Thursday was a big day for Ana, Ajay and myself. After a late, late night on Wednesday, we got to work early and used the entire day to get ready for our 80% readout with the CEO at 4:00. We all had separate focus areas and were time-boxing ourselves to ensure we stuck to our schedule to have a deliverable ready for our meeting which was scheduled for 30, maybe 40 minutes.

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About 2:00, we converged to aggregate each our of input and ensure we had a cohesive story with a common look and feel.  We’re representing ourselves and IBM and while our project is extremely accelerated, there is a level of professionalism amongst us that this should be our absolute best work.

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After getting everything together, we reviewed our story again and what we would highlight and breeze through. We practiced our elevator pitch and our 15 and 30 minute versions and were as prepared as we could be. We got the call to our office that the CEO was ready for us, so we went up and were pleasantly surprised with additional members of the leadership team in the conference room.  

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We settled in and put the presentation on the screen and started going through it. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that we had a very good conversation that last nearly two hours.  We were challenged on a few of our findings which we were hoping for to really get into a conversation about our findings and our rationale. This also gave us the opportunity to regroup before our final presentation next week and ensure we are clear in our rationale and implications.

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The CEO specifically told us that he was pleasantly surprised with some of our findings and that they were something that he hadn’t given much thought and that's always a great feeling.

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To this point, we haven’t been given permission to discuss publicly who we are working with, but after our meeting we were given the go ahead to be able to name our host organization. Ana, Ajay and I are very proud to be working with Confédération Générale des Entreprises du Maroc. Founded in 1947, CGEM represents, promotes, and defends the interests of the private sector. We’re thrilled to be working with Khaoula, Fadel and Bouchra and I’m happy to post some pics of our office and where we’re working.

Our goal remains the same, to help CGEM better meet the needs of its members and grow the Moroccan economy.

After the meeting, we debriefed in our office and laid out a plan for Friday. We were going to work with Khaoula, CGEM’s Project Manager, to get into deep detail throughout the analysis.

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First thing Friday, we were met by our IBM Corporate Service Corp teammates where were interviewing one of the senior leaders of CGEM for their analysis and we compared notes.

 

Then, we worked went through the deliverable to make it tighter, answer questions and ensure clarity. Unfortunately, Khaoula will be out next week, our last week on the project, so we sadly said see you later Friday afternoon.

We have a few more days to tighten the deck, but we’re excited. IBM Corporate Service Corp is designed to grow our skills while helping advance society and I’m seeing the fruition of our efforts. The dynamics of our mission seem to be at hyper-speed and our consultative and leadership skills with each other and with our clients have grown substantially in my time here so far.

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Friday night, our coordinator and friend with Pyxera Global, Malika, invited us to her parents’s house. It's about a five minute walk from here and were treated with Moroccan home cooking. We were treated like family with fish, rfissa, salads, vegetables and great conversation! It was a blast and an amazing way to close the week. Many thanks to Malika, her mom and dad!!

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Tomorrow, Saturday, we are going to the P-Tech school in Casablanca and will participate in a community service day. We’re looking to connect with kids and make a positive impact. I’ll post a blog specifically about our day – more to come.