Driving Social Impact, Empowering Women: Thailand Edition
Last month, I was lucky to participate in SAP Social Sabbatical program. This is a program that drives one of SAP’s CSR objectives which focuses on accelerating non-profits & social Enterprises. This is done through a portfolio of global pro-bono volunteering assignments where a team of SAP colleagues works for a month with an on-profit organizations and social enterprise, to help solve some of the challenges they face. The program is carried out with the help of Pyxera global, SAP’s execution partner, which is a global NGO that works on facilitating mutual beneficial partnerships between the public, private and social.
I still remember how nervous and excited I was, when I started the application process; starting with the application form, interviews and finally getting the confirmation that I was accepted in the program. A few months before the beginning of the assignment, we started a series of pre-work calls and assignments to prepare for our upcoming engagement.
Fast forward to February, I arrived at Bangkok, a vibrant city where I worked with an NGO called Wedu. Wedu is an organization that envisions a world where 50% of the leaders are women. They strive to achieve that by offering leadership development and mentorship opportunities through different programs targeting women aged 17 and above. Based in Bangkok and focusing on the Asian market, Wedu has a diverse team that is passionate about increasing the opportunities that Asian women have to enable them to be at the driving seat of their lives.
This experience has so many aspects that were beyond amazing, to name a few:
- The unique opportunity to work with an NGO
We got to take a peek at how they run their organization, what challenges they face and how they solve them. During our assignment, we worked on analyzing a specific customer segment and develop a business case to understand the market potential for that segment. On one hand, it was interesting to work with a diverse team, of which some has left the corporate world behind to work in an organization that brings them closer to their passion. On the other, we were lucky to have the chance to interview a few of the women whom have participated some of Wedu’s programs. Listening to the stories of those ladies, and the impact that Wedu had on their life; was a truly inspiring and humbling experience.
2. Being able to work in a co-working space
Our base for the month was in this very cool co-working space. It was refreshing to be in an environment filled with entrepreneurs and freelancers. It was a nice change of pace to be surrounded by the young and passionate energy, that those entrepreneurs bring to the space.
3. Being in a vibrant new city
While I have been to Thailand before, I didn’t stay in Bangkok for more than a few days, not knowing what I was missing. This time around, I rediscovered the charm that Bangkok has to offer; from the amazing food, laid back vibe, the local markets to the wide range of activities available in the city
4. Working with an amazing global team of SAP colleagues
Whether it is in the smaller team or the big team, this was a great chance to work with colleagues from all over the world and learn from each other. The past weeks were full of memorable moments; dinners, weekend trips, shopping sprees, venturing in the city and so much more which made the month extra special.
As I reflect back on the experience, some of the major learning points were:
- Don’t underestimate what you know
Working with limited resources and on a short timeline, I found myself utilizing so many skills (some of which I might have forgotten) in order to meet the required scope of work.
2. Use the “listen, create, deliver” approach
This was again another great opportunity to utilize the human-centric design approach “listen, create, Deliver”. It is the most organic way to approach an assignment where you collaborate with many departments from the customer to understand their requirements and find the best approach to solving them. We started the engagement by running a couple of design thinking workshops to refine the SOW and identify the different personas that Wedu caters for. Then we went through different cycles of market research, market surveys, validation with Wedu, analyzing current product portfolios, etc.
3. Leverage your network
We are very lucky to live in a time where connecting with people from different places in the world, couldn’t be any easier. There were so many times when I reached out to someone in my network who was more experienced in one of the topics and they were a huge help to me. Hence, whenever you feel a bit stuck, look around in your network and reach out to that person that could give you a fresh perspective on the matter.
4. Work hard, Wander plenty & Enjoy
Although one month seems like a long time, it passed by super quick. Take advantage of the opportunity of being somewhere new, be open to trying new/unfamiliar things and have fun while doing so.
Volunteering has always been a way for me to feel that I have a positive contribution to the community and the rewards always outweighed the time and effort invested. As we get busy in our daily lives, it is easy to get caught up and forget the existence of other realities and how we could have a role to make them better. Yet, if we look hard enough, there are always opportunities to contribute in a way that makes sense to us. This Social Sabbatical experience, was one of the ways to make that contribution and it gave me a real taste of what it means to be a part of an NGO or a social enterprise.
P.S. Wedu is always looking for new mentors, hence, if you are interested to join Wedu’s mentor family, check out their website ( https://www.weduglobal.org/) for more information.
