end, one of the employees Mr. Ajay, showed a motivational clipping through Avishkar van wherein, a man who is armless, with his sheer dedication is able to make the best of his life; and the morale flooded that if he can, all of us can. Children looked with big eyes, barefoot, half wet, with dreams as high as sky.

The final award-giving exercise to the children was facilitated by Md. Ayub, Head Master of the school and Sarpanch of the school. Mr. Sagnik Kanjilal, Head-DPE, IBM addressed and promised all present for meeting again and for making their relationship work ahead for education transformation.