Dear friends, family and colleagues,

At the moment of writing this blog I am flying with United Airlines flight 125Y from Amsterdam to Washington Dulles airport at a height of about 30.000 feet. After I have landed in the USA, I will have a stop over and then continue my flight towards my final flight destination of Mexico City. ETA 9pm Mexican time.

If you don´t believe me, check out this picture:

Today August 3^rd 2012 my IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) assignment has finally kicked-off. After a 12 weeks pre-assignment period of conference calls and online training, the real fun is about to commence in the coming 4 weeks I will be in Queretaro, Mexico.

Before I start talking about my actual CSC assignment I would like to briefly tell you something about the IBM CSC program and the city I am located at during my assignment, Queretaro. The information with regard to the IBM CSC program I will provide you with in this blog is derived from the IBM Corporate Social Responsibility report 2009. This will save me some time and it’s probably better explained as well ;). With regard to Queretaro I will take the pencil myself.

So what is the IBM Corporate Service Corps?

The Corporate Service Corps (CSC), often called a “business version of the Peace Corps,” is a philanthropic program that deploys IBMers to help solve complex problems in developing countries. For host countries, it is a chance to benefit from IBM’s expertise in working on economic, social and environmental sustainability challenges. For IBMers, it is a leadership development opportunity like no other. Since the program launched in July 2008, the CSC has deployed more than 700 IBMers from 47 countries on 70 teams to Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey and Vietnam. The CSC experience spans six months: three months of preparatory work completed as a team, virtually, one month overseas and two months post-service. All projects work at the intersection of business, technology and society. “Clients” include entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises, non-profit organizations, educational institutions and governmental agencies.

So how does a typical CSC engagement works?

Early 2009, six IBM executives set off for Vietnam with the intention of helping city planners, entrepreneurs, and NGOs develop a road map for a smarter city in Ho Chi Minh City. The IBM team came from varying geographical and professional backgrounds. Upon arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, the team began a three-week, three-step process of gathering data, framing the problems and crafting recommendations. Under the direction of local leadership at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, the IBMers split into teams and focused on four critical areas of concern for the city: food safety; water management; transportation; and developing

a high-tech ecosystem..

During the first week, each team member spent time building relationships with key stakeholders, and traveling throughout the city and outlying areas to better understand the issues. “In my case, the city was interested in ensuring food quality and safety, and developing a plan for how to respond in the case of a food emergency,” says Michele Grieshaber. “So in that first week, I visited a vegetable farm, a vegetable processor, a seafood processor and exporter, a wholesale market at night, a clam farm, and a shrimp farm. We met the people that are part of the supply chain, we asked questions, and we tried to understand the process and the problems.”

Over the course of the next two weeks, team members spent time researching best practices in other countries, consulting IBM experts in each of their respective focus areas, and presenting recommendations for pilot programs with city experts and officials. They presented the city with specific guidance for how to collect, integrate and analyze information about the various urban systems, and how to view them as one, fully interdependent system of systems. “I think more than anything we were an impetus, a chance for different city departments to come together and view the problems in a new way,” says Grieshaber. “And for me, I came to understand that the problems in Ho Chi Minh City, or Vietnam, are not isolated or unique to this area. These are important parts of global systems. So if Vietnam has a problem, we all have a problem.”

For those who are interested a nice CSC alumni movie of about 3 minutes, follow the below Youtube link:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kPovnNR01I

Queretaro, Mexico

So, now about my CSC assignment in Queretaro, Mexico. Yes Mexico;) A country to which I have never traveled before and therefore I was quit excited when I heard that I was being selected for the IBM CSC Mexico 1 team.  My fellow CSC teammates and I are the first team ever assigned to Mexico. So far only Brazil and Chile were chosen as CSC countries in Latin America.

So when I was told that the city of my assignment would become Queretaro I was very curious to get to know a bit more about Queretaro As I had never heard of Queretaro. Of course we all know Mexico City, holiday places like Cancun, sunny Acapulco but Queretaro……

Let me give you a short update of Queretaro, to be even more precise Santiago de Querétaro (pronounce as K’eretarhu). It is the capital of the Mexican state Queretaro de Artega. This city, which lies at an altitude of about 1800 metres, inhabits approximately 600.000 people, while the whole Queretaro agglomeration accounts for about 1 million inhabitants.

Queretato is located about 200 kilometers NW from Mexico city:

A nice fact to mention as well for all Dutch people complaining about the weather, even during the summer period in Mexico heavy rain can occur on a regular basis. So this also accounts for Queretaro. Thus I will be staying during the wet season, however with an average temperature of about 20-25 degrees Celsius. So rain and shine through the day……

Ok, I think is is enough information for you all to absorb for one blog.

When I arrive at Mexico City I will stay in the ”Grand Prix hotel” and there I will meet my fellow CSC participants during a dinner for the first time. How exciting ;)

Tomorrow morning I will continue my trip towards Queretaro by bus with all CSC participants. Expected 3 hours drive.

From now on I will try to post something (of course only relevant topics..) on my blog every 2 or 3 days so that you all can follow me on this great journey through Mexico and Quererata in particular. 

During the course of this program and my blogging activities I will try to figure out why Corporate Social Responsibility really matters. More on this topic to come, so stay tuned.

In my next blog I will dive into my specific CSC assignment and share some more details with you all.

For now hasta la próxima

Yuri 

#ibmcsc Mexico team 1