Tuesday evening this week, I just logged out of our 7th pre-work meeting for our social sabbatical assignment to China. The culmination of the 7th pre-work also means our next meeting will be in Shanghai which sums up the heightened anticipation for my most-awaited assignment so far.
Biggest Achievement to date?
I just completed 10 years with SAP a few months back and every year of my association with SAP has been amazing, amidst numerous professional achievements. But, if someone were to ask me a few months back "What is your biggest achievement in SAP", i would have thought out some options from my past records, but if someone were to ask now, what would that answer be?
The ANSWER
To answer the question, I will roll the time little backwards. My first stint with Social Sabbatical program actually started a year back when my ex-manager, Amarnath Jayaraman was chosen for the Social Sabbatical program in Johannesburg. Inspired by his experiences coupled with the fact of what I am going to experience personally and also be part of SAP's Sustainability mission were reasons enough to apply for the program. Right from the nomination, going through the pre-work experiences, interacting with colleagues from across SAP with diverse experiences actually answers the question "unanimously" the question above. It has to be the nomination for the Social Sabbatical Program.
Social Sabbatical
Social Sabbatical started as a pilot project last year with 3 countries from emerging markets.
China has been newly added to the program this year retaining the other countries (South Africa, Brazil and India) from the earlier assignments.
Though we do not have a prior experience of 2012 to fall back on for Social Sabbatical assignments in China, want to share a South African assignment Striving for Women Empowerment – Success story right here in Inner city of Pretoria of last year which our colleagues were part of, an indicator of what the program has achieved last year.
Team China
We are the "Red Lantern" Team standing for Prosperity and Good luck.
We are a truly global team spread across all continents and the 7 virtual pre-work sessions has just made the word global much more smaller.
Over the 7 pre-work calls, the opportunity we got in team building, project and coaching assignments, tips on local culture, social media has enabled each one of us to prepare well enough for China Sabbatical and get a head start on our assignments.
Going forward, i will be updating my blog with frequent updates on our China 2013 assignment and how SAP is creating new environments to help run world better.
Till we meet next week, Zàijiàn.
