Thunderbird School of Global Management-Taiwan Club

In Summer 2011, I was selected to be part of a 5-person team assigned to collaborate with an international NGO and their local partner working on a 5-week, ExxonMobil-funded international development project in Cepu, Indonesia. The project focused on measuring and evaluating the impact that various water purification and cooking stove technologies had on the economic well-being of women living in seven villages surrounding the main oil well in the region. The drilling operation had brought some prosperity to the region, but not enough in the eyes of many villagers. This, along with Exxon’s global CSR commitment promoting women’s empowerment, helped motivate the company to fund an international NGO, Kopernik, to distribute these life-changing technologies to the women, through their local Indonesian NGO partner, Farabi.

Our job, as Thunderbird MBA consultants, was to conduct a series of interviews with women from the various villages, attempting to determine the specific impact the technologies distributed were having on the lives of the various women. In the course of this work, we interviewed women of various economic levels, village chiefs, local Exxon staff members, and a wide range of shopkeepers and employers in the region.

My specific focus was the latter, and I was given access to a translator, car, and Farabi staff member for several days to go out into the various towns and markets in the area and conduct business intelligence about the economic status and employment situation for women in the region. After working with my four teammates for literally 14 hours a day every day for the first two weeks, it was a welcome break to conduct my own project. Moreover, it was a great experience to personally design and implement my own business intelligence survey for the benefit of future Exxon CSR opportunities in the region.

Such responsibility is a big part of the TEM Lab experience. At the end of the day, the challenge of a TEM Lab can be enormous, and there are only 24 hours in a day and only about five people on your team. This workload really helps give each person their own meaningful area of responsibility and growth on the team. For me, it was the role of client communications and my business intelligence project. For others, it was the chance to be in a video that was later featured at a major conference of donors in New York this year. Another team member was given the task of group leader—an incredible responsibility when dealing with five very different personalities all under incredible stress (Indonesia was very hot in July/August, we were in an unfamiliar culture and work setting, we averaged 70 hrs of work the first week alone, and all our work was done through a translator as no one spoke English).

That said, while the work was difficult, and living and working with the same people for 5 weeks in a row was ever more difficult, overall the experience is an invaluable one, and if it is possible, I would urge all current and future students to enroll in a TEM Lab. Not only does it give you the chance to work for a real company with all the expectations and responsibility that comes with that, but it also lets you do so in an unfamiliar environment which tests your limits and abilities beyond a normal 9-5 job. Once again, however, once the project is done, the sense of accomplishment and pride in your work is incredible, and I will never regret the experience.

-Craig Elkin