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Developing Global Leadership at IBM

White paper describing “How IBM engages the workforce of a globally integrated enterprise.”

Forbes story on New Rules for Global Business Leaders

The Corporate Service Corps was launched in 2008 to help provide IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering high quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. The program empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 – 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four week community-based assignments. During the assignment, participants perform community-driven economic development projects working at the intersection of business, technology, and society.

This program increases IBM’s understanding and appreciation of growth markets while creating global leaders who are culturally aware and possess advanced teaching skills. The Corporate Service Corps offers a triple benefit: leadership development for the IBMers, leadership training and development for the communities, and greater knowledge and enhanced reputation in the growth markets for IBM.

Since its launch in 2008, the Corporate Service Corps has had a positive impact of the lives of more the 140,000 people through skills transfer and capacity building. Many thousands more have been positively impacted through the services of the organizations the Corporate Service Corps has supported. The Corporate Service Corps program has sent over 2400 participants on over 200 teams to more than 30 countries around the world. The participants come from over 50 countries and have served communities in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan , Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam, UAE and Ukraine . The program continues to expand to new locations each year.

Supply Chain Risk for Apple

Is Apple cleaning up its act on labour rights?

Tough production schedules and slim margins lead to poor labour conditions in the electronics industry. Duncan Jefferies asks if progress is being made
See story here

Openness at Tullow Oil

Tullow Opens Up in Coup for Transparency Advocates

TRANSPARENCY

There was a groundbreaking moment this week as Tullow Oil, a London-based, Africa-focused company, disclosed the payments it makes to foreign governments.

In doing so, Tullow, a major player in the push for oil in Uganda, became a pioneer. It is the first oil or mining company to report such payments at a project-by-project level.

As The Wall Street Journal’s Samuel Rubenfeld explains, Tullow laid out what it paid in taxes, license fees, infrastructure improvements and bonuses, as well as voluntary disclosures it made such as the amounts in value-added and withholding taxes it paid per project.

This is the first fruit of a European Union directive approved in June 2013 that echoed and in some cases went further than the U.S. Dodd-Frank Act. All 28 EU member states are required to have project-level disclosure legislation in place by July 2015, so Tullow’s move puts it ahead of the game.

For activist groups such as Global Witness, Tullow’s disclosure puts pressure on its peers and “blows a hole in the argument made by some oil companies that project-level reporting will impose a heavy burden on business.”

Openness at McDonalds

You Want Human Rights With That? McDonald’s Serves Up Due Diligence on Human Rights

By Amol Mehra, Esq., and Nicole Santiago

Shareholders are using their voting power to join the movement for corporate accountability and the most recent company to serve up policies and practices on human rights in its operations may be just around the block.

In January, McDonald’s Corporation released its Report of the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Committee of the Board of Directors of McDonald’s Corporation in response to a shareholder proposal that McDonald’s explain its processes for identifying and analyzing human rights risks related to the company’s operations, products and supply chain. In corporate social responsibility (CSR) terms, shareholders demanded that McDonald’s prove that they conduct human rights due diligence. Referencing international human rights instruments, including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the report outlines how McDonald’s specifically identifies and assesses human rights risks in its operations as part of its broader enterprise risk management process.

See article here

Cross-Cultural Negotiations (in diagrams)

HOW TO NEGOTIATE ACROSS CULTURES

by  on April 2, 2014 in Business Culture, Communication
Understanding how to negotiate in any business setting, around the world, is a fantastic skill. It takes a depth of perception about the people you are working with as well as the business culture you are immersed in.

Communication is the most obvious global communication gap. It’s the first thing we usually encounter, one aspect of personal interaction that poses a clear barrier. Throughout the world, different cultures take a very different approach to negotiations — and a lot of it comes down to how they communicate. British linguist Richard D. Lewis, whose book “When Cultures Collide,” charts these different styles. Lewis himself is an accomplished linguist and speaks 10 languages.

– See more at: http://hyraxllc.com/content/business-culture/negotiate-across-cultures/#sthash.lo5Y8Op3.dpuf

See post here

The Partnering Initiative

The Partnering Initiative is dedicated to driving widespread, systematic and effective collaboration between civil society, government and companies towards a sustainable future.

We have been supporting cross-sector and multi-stakeholder collaborations for over 20 years, promoting partnering standards and improving partnership innovation, reach and impact.

TPI works with all sectors to promote and develop effective collaboration, providing organisational development services, including strategic advice and partnership evaluation, as well as training and capacity building programmes which promote new standards of professional practice. Further we work at the systems level – building the enabling environment and creating platforms to promote and support partnerships to deliver transformational change.

We are committed to capturing our experiences of partnership and developing cutting-edge theory from all our programmes. We continually create and renew our practical tools, processes and approaches which support collaborations reaching their full potential. Our toolbooks, case studies and research papers promote new standards of partnering practice and build practitioners skills and knowledge around the world. These are available to download for free, through the Resources section of this website.

Wherever beneficial, we work in partnership with other organisations to help achieve the greatest impact.

Founded in 2003 as a collaboration between the International Business Leaders Forum and the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, and later run as a programme of IBLF, TPI became an independent, not-for-profit organisation in September 2013.