Leaving a Mark

Habari,

I’ve been a little on edge this week with all of the natural activities taking place back home (Philadelphia, PA).  First there was the 5.8 earthquake which was followed up by the over hyped Hurricane Irene…the hurricane that really wasn’t.  I’ve always poo-pooed the importance of social media and thought people should have better things to do than wonder what everyone else is doing every minute of the day.  But, Facebook was my life line during last week’s natural siege.  All of my peeps back home kept me abreast of how things were going and reassured me that I had nothing to worry about.  My mom and family are fine and my house is still standing.  Whew!

The weather in Nairobi has been pretty brisk.  I’m sleeping under a comforter at night and the morning air is a bit nippy.  I still can’t believe this is the weather in an African country.  The beauty of Nairobi is that it’s elevated like Denver.  It doesn’t have the stifling heat you would expect from an African country.  I’ve been told by the natives that hottest temperature I can expect will be about 85 degrees.  Now I hate to sweat, but even I can tolerate that.  I couldn’t have picked a better African country to do my international assignment.  This week while I was waiting in yet another embassy (this time the Indian Embassy), talking to my Trusted Employee who had accompanied me, I was hit by the magnitude of what we are here to do.

You see, the current IBM team supporting this account represents 22 countries from around the world.  Our mission is to identify local talent and build the skills necessary for them to take over the management and hopefully the growth of this account.  If all goes well, we will all return to our respective countries in two to three years and leave the account in the skilled, capable hands of the locals.  I don’t believe I’ve mentioned it before in this blog, but the revenue for this account is over a billion and a half dollars over a 10 year period.  Master Pu, I don’t believe I’ve let out any secrets by saying this, but if I have, you can strangle me later. J Now, that’s a large account in any part of the world.  Can you imagine what that will do for the local economies of the 16 countries involved in the account?  In Nairobi, there are other major companies, like GE, who are charged with the same mission, so this is an exciting time to be here.

I’m most excited about what we will be able to do for the people of these African countries.  We can provide them with marketable skills and meaningful careers.  Those of you who have known me for some time will know that this is really right up my alley. Talk about leaving your mark.  Now, I will admit that it will be an uphill battle.  Not all of the people I have encountered share the same drive and work ethical of your typical IBMer, but working yourself into the ground shouldn’t be everybody’s goal anyway.  But, we will definitely have to do something about the price you sometimes pay to do business here. LOL

Next week, if the stars align, I will be travelling in India on business.  I’m looking forward to experiencing yet another culture on this wonderful journey.  I can also tell about my encounter at the Indian Embassy.  All I will say is, I miss having the ability to ask to speak to someone’s manager about their performance in an effort to correct their bad behavior.  All I get to do here is be ‘nice and yummy.’  Until next week people…Enjoy it to the fullest.

Asante Sana,

Della Rochelle

Copyright © 2011 by Della Rochelle Williams