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

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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...
 

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Raleigh 09K Phase 2 - Gravity Water Feed

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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...

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Raleigh Sabbatical - 09K

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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...

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Kinabalu Challenge 2009

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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…

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New Joiner, New Blogger!

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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! 
 

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Delivered!

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Tuesday morning and just pulling into Birmingham, two more stops till I am in Sheffield and on time. I am off up there to meet one of my stakeholders that I have been working with for the last 5 months as we have just finished rolling out a new information platform for them.

The project has not really been a typical project in any aspects. If I had to write down the skills I have used over the past five months it would go onto another page. It developed me as a consultant so much that my team leader has seen me change as a person far more than expected over the period of the project. I have been working with all parts of the organisation, from business change consultants in Capgemini Consulting through to developers in our outsourcing unit.

Working with the variety of people that I am doing has also been a great opportunity for me to decide on a career path post the BTC. I have been on the BTC for roughly 22 months now and had such a varied experience of roles, the exact reason for me joining the BTC. I have learnt something from every role and it’s only now that I have this experience that I can look to hone my skills and look to transition out of the BTC and into another Business Unit.

This is a decision I have to make, but it will really only be the first decision I have to make. As time goes on other opportunities will come up, and in the fast paced environment that we are in I imagine that my career won’t just be a straight ladder to my goals, it will be a climbing frame where there are lots of paths to the top.

This will be my last blog post on here as I move aside for another writer to take my place and allow the opportunity for a new BTC’er to take you through their thoughts as their career progresses.

New Email:
“sorry Ben – off sick today so not going to be able to make the meeting this afternoon.”

Flexible is something you have to be in a role like this, I still need to achieve my target for the day so better get back onto it...

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International Women's Day

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International Women's Day (IWD) has been celebrated since the early 1900's. This year it fell on March 8th and was a holiday in around 20 countries (but not in the UK as it fell on a Sunday!). So what does this have to do with Capgemini and the BTC?

Capgemini has been celebrating IWD this week. There have been various activities, including interviews with a selection of women in Capgemini on our intranet site, e-cards to send to our colleagues and women's networking events. We have a Women's Business Network in Capgemini which holds networking evenings at various times around the year - these include guest speakers - and are a great opportunity to meet and speak to other women in business.

I was fortunate enough to attend a BTC women's networking event this week. There was a a good turnout of female BTC grads, representatives from our Enterprise Architecture business unit and senior management. It was a great chance to catch up with familiar faces and meet some new people. The evening involved listening to experiences of working in both the Architecture area and Capgemini as a whole, and a chance to have conversations with those present. What did we talk about? Well there were a range of issues from architecture through to how we should encourage more women into technology roles. (In case you wondered the general consensus of how to encourage more women into IT was to encourage role models and try to ditch the stereotype of technology being "geeky").

But what are we celebrating? We are celebrating women's achievements in society and the diversity that women bring to the workplace. IWD also celebrates the political and social achievements that women have made over the past century. There are some interesting gender facts at IWD Facts including this one: 'Women's representation in computer and information sciences workforce is around 30% globally', a topic which I have addressed in my previous post on Women and Technology. Currently Capgemini's figure is around 25%, so we still have some way to go to reach the 30% figure quoted.  

IWD is not about saying that men or women are better than each other but rather celebrating that we work together so well. So, for all you guys out there, please don't feel left out, celebrate with us, and remember International Men's Day is only 6 months away!

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Capgemini Raleigh International Event 2008 - grads get their hands dirty for the Awkright Society.

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The BTC (Capgemini’s Business Technology Consulting programme for graduates) have a strong and long-standing affiliation with Raleigh International, a charity focused on both personal development and public regeneration projects in the community. Raleigh organises projects that allow us to "kill two birds with one stone" by taking part in some very effective team working and management training, whilst also doing our part for Capgemini’s Sustainability Programme. For this weekend Capgemini and Raleigh teamed up with the Awkright Society (of Crompford, Derbyshire) to transform a network of run-down footpaths in the local area into an accessible and usable feature for the town.

As well as displaying the integrity of the BTC community, this type of project also promotes Capgemini’s deeply rooted principles of sustainability and social responsibility. It is projects and events just like this one that show our commitment as a company to maintain a strong code of ethics underpinning all of our business practices.

Enjoy the video!

Watch in on Youtube too!

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Between A. Rock and a hard... case.

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A name unfamiliar to many a folk outside the IT profession is Arthur Rock. Arthur Rock, a fairly modest character, came from humble beginnings to invent an industry - an industry which later went on to spawn the likes of Intel, Google, and Facebook. But what makes Mr. Rock so important I hear you ask? Two words, “venture capital” - more specifically, venture capital investments in tech firms.

In this post I’d like to briefly discuss the impact venture capital has had on the tech industry, and talk more about the entrepreneurial spirit Capgemini tries to instil in all of its BTC recruits.

During the “pre-boom period” – a turn of phrased coined by Professor Andrew Metrick - venture capital investments were sluggish and many fund managers would often have portfolios consisting of low-risk, long-term, investments. The five years leading to the bursting of the internet bubble, in March 2000, was a period of unprecedented economic growth within the tech sector. The investments made by venture capital firms were instrumental in the building of companies whose primary goal was to capitalise on the expansion of the internet bubble. And in turn these investment companies were looking to reap the rewards of a substantial initial public offering on floatation. In effect a win-win situation, or so it seemed. As history dictates, the internet bubble burst and many fund managers had to write off bad debts going into the millions of dollars.

But what this shows is that those venture capitalists who invested during the late 1990’s were willing to take a chance, a gamble based on a good idea showing financial gains. And at the helm of every one of these investment firms was a fund manager with an entrepreneurial spirit. A visionary who was willing to take a punt on an idea that showed real potential.  And at Capgemini you’ll find like minded people, senior management who have a vision for the future, people who can differentiate a good idea from an excellent one.

In 2008, John Gillard – the head of the BTC – launched a competition looking for aspiring business leaders to come up with innovative ideas to solve often complex business problems. The competition - which involved a team of four presenting a case - was in a similar style to BBC 2’s Dragon’s Den, and it was called the BTC Challenge. This summer see’s the return of Capgemini’s much praised BTC Challenge, and members of the BTC community have been forming their teams, compiling their ideas, and working on plans of action to win this highly coveted competition.

This year’s theme is based on Software-as-a-Service implementations across the none-for-profit sector. Keep your eyes peeled for updates on the competition and a blog later in the year summarising what went down.
 

 

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Spot the Tourist...

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Capgemini is an international company with over 88,000 employees worldwide, and in working for an international company, even at a graduate level, comes international opportunities.  These fabled roles abroad are not guaranteed whilst on the grad scheme - most of the time it relies on mere chance, one of those ‘right place at the right time’ things, but it does happen; indeed pretty much every grad can name at least one colleague who has been on an international assignment!

In joining the BTC, you will not be promised an international assignment as it is simply too hard to predict; what you will be promised is a week’s worth of training in Les Fontaines, Capgemini’s exclusive university in Chantilly, just north of Paris.  Set in a picturesque 120 acres of woodland complete with lake, the recently rebuilt Chateau (avec turrets!) offers accommodation for up to 300 employees, along with facilities such as a gym, spa, 20m swimming pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and bar.

Sound appealing?  Well, that’s just the start of it…

At any Les Fontaines training event, you can expect around 250 Capgemini employees from all over the world – at the start of the month I had the pleasure of attending one of these events which totalled nearly 300 employees from 23 countries, each bringing a wealth of experience, the openness to share that experience and the eagerness to learn more.  It provides the perfect environment to learn, with small classes facilitated by field experts and interesting and challenging case studies requiring high levels of interaction.

The course I attended is designed to bring every graduate up to the same level of understanding in the technology field, and as this course is mandatory, the BTC can therefore take graduates of all disciplines providing there is an initial interest in technology.

No training would be complete without social activities in the evening, and this extravagant university did not fail to disappoint!   Icebreakers had been planned for every evening; something fun and mentally stimulating to get your teeth stuck into before heading to the bar to philosophise about the development of new technologies with international colleagues of all levels. As for the final night, I will leave you with this picture that barely scratches the surface of the evening activities; something which has fast become the trademark icon of the university…

What a week!

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