IZTEKGEB (Technopark) Innovation Center

This week we received our sub-team assignments and statement of work.  It's nice to finally have at least a little bit of an idea what we will be working on.  Although the scope of work is a bit vauge so I'm still not sure exactly what we'll be doing!

With 15 people on the Izmir team, there are too many to all work on the same project so we've been divided into 4 sub-teams.  My team is Viv (New Zealand), Zoran (Australia), Bharat (India), and myself (U.S.).  Our statement of work is to "Develop the Work Process of IZTEKGEB (Technopark) Innovation Center" at the Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH).

• General assessment of the Innovation Center with respect to different sectors, departments, technological infrastructure and innovation capacity.
• Fulfillment of need analysis of potential clients so as to identify the suitable and efficient services and work process for the Innovation Center. Note that need analysis can be done by organizing a workshop.
• Identification of work processes (including flowcharts) of the center from client reception to end of services. 
• Identification of roles and responsibilities of personnel of departments of the center.
• Development of strategic implementation plan for work processes of the center.
• Identification of financial growth strategy, which will provide a base for the strategic implementation plan of the Innovation Center.

http://www.iztekgeb.com/?title=objectives_and_goals&m=Sayfalar&id=37&ek=1&m_id=9

#ibmcsc Turkey 8

Mavi Hizmet

Our team logo - Mavi Hizmet - Blue Service

#ibmcsc Turkey 8

The Basics

I should probably take a step back and answer 2 basic questions:

1) What is the IBM Corporate Service Corps?

2) What language is Günü Yakala?

1) What is the IBM Corporate Service Corps?

The IBM Corporate Service Corps was formed in 2008 to provide IBMers with international leadership opportunities while solving problems for communities in emerging markets.  Think of it as the Peace Corps for business.  IBM sends its employees to volunteer for 4 weeks in an emerging market country.  The participants get an incredible experience working in a foreign country.  The host organization gets highly skilled volunteers. And IBM gets leaders trained in working with international teams and emerging markets as well as an enhanced reputation in those growth markets.

The CSC application process happens once per year and includes basic information about your performance ratings at IBM as well as 3 essays.  Each year there are thousands of applicants and only 500 people are admitted to the program.  I’ll admit it … I applied in 2008, 2009, skipped 2010 because I was pregnant, and applied again in 2011.  As you can guess, I was finally accepted J That was June of 2011.  Then I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally got assigned to my team in June of 2012.

2) What language is Günü Yakala?

Which brings us to my specific team assignment.  Günü Yakala is Turkish.  We are 15 IBMers from around the world who are all meeting to live and work for 4 weeks in Izmir, Turkey.  I’ll add more about the team and our work assignments in my next post.

#ibmcsc Turkey 8