The Impacts of Innovation
“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs
Anticipation. Expectancy. Suspense.
I am a lover of travel. Identifying as someone who really LONGS for adventure, I was made to see God’s creation and experience the incredible beauty that exists this side of heaven. There is something inside me that is constantly curious, always looking to discover something new and understand different perspectives. When I am seeing the world, I truly feel more like myself. Knowing the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) experience was going to be stretching, I didn’t know what I was walking into when I was accepted to the program last fall. With that came a sea of emotions, waves of excited anticipation mixed with uncertainty, the joy of fulfilled dreams of working internationally, along with suspense of not knowing exactly what I’m stepping into or if I have what it takes.
Adaptation — the ability to modify or fit into a changed environment; adjustment.
I find that my ability to adapt well benefits me greatly. It’s impossible to be totally “ready” for something like CSC, so a person must go into it knowing you must adapt and give yourself grace to acclimate to a new country, new city and a hundred other “new” experiences you can’t foresee or plan for. Going alone to a continent you’ve never been to, meeting 20+ people you’ve never met in real life but will be working closely with for the next month in a completely new industry and role that you have zero experience in. Yep, that’s pretty much what CSC feels like!
Meeting the Community Challenges:
Why did IBM choose a project in Thailand, and what did I actually do over there anyway? This has been a common question that many people have asked me, and first, I’ll explain a bit more background on CSC program and its overall mission.
Over the last decade, IBM has become the largest corporate assistance program in the world, having sent over 4,000 employees from over 60 countries to emerging markets around the world. Last year alone, IBM CSC deployed 404 IBMers to work on 122 projects in 18 countries. While it is a volunteer program, it is important to note that CSC is a “B2B”, or business-to-business consulting approach, where the focus is put on the empowering the business, rather than directly working with the community or ‘end users’. While working with the community directly can absolutely have great impact and demonstrate immediate results, assisting the host organization to reach its goals and helping them fill in their skill gaps has proven to give lasting impact and results that can be sustained overtime. With CSC’s B2B approach, the host organization can receive the assistance needed to have the ability to serve its own community and make a difference, long after the 30 day CSC program is over. This sustainable way of doing things is what makes CSC social impact on society among the best of volunteer programs out there.
This year IBM worked with Pxyera Global (IBM’s trusted implementation partner) to establish 4 projects in Thailand across 3 different Thai government clients; National Innovation Agency (NIA), Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), and DMS (Department Medical Services). All 4 projects focused on a somewhat of a similar concept — expanding Thailand’s technological capabilities through digital immersion and innovation. All 4 IBM sub-teams were strategically placed in this country to support the vision of Thailand 4.0, an economic model that aims to unlock the country from several economic challenges.
I was selected to be part of the NIA sub-team, an agency under the Ministry of Science and Technology. NIA’s overall mission is to promote the advancement of innovation in Thailand. By fostering a culture of entrepreneurship, NIA focuses on blending people with creative outlets. By keeping the focus on developing it’s people first, NIA continues to work to align their strategic programs in order to stimulate change for quality of life of Thai citizens.
One of the major pillars of the Thailand 4.0 model is to break the low/middle income trap. NIA hosts ‘Thailand Innovative Districts’ initiative, which is focused on creating and strengthening a fundamental workforce for the economy. The vision is to develop 12 innovation districts nationwide to grow the number of Thai technology start-ups and provide a dedicated ecosystem for innovation around the country over the next five years.
First thing our CSC team was asked to tackle — how to establish a development structure for an innovative workforce. Upon our IBM’s team initial encounters with our customers at the NIA, we had the opportunity to review a very detailed Statement of Work describing our geographical area of focus: the Kluaynamthai district of Bangkok.
Kluaynamthai, a district encompassing approximately 400,000 individuals, lies along Chao Phraya River in south-central Bangkok. Geographically, the area has a lot of potential to become an “innovative” district in Bangkok; attracting technological startups, appealing to those of entrepreneurial spirit as well as land developers and investors. Due to Kluaynamthai’s strong potential for innovation, it has become the pilot district for the overall nationwide initiative.
Prior to IBM’s arrival, a great deal of research had been completed by Bangkok University (BU) and it was evident that there is a low/middle income trap in not only Kluaynamthai, but throughout the many districts throughout Thailand. The government programs in place to break people out of this cycle are underdeveloped the people of Kluaynamthai are not able to effectively generate more income to due to a lack of pioneering innovation and inadequate formal mentoring. BU has put a lot of effort into developing a community network to support investor attraction; however, the biggest roadblock to their strategic plan was the lack of data. Strides in door-to-door data collection were made, however insufficient to say the least.
Many critics of Thailand 4.0 say that while the vision is insight — it is not in reach. While some data surrounding the physical infrastructure has been captured (i.e. harbor access, green space and public transportation), NIA’s biggest pain point and concern was that it is simply not enough data to boost innovation. What NIA really needs is more skills data. This data would answer questions such as “What skill gaps exists?” and “What decisions need to be made to bridge that gap?”
The current data collection model is a manual effort of door-to-door surveying is unsustainable, lengthy and extremely restrictive, hence why they called on a team of IBMers. In our deliverables, the IBM team provided NIA a roadmap for a sustainable data management platform to enable their staff to extract insights, identify trends, and support strategic planning. This platform includes data collection methods as well as data management tools and governance solutions.
The Impacts of Innovation
Supporting NIA was a great experience that led me to deeply consider the broader idea of what it means to innovate. Exploring a growth mindset that exposes my inner creativity and expands my mind to limitless possibilities is what being innovative means to me. Now that my CSC experience is over, I intend to lead with “the art of possible”, in not only working with my clients here in the US, but in my daily life.
The intercultural training and global experience has been a significant investment in my leadership development and has led to a renewed confidence in myself as a global leader. That kind of confidence, the kind that comes from stretching beyond my comfort zone by grabbing hold of a new challenge and successfully navigating the experience cannot be underrated.
#CSCThailand3 #ibmcsc
Read my first blog post: “30 days in Bangkok” @ https://medium.com/ibm-csc-thailand-3/30-days-in-bangkok-8e72c94d135d
