SAP Social Sabbatical for Global Engagement in Kathmandu, Nepal — a playground for Social Innovation towards a Better-Run World
Nearly a year after my last blog post related to the SAP Social Sabbatical, I am back again to write about the magic spell that the SAP Social Sabbatical conjures to make a Better-Run World a reality. This time as a mentor for a magnificent team of 12 colleagues — all top talents and drawn from various lines of business and SAP locations from across the world.
It’s been almost a year back when SAP CSR informed that I will have to mentor the SAP Social Sabbatical for Global Engagement in Kathmandu, Nepal in July 2018. With 6 weeks of weekly preparatory calls leading up to July setting the tone…the team assembled in Kathmandu, Nepal from 7th July 2018. Pyxera Global, our partner for SAP CSR as always took utmost care right from the selection of the social enterprises / NGOs to be part of the social sabbatical projects, organizing the preparatory calls, organizing the required logistics, etc.
After a day full of orientation sessions (including some ice-breakers, session on SAP CSR mission and offerings, session on MBTI Personality types and how to collaborate better)…we had the kick-off on Monday, 9th July 2018 with the 4 social enterprises / NGOs chosen to be part of the SAP Social Sabbatical projects in Kathmandu this year. It was really motivating to hear the stories of each of the 4 organizations …..
Sakriya Sath is an innovative social organization that has been working in various areas of public health. They also work in the area of disseminating of information and providing educational services using digital technology. They are the pioneers in using Radio programs as a mode of teaching and spreading educational awareness.
Antarprerana is a for profit social enterprise that supports entrepreneurs through investment and aims to strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nepal. The company aims to empower entrepreneurs, enhance investment climate, and advance collaborations in Nepal so that there are more and more opportunities created in the country and #WorkInNepal can be realized.
READ Nepal partners with communities in Nepal to empower individuals with the skills, knowledge, and support systems to find solutions to local challenges and thrive and prosper in their own communities. The organization’s proven and replicable model focuses on sustainable, community-owned and managed READ Centers as the launching point for rural, social, and economic transformation.
Association of Youth Organizations Nepal (AYON) is a national network of not-for-profit youth organizations in Nepal. AYON aims to bring youth organizations together to provide a common platform for collaboration, cooperation, joint actions and collective endeavors . It acts as an umbrella organization for 92 youth organizations representing more than 600,000 young people all over the country and functions like an incubator for NGOs. Its aim is to bring together all Nepali youth groups, in order for them to have a single and stronger voice and to take collective action at the local and national levels. Through this platform youths have the opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences in various sectors of Education, Skills development, Gender equality, Sustainability, and to engage in policy advocacy for designing youth-friendly policies and programmes. AYON aims to bring youth organizations together to provide a common platform for collaboration, cooperation, joint actions and collective endeavors.
It was indeed motivating to hear directly from the founders and their teams about the purpose of the organizations and what they are striving to achieve. It was heartening to see that the vision of these organizations are very much aligned what we strive to achieve from SAP — make the world run better and improve people’s lives. It was a great opportunity to address the young social entrepreneurs of Nepal about the SAP CSR mission and our achievements with our SAP Social Sabbatical so far and our other offerings from SAP CSR.
SAP, as a global information technology leader, is committed to the communities in which it operates. SAP’s CSR strategy centers on leveraging the core assets of SAP to help the world run better and improve people’s lives, with a focus on equipping the world’s youth with skills to tackle society’s problems and thrive in the digital economy. SAP supports education and social entrepreneurship to successfully drive sustainable economic growth, innovation and job creation. This is primarily achieved by either building the capacity of innovative social enterprises that put young people on the path to successful careers or by building a skilled workforce for the IT sector with training and workforce development programs.
The SAP Social Sabbatical for global engagement is the signature initiative of global CSR and was piloted in 2012. It is a unique, short term assignment for SAP Top Talents who work in international, cross functional teams to solve business challenges for the entrepreneurial and education sector in emerging markets, while strengthening their leadership competencies, cross industry sector know-how and intercultural sensitivity.
Participants get the unique opportunity to turn SAP’s vision of “helping the world run better and improving people’s lives” into their personal reality.
The unique set up of the Social Sabbaticals creates triple impact, on the clients, participants and SAP, thus demonstrating true shared value:
For participants, they can:
• Develop leadership, cross-cultural as well as entrepreneurial skills and mindset
• Be part of an experiential learning opportunity
• Have the chance to connect with other emerging leaders, which can lead to new ideas and business relationships that can last well beyond the assignment
For clients, they can:
• Extend their organizational development
• Improve staff skills
• Build capacity
• address a strategic challenge
For SAP, it can:
• Extend strategic social investments in key markets
• Learn more about the needs of NGOs and social entrepreneurs
• Support social innovation
• Energize employees who participated in a once in a lifetime experience and turn them into intrapreneurs….and thus positioning as employer of choice
SAP Social Sabbatical participants go through a rigorous application & selection process. A prospective candidate has a strong desire and passion for wanting to make a difference for the organizations they will work with and achieve the best results they can for the organization. They will bring a mindset that they will probably learn more than what they bring to the table. Humility, resilience, adaptability are other key differentiators while determining the candidates for the SAP Social Sabbatical.
This is the first time in Kathmandu for SAP CSR and the first Social Sabbatical for global engagement in Nepal
4 project teams comprising of 3 member each from the 12 member SAP Social Sabbatical team for Kathmandu have started working with the respective assigned organizations in their pursuit of achieving meaningful results over the next one month as part of their Social Sabbatical. It was time well spent on Tuesday 10th July to visit the offices of the 4 organizations and discussing about how they are setup to leverage the expertise of our SAP colleagues participating in the Social Sabbatical over the next 1 month.
Here are some glimpses from the 1st week of the SAP Social Sabbatical in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Looking forward to the SAP Social Sabbatical for Global Engagement in Kathmandu, Nepal becoming a significant showcase for SAP’s promise to help the world run better and improve people’s lives.
Here is a link to a story about my experience as a participant in the SAP Social Sabbatical for Global Engagement in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in April, 2017
and here is a video on the experience.
Here are some more inspiring stories about SAP Social Sabbatical
