• Business Technology Consulting Graduate Blog
• Consulting Blog

What’s in it for me?

---

An open sky for graduates to fly in…..

As a graduate from university starts to look for the best fit in tough economic times, the very first question one asks oneself when looking at the potential job market is “How is one company different from the others?” It is the only question that, if answered correctly, determines your path.

Before joining Capgemini as a graduate, I often used to wonder what Capgemini offers that no other organisation does and then I realised that the answer to this question was very simple: Capgemini opens up an ocean of opportunities for graduates.

On my first day at Capgemini I still was not sure of what exactly I would be doing over the following weeks, but at the end of my one week induction, I was informed that I was going to be working in an accelerated delivery centre, Capgemini’s heart of technology advancements. I was amazed when I first came to see what my project area looked like!!!  Sofas, relaxing arm chairs, white boards, a few flat screens and what more, a playing area filled with soft toys. I have got to admit that not all project areas look the same, so don’t be surprised, but that exactly is my point.

Most organisations describe their graduate schemes as varied but at Capgemini, one can easily see the difference. No two days at work are the same. One day you might be troubleshooting an existing problem, whereas the next you could be inventing future technology.

At Capgemini, I seem to have discovered a totally different world of opportunities. I joined the business technology consultancy programme a few months ago realising that it offered a rich combination of both technology and consulting. Graduates here at Capgemini get to work with the latest technology such as cloud computing, web 2.0, virtual desktop integration and many more!

In one word my decision to join Capgemini’s graduate scheme can be described as one of the “BEST” decisions I have ever made in my life so far.

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

A thrilling start to life at Capgemini..

---

As a new recruit to the Business Technology Consulting (BTC) graduate programme at Capgemini one often wonders what to expect as one would do with any new job.  It has already been quite a ride! From starting just over two months ago, I feel as if I have always been here in such a humble, exciting, ever-changing and challenging environment.  After all, there are not many people who can say they have actively been involved in a company allowing you to swim in a pond.

Sounds random? I know.  But it really isn’t! Such has been my experience: I have been inspired, motivated and challenged on every level possible.  Obviously, I haven’t been fully tested yet but the months I have been through have definitely shown that more exciting times are to come.

So, to begin with the first month of nerves, anticipation, excitement and questioning flew by.  Working on my first project in the lovely sunny city of Bath, I enjoyed embarking upon different challenges, meeting new people and embracing a new role.  Working on a content management project was a vastly new experience but was something I enjoyed and will always remember as my first in the company.

Moving on from that, I am currently working at Capgemini’s head office in Woking, enjoying the challenges of project management and support.  This by far is my biggest test yet, everyday brings a new challenge.  So far, working strongly in the finance sector of the project has opened my knowledge to many horizons spreading from the simplicity of business to the architure and art of financial perfection.  But Capgemini isn’t all about work, already in two months at the company, I’ve been challenged with creating a business idea worthy of Dragons’ Den and equally been thrown into a pond of 30 months pollution!

Now, you must be thinkig – what is he on about?  Well, let’s begin with the BTC Challenge.  The BTC Challenge asks the graduates of the present to design, initiate and create a worthy business idea which can be presented to the ‘Dragons’ of Capgemini.  Teams of graduates have been given three months to build a business model worthy of worlwide recognition.  The rewards are obvious: you get exposure to the senior management of the company, the chance to escalate your “home-grown” ideas and the sum of £500 to the best team!  Challenges are ongoing and are in prepartion ready for the dreaded meeting in the Capgemini Den on 11 October.  I’ll be sure to keep you updated!

From the intellectual world of intelligent thinking to the down-right nitty gritty: the BTC Raleigh Weekend.  Every year, the BTC teams up with Raleigh International to send graduates on a mission of exploration, dedication, focus and success.  This year’s weekend brought us to Woodrow High House in Buckinghamshire. This community school has been serving children for years, helping them mature and grow in skills through the most important learning years of their life.  Our job was to keep this consistency going by providing them with a safe environment.

The challenges set by Raleigh were to clear a pond filled with 30 months of pollution, build a shelter for children to use and clear the children play areas of any danger. A weekend of sweaty, devoted hard labour will probably be remembered as one of the best weekends I’ve ever had at Capgemini.  A brilliant captivating weekend working as a team to build your strengths around teamwork, along with fascinating results – this weekend has to be one not to be missed for anyone!  It was a brilliant experience and one I throughly enjoyed to the core.

So, that’s a hectic two months summarised very quickly.  I could have blogged for many more pages to come but I will save the excitement to fill you in on further developments, challenges, desires and experiences to blog in the very near future.  For now, i’ll leave you with the assurance that these first two months have been absolutely mind-blowing!

Comments (2) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Raleigh 10A Expedition Complete

---

I have always been a firm believer that it is great for personal development for one to be pushed well outside of their comfort zone on a regular basis, and so have resolutely defended my life motto, 'the deep end is the quickest place to learn', on many occasions.  Having returned to Borneo as a Project Manager two years under the minimum age limit and being asked to spearhead a brand new trek location, the challenge has been interminable, the personal development ubiquitous and the memories timeless.

 

Although on the surface the new skills and experience gained and honed in the jungle may seem irrelevant to everyday working life, it couldn't be further from the truth, quite the opposite in fact as the more diverse and challenging the environment you learn these new skills in, the easier it is to traverse them to other environments.  Raleigh has pushed me, both mentally and physically, placing a huge amount of responsibility on my head in the process and as such has developed the following skills exponentially:

 

Motivation - to keep a team motivated, you need every member of that team to back the project.  From the first moment after allocations, the project needs to be convincingly sold by the PM, and as problems occur throughout, which they often do, this message needs to be strengthened and reiterated.  As a PM, having passion and pride about pioneering a new trek was infectious and made selling the project elementary

Enthusiasm - the easiest way to keep a team enthused is to remain enthusiastic yourself.  Although this may sound simple, remaining enthusiastic after living in the wet rainforest for three months, overcoming all of the unforeseen problems that arise on a daily basis requires intense willpower and mental rigour

Solidarity – not just promoting solidarity within a group, but initiating it, fostering and developing it, and maintaining it once it is present

Integrity – once a team questions the integrity of a PM, their authority over the team is void, meaning you cannot falter or make a dishonest decision once during the entire 10 week expedition

Health and safety - venturers will always push back on health and safety rules, so having to constantly risk assess everything and enforce the appropriate action requires an exceptionally strong venturer-PM relationship, where mutual respect is paramount

Cultural awareness – being culturally aware of ones actions, teaching this to others and promoting the exercising of these good manners is very important whilst in country

Team management and development – developing a group through team bonding activities can be great fun but requires exceptional energy and enthusiasm

One to one management and development – this is definitely one of the more acute soft skills I have exercised whilst on Raleigh. Developing individuals, unlike the team as a whole, requires excellent perception, self-awareness, focus and commitment; the rewards however are entirely proportional to the time invested and as such this activity was, for me, immensely satisfying

Professionalism – A combination of all of the above, 100% of the time.  Additionally, as a PM you need to be exceptionally clear of the PM-venturer relationship and the boundaries this imposes, and never deviate from these constraints

Consistency – it is all very well listing all of the things you should be and do, but acting in this manner all of the time without a single break for 10 weeks requires real strength of mind and willpower

 

So, after seven months of Raleigh expeditions, I guess the questions I need to ask myself are; have I been pushed to my mental, physical and emotional limits? Has my comfort zone not been seen for so long it is now a distant memory?  Has the experience developed me as an individual? Am I ready to employ these newly developed skills when I return to work to face new challenges?  The answer to all of these, I can safely say, is a resounding ‘yes’, so, the final question that needs to be answered is, ‘was it all really worth it?’

 

I’ll leave you to decide…

 

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Strategy Realisation

---

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Why Technology Consulting?

---

I am nearly close to my destination after a 2 hours journey on a typical Monday morning, and I remembered once more why I chose to be a technology consultant. The main reason is the variety of roles and as a result, the absence of routine.

Comments (1) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Raleigh 10A Phase 1 - Kiulu Valley and Crocker Ridge Trek:

---

Post-expedition blues: a common medical ailment affecting those who have recently completed a Raleigh expedition...

Fortunately for me I have not had the opportunity to experience post-expedition blues as, upon completing the 09K expedition as a venturer, the 10A expedition was upon me and promised to be a huge challenge in comparison.  Following ten weeks of intense work in Borneo completing three project phases (Adventure, Community and Environmental), I have returned to Sabah as a Project Manager to lead trekking teams of up to fifteen 17-24 year-olds through one of the toughest environments in the world; the infamous 100% humidity primary jungle. 

As a venturer in 2009 I had several Project Managers each with substantially contrasting management styles from which I picked up many golden nuggets of advice, such that by the end of the expedition I had a very clear hypothesis in my mind of how I wanted to lead a group in a manner that would be most beneficial to them:

- To earn the team's trust through being socially involved
- To earn the team's respect through leading by example
- To empower the individual, fostering creativity, innovation  and self-belief as a leader - to me this is by far the most important point as being a Project Manager on Raleigh one of your primary goals should be to develop the individual.

This was and still is just a hypothesis that needs to be tested to the point of exhaustion before becoming a solid foundation for me to build upon and develop as a management style.  Every Project Manager needs to find his or her own method of management that feels right, complimenting their own strengths and weaknesses.  Furthermore, the best lessons learned in life often come through the painful process of trial and error, meaning this hypothesis was going to be put to the test in a live and therefore relatively high risk environment and would more than likely need to be drastically adapted on the fly.

The Kiulu Valley and Crocker Ridge trek, to which I was chosen to lead, is a new venture for Raleigh and as such is an honour to be a part of (even if it did involve more paperwork).  The first section of the trek in the Kiulu Valley region is an ideal training ground in the foothills of Mt. Kinabalu, providing exceptionally breathtaking and inspiring views as well as physically and mentally challenging hikes in the heat.  Upon finishing the first part of the trek the team will be shipped off to Mamutik to complete the PADI Open Water course before returning to the dense jungle to traverse a ridge on the aptly named Orangutan Trail in the Crocker Range national park, climbing 500m vertically in an extremely challenging A-to-B style trek over a period of eight days.

Having now completed Phase 1 and received the feedback from the team I can comfortably say that as a foundation my proposed management framework is a relatively stable base on which to build.  Whilst on phase I chose to trial a few additional methods of encouragement, the most effective of which being pride; giving the team a sense of confidence to achieve something great, spurring them on to conquer a huge mental and physical challenge.  Pride has been especially useful this phase in helping the team overcome the several unforeseen problems that the Crocker ridge has thrown at us, including a distinct lack of drinking water, a near miss with a clouded leapord and a formidable nine hour trek.  This method of motivation however is still in its infancy as it has only been trialled once in a the jungle - I will touch on it again in the next blog post at the end of Phase 2 once I have put it into practice with a new group so until then...
 

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Raleigh 09K Phase 2 - Gravity Water Feed

---

Changeover is upon the Raleigh 09K venturers once again and the usual struggle to access the hotel's only computer and landline has commenced. The past three weeks has seen Alpha 2, of which I am a proud member, pushed to their physical, mental and emotional limits in a challenging and exhausting sprint to complete the gravity water feed for Tampasak village.

A gravity water feed, as the name suggests, uses gravity to push water from one end of a pipe to the other, allowing the creators to re-route water from nearby rivers directly to the village. Our gravity water feed was to travel 4.7km from a soon-to-be created damn (110m above sea level), down through the jungle and over a ridge to the village where it would fill six 1,600 litre barrels whose water level was controlled by a float valve. From here a further five 1,600 litre barrels spread around Tampasak village would be connected giving the locals direct access to over 17,000 litres of drinking water, helping them through the dry season which had previously proved challenging.

Moving 4.7km of heavy pipe through the dense Borneo jungle is a pretty tall order, and without the sterling effort and commitment shown by the Sabah Forestry Department, the local villagers and the Alpha 2 teams, the project would never have been completed. Even with so many volunteers, the project suffered continuous unforeseen setbacks and required every ounce of energy, adaptability and motivation to prevent the ever-splitting pipes defeating us.

Having just completed a full phase consisting of 5:45 wake-up calls without a single day off I can safely say that we as a team left Tampasak proud in the knowledge that the infrastructure for fresh drinking water was in place. Raleigh and the Sabah Forestry Department are currently in the process of procuring a pump to siphon the water over the highest ridge and we expect the barrels to be full within the next few days.

To keep up to date on the great work Raleigh is doing in Borneo visit the website here.

Until next time...

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Raleigh Sabbatical - 09K

---

My surroundings have changed somewhat substantially since the last post and I now find myself in a small hotel on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu in Borneo literally absorbing the stiffling heat. The BTC has always offered amazing development opportunitites (Dragons Den and Les Fontaines) but the latest one really does take the buscuit - a seven month sabbatical partaking in two Raleigh expeditions in Borneo, one as a venturer and one as a Project Manager.

As stated, Raleigh pushes people to their limits in some of the most difficult environments in the world, so naturally the interchangeable skills gained here through first hand experience substantially develop you as an individual, both as a team player and a team leader.

I am now entering my fourth week of expedition life and have already spent two weeks trekking through the 100% humidity and leech ridden jungle, culminating in a successful hike to the Sarawak border, making us the first Raleigh team in three years to achieve this. Given you are only as fast as your slowest trekker, a huge amount of effort was employed to keep motivation and morale high, unifying the team and preventing dissent before it could arise. 

This morning I found out my next allocation and will be off to continue building a gravity water feed for a local village that struggles to attain fresh water during the dry season; another amazing opportunity that will not only develop me as a person but also help the local villagers.

Until next time...

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

Kinabalu Challenge 2009

---

In a previous post from almost a year ago, I focussed on the opportunities that are available to you as graduates within Capgemini.  Based on recent activities, I think it only fair that I revisit the subject.

Back in June 2008 I took part in the BTC Challenge, a Dragons' Den style competition where we pitched an idea to revolutionise the way we stream video to portable devices.  On the back of this, our team was given the opportunity to pitch this idea to the COO of a major UK Broadcaster, highlighting at the time just how many opportunities are available and how much faith the company has in its graduate community.

This year, senior management have agreed to fund one team of four graduates from the BTC to enter the Kinabalu Challenge 2009, a gruelling eight day race to the 4,100m summit of Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo.  As part of the challenge we have been tasked with raising £10,000 for the Prince's Trust and Raleigh, two charities focussed on inspiring young people with the self-belief and confidence they need to get involved with their communities, turn their lives around, and help to build a society where people work together and social mobility is real!

It's safe to say that the next four months will be extremely busy in the quest to reach £10,000, and we've already got a lot planned to help us achieve this goal. Take a look at our website detailing past and future events, monitoring our fundraising progress and keeping you updated on sponsorship, our training programmes and everything in between - http://www.borneoforthis.com/

If what I have written has inspired you to do something great for disadvantaged youths, get on to the Raleigh website, watch the video, sign up, and remember; it really does change people’s lives!

£1,633 and counting - sure do have a long way to go…

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

New Joiner, New Blogger!

---

As we are entering the summer, I am currently closing 3 months in Capgemini. Yep, I am a newbie! I am Christina Chrysomallidou (long surname I know), a new BTCer and I am very glad to be given the chance to post my views on the Business Technology Blog. My aim is to provide information about any key technology updates that you can find useful and valuable.

First things first, I would like to talk a little about my educational background. After finishing my bachelor studies in Computer Sciences, I decided that I wanted to learn more about how technology is / should be applied in business environments. Therefore, I did my postgraduate studies in the field of Information Systems and Management. The most important lesson that I took from that course was the value of interaction and communication in all technology projects, small or big, simple or complex.

The next step was of course, to see how technology is applied in action. I joined Capgemini because I believe that technology can help enterprises to improve their performance and to be sustainable and effective. Moreover, I liked Capgemini’s motto ‘Collaborative Experience’; it shows how important in this company is the value of interaction, team working and communication.

So, what about my current project? I am involved in a really interesting initiative which deals with the Innovation Management Process in Capgemini. More specifically, I have the chance to listen to very interesting and innovative ideas brought forward from Capgemini people and see how these ideas are being implemented, either internally (improve our procedures) or externally (deliver to our clients).

Why is innovation important? In the current market conditions, many technology (and not only) enterprises face the dilemma of investing in innovation. People will argue that innovation is a luxury when you are striving to achieve financial robustness. However, innovation can help deliver better services to your clients and be differentiated from your competitors. Innovation can help reduce costs and improve the internal processes. In a summary, innovation can help companies sustain their business performance in the long term. To add more views in these, here are some very interesting articles from Forbes and BusinessWeek, discussing the issue of ‘Innovation during a Recession’.

I hope that you will find my current and future blog posts interesting.
So, until next time then! 
 

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs

More Entries