CDC Blog: Raising money…it’s just the way we roll

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Raising money…it’s just the way we roll

Posted At : February 10, 2010 11:33 PM | Posted By : David Kunzmann

Chloe Booker is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini in September 2008:

One of the ways that Capgemini Consulting differentiates itself is the emphasis placed on people. This is an integral feature of the company and one that is visible throughout the company. One of the most obvious ways to identify this is the preoccupation Capgemini consultants have with raising money for the Prince’s Trust.

There are a whole range of different initiatives that we are encouraged to get involved with as CDCers… mostly consisting of some kind of sponsored physical exertion. Not being much of an athlete, I decided to get involved with Million Makers with a team of five other CDCers. This challenges participants to turn an initial investment of £1,500 into £11,500. It promised to put our business acumen, entrepreneurial assertiveness and team working skills to the test and commenced back in June 09 with a day at ‘Go Ape!’.

For the subsequent six months, we worked together to generate a business idea and turn it into a reality. This required effective team working, project management, marketing strategy and sales. This was all made more taxing by the distribution of team members across the UK and trying to balance this with on top of client and internal work!

The result of our labours was Ad:Vent, an online advent calendar. This provided ‘five minutes of festive fun for a fiver’ throughout December. Individuals paid just £5 for the downloadable application which provided a host of daily fun. They were also entered into a draw that delivered a daily amazing prize to one lucky person. In total we raised nearly £4000…an amount we were really proud of.

It was certainly one of the most challenging things I have done at Capgemini, but also one of the most valuable. It taught me a lot of new things about team working and marketing, but also cemented the training and tools I have been taught. It was also fantastic to witness the amount of support and endorsement we received from within the company….there was even an email circulated by the head of Capgemini Consulting UK to the whole of the business. I think that says a lot about the culture at Capgemini Consulting!