So... What am I actually doing in Mexico?

So what exactly am I doing in Mexico with the Corporate Service Corps?

To be honest, I only really found out today...

Queretaro is the second safest state in Mexico, which is obvious when you walk through the tranquil streets. A new governor was elected last month, and one of his goals is to make Queretaro even safer. As a result, many new projects and initiatives are being kicked off, and my team’s assignment has been changed to reflect the new priorities.

We knew we would be doing something with government security, but did not know the details. As a result, we met as a team on Sunday evening to agree a strategy that essentially consisted of asking the client what were the main issues causing them pain and what did they hope IBM could do for them. We then had a ninety minute meeting with the head of IBM in Queretaro, who explained that Queretaro was one of the fastest growing regions in Mexico.

On Monday, our team met the head of the police department and the head of the Public Safety Department for breakfast, and then proceeded to spend yesterday and today grilling them on everything to do with their processes, I.T. infrastructures, and ultimate goals. The police department solve crimes on an individual basis (i.e. incident management), and the Department of Public Safety look into trends and try to prevent crimes from occurring in the first place (i.e. problem management). I can not go into too much detail as obviously the information that was shared is confidential as it relates to public safety and crime prevention, but it became clear that this assignment in Mexico is effectively a pro-bono issue-based consultancy project.

 

I asked the head of the Department of Public Safety what he would choose if we could help with only one area. He replied that he wants IBM to share our expertise and to identify areas of opportunity for how the two departments can share information and work more effectively together in order to make Queretaro even safer. So that is what we are going to try to do.

We have asked for a meeting with the heads of both departments on Friday morning so we can share our initial thoughts and our SOW (statement of work) on what we think we can contribute. This is in order to make sure they are happy with the direction we are taking, and we have asked for a weekly status meeting after that to ensure that they continue to be happy. They could not be more helpful or open with us, which is making our lives a lot easier. The fact that all of our conversations are being conducted via a translator seems incidental.

So that is what I am doing in Mexico…

Helping to end crime in Queretaro…

Sure what else would I be doing on a Tuesday?

Two random thoughts to finish:

* The Mexican people in Queretaro are probably the nicest people in the world. Everybody smiles, except for the statues where everyone looks miserable.

* Apparently for three months I was the Phantom Yawner on our weekly conference calls. No one knew who they could hear yawning, but the fact that the calls were at 05:00 on a Thursday morning for me should have made me prime suspect. I really must learn to use that mute button on calls in the future… 

#ibmcsc mexico1