Corporate Services Corp

MIGE Consulting has taken a look at your current Corporate Services Corp (CSC) program to look for ways to improve the program and how to make it scalable as the program continues to grows.

MIGE Consulting recognizes that this program started as a result of IBM’s quest to become a global integrated enterprise and that IBM sought to find innovative ways to enter new and emerging markets while being socially responsible. The CSC was also a way to create real global professional development opportunities for IBM employees.

Your initial launch of CSC in 2008 was an overall success with the deployment of 100 IBM employees to countries such as Ghana, Vietnam, and Romania. Looking forward MIGE Consulting has found some key areas were the program can improve. However, we would like to recognize parts of the program that has worked successfully and require no (or little) rework and should stay in place.

1) Applicant criteria

2) Partnerships with other global organizations

3) Selection process/leveraging IBM teams globally

4) Pre/post course work

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1) Length of stay: In order to bridge the gap between providing more time to cultivate a meaningful project experience MIGE Consulting recommends expanding the length of international projects to 6 weeks. We are aware that this has been a topic of concern for IBM and a one month overseas assignment is not a enough time for most teams to complete the projects that your global partnerships have identified as a ‘need’. As for the concerns raised by the business lines regarding having their top talent away for so long IBM can use this as an opportunity to cross train and develop other professionals. IBM can implement a Temporary Talent Workforce (TTW) where other professionals in the same (or similar) business lines can temporarily take on additional work done by the professional on the CSC project in an effort to build their business knowledge and to develop professionally. The workload can be split between 1-3 different people depending on the business line’s needs.

2) Locations: CSC has focused on doing projects in emerging and new markets; places where IBM has no strategic business focus. In addition to those markets MIGE Consulting recommends expanding this program to larger markets where IBM already has a presence