International Antarctic Treaty Expedition 2009 – Why me? October 22, 2009
Please tell us why you would like to participate in this expedition?
The powerful stories of previous 2041 participants have inspired many young people around the world including me, to work towards a sustainable present and future. As a young Indian, I consider myself extremely lucky to have the education and opportunity to be able to understand my role in a green future and do something about it individually and collectively.
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it” Robert Swan OBE.
This describes a large number of Indians. There are other people working to mitigate climate change, and anyway it doesn’t affect anything major in my lifetime so why really bother? I used to be one of these people. It’s been a while since I realized that there can’t be no “someone else” saving the planet. It’s either all of us in it together or nothing.
Everyday India’s role in climate change becomes more urgent. As a global citizen and a patriotic Indian I want to play a role in ensuring that the present and future generations understand the behavioral and lifestyle shifts needed save planet Earth from the threat of climate change. One objective of applying to participate in IATE 2009 was to be able to give these ideas a tangible form.
My ambition is to start up in the near future. At present I’m exploring different business ideas all of which have some common features – Social impact, sustainable, international, creative and young. This expedition gives me the perfect opportunity to explore business ideas in the energy space and build a network of peers and mentors to support me in executing the business plan.
Through my previous experiences in AIESEC I have been able to develop a network of young people around the world who want to play a leading role in social issues, climate change being foremost. The most effective way to mobilize an individual or network to action is through a powerful story. I hope to make my IATE 2009 story a powerful one that reaches young people around the world building awareness and change towards a sustainable future. 
Pledge to Credit Suisse:
“I would like to thank Credit Suisse for gifting me this once in a lifetime opportunity. I truly believe that the solution to global warming lies in a change of attitude and human behavior. One of the most effective ways of modifying human behavior is through powerful story telling. Stories that are impossible but true, stories that inspire action. I promise to make my Credit Suisse Antarctica story a powerful one that reaches many young people in India and around the world. I have been looking for an opportunity to understand my role in a sustainable future, including the development of a business idea and youth network in India on this topic. Thank you and I will definitely make the most of this opportunity.”
Antarctica, the last greatest wilderness on Earth October 22, 2009
I still cannot believe that 26 days from now I will embark on a journey to the southernmost, coldest, driest and windiest continent on planet Earth. I hope to be able to share the impact of this journey with people around the world through my story.
“As the last unspoilt wilderness on earth, Antarctica is currently protected by a treaty prohibiting drilling and mining until 2041. Decisions made by today’s youth will impact our entire planet’s ecosystem and the future of life on earth. ” Robert Swan OBE
For more information http://www.2041.com
Reflections and Predictions October 9, 2009
Today I realized that I miss being a geek 
For some reason this made me Reflect on why I found my previous job so exciting and Predict why I could come to find my current job quite exciting too.
It was one of those mornings. I woke up with a slight headache and not enough sleep. If only I could crawl back under the covers for 5 minutes, or maybe 150! Trying to convince myself that a cold shower is always the perfect remedy for this sort of stuff, I struggled out of bed. Gulping down my breakfast (of spicy poha and pulpy orange, in case your interested) I took a shot at trying to bargain my way to a spot in the November 2041 Antartica Expedition. Finally stepping out of home, I realized that I had forgotten my lunch, rushed back to get it, and of course arrived at the office 20 minutes late. And sleepy.
I had almost made up my mind that it was going to be a torturous day. The kind when you slouch at your desk with half closed eyes imagining a cozy bed and blanket. But it was not to be! Google Analytics, Excel and the geek in me saved the day. Playing with data is the most fun thing in the world. Setting a goal, figuring out what kind of data to look at, crunching numbers on Excel and analyzing trends – Rise and shine! This was one of the things I loved about my job on AIESEC International and luckily for me, it seems like I’ll have to do some of it in my new role as well.
Reflections – what made my year on AIESEC International fantastic?
1. The people – Working with young bright people from across different countries taught me something new everyday, about people, the world, and my work.
2. Traveling – Every few weeks I got the chance to set out on a new adventure, discovering people, cultures and places around the world.
3. Independence and interdependence – My targets on the team were such that to achieve them I had to strike a fine balance between individual delivery and team work.
4. Achievement – My team saw opportunity for growth, defined the path and then facilitated and watched the organization achieve.
5. My role – I loved my role which included process enhancement, coaching, product development, communication and marketing, statistical analysis and trends forecasting.
Predictions – what could make my time at Cactus Communications fantastic?
1. A new world – I like the feel of entering a whole new market after 6 years of working with AIESEC. Everything is new and interesting, I learn so much everyday.
2. Opportunity for growth – Cactus is a medium sized fast growing organization. The market I’m handling is largely unexplored and has potential for tremendous growth. I can feel the momentum building up to something powerful.
3. The challenge – Limited time to create a niche for Editage in the European and American markets with high targets. The challenge of figuring my way in a new place while ensuring I’m contributing and even achieving pushes me to think and work hard.
4. The people – Cactus is founded by an AIESEC alumnus, employs AIESEC alumni and internationals from across Asia Pacific. I enjoy the multicultural work environment this creates.
5. Mumbai – I work in Mumbai which is my favorite city in the whole world! After spending a year abroad, I’m so excited to be able to rediscover the Maximum City.
Ideas for India’s Future October 7, 2009
Nandan Nilekani is the author of “Imagining India,” a radical re-thinking of one of the world’s great economies. The co-founder of Infosys, he helped move India into the age of IT.
Nandan Nilekani co-founded Infosys, one of India’s leading information technology companies, back in 1981. After serving as its president and then CEO, he’s now joined the Indian government to help lead a massive new IT project: providing every Indian with a unique identity card. to concentrate on his next great endeavor: re-imagining India in the new millennium.
His book Imagining India asks big questions: How can India — which made such leaps in the past two decades — maintain its demographic advantage? How can democracy and education be promoted? How, in the midst of such growth, can the environment be protected for the next generations?
“Seattle has Bill. Bangalore has Nandan. What makes Nilekani unique? For me it comes down to one phrase: great explainer.”
Thomas Friedman
One step at a time… September 24, 2009
I spent last evening with Kate! Only 2 months ago Kate and I, and the rest of our AIESEC International team had been living together in Rotterdam, racing to make sure we deliver our promise to AIESEC and the world. From our storybook life together of the corner cafe, late night movies, “evening consumption”, House of Action trips, Cantinero and the African restaurant to a nostalgic conversation between 2 of the 22 in my black, white and blue room in the Maximum City of India, Mumbai. Such a short time and our lives had taken whole new turns!
For all of us on the team the last few months have been challenging to say the least. I have dealt with some of the biggest changes in my life these days. Surprisingly it has felt like the most natural thing in the world.
India & the Netherlands – I thought leaving India and moving to the Netherlands had been tough, turned out that moving back to India was as tough. Reverse culture shock is a term I have heard repeatedly through my 6 years in AIESEC, but I never really understood it until now. It isn’t so much about the “culture shock”, I absolutely love my country and my culture. It’s more about how people who embody that culture have changed, contradicting my expectations. I left Hyderabad, Mumbai and India on June 2, 2008 assuming that I would come back to the same people and life in July 2009. In that short period of time everything changed – the people, situations, habits, and my outlook to life. Accepting, compromising and adjusting to the new life in my old India has been harder than I would have imagined.
AIESEC, the end – AIESEC was never work for me. It was what I loved doing, where I found my inspiration and really, just a way of life. Living with 22 people from 17 countries for a year and achieving together, postcards and things from more than 25 countries lying around my room, learning how to make Greek salad from a Greek best friend, meeting business leaders in India and around the world – these things became so natural. While living this life I did realize how wonderful it was, but not as much as I do after leaving this life behind. However, moving out of AIESEC leadership has not been as hard-hitting as I thought it would be. The only thing I really miss is the people – AIESEC had always been about the people, the feeling of community and the buzz of activity; all the more in the last one year on AIESEC International. Whatever you do in AIESEC , there is always a group of like-minded fun people to work and chill with. Although I don’t work or live with these people anymore, I know that I have good friends and future colleagues doing awesome things around the world!
Cactus Communications, the beginning – After being on AIESEC International and managing a function for a global organization working in 100+ countries with 40,000 members, its strange to be standing at the foot of the ladder again. I’m a newie at a company called Cactus Communications, started by an AIESEC India alumnus. I work as part of the marketing team at Editage which is a subsidiary of Cactus. Editage offers end to end publishing, editing and writing solutions in the academic, business and personal fields. My job at Cactus is to expand their business to the English and Spanish speaking markets using online marketing and communication. I’m learning so many new things! Title tags, meta descriptions, turn around times, editing, SEO and analytics, and much more. It’s refreshing to explore new concepts while being able to apply my learning in AIESEC and see possibilities for growth. The first week of work was slow, but it seems to be picking up now. We are a day away from launching the new version of our English website, and I’m excited! I hope to be able to contribute my best, apply some of my ideas and create a strong brand for Editage in the English speaking markets.
One step at a time, I have walked and walked. But one step at a time, there’s a long and happy way to go. I hope that each step brings more excitement, meaning and growth than the previous one, for you and for me!
Our Promise of Change, Delivering Today September 24, 2009
Our organization for more than 60 years has successfully faced the challenges of an ever changing world with an overwhelmingly optimistic view of the future. The source of this optimism are our stories, stories that come from the experiences our young people are living all around the world. Furthermore, it comes from the fact that these young members are developing themselves while connecting with local organizations and foreign young talent in their local communities.
These experiences have the power to shape the ambitions, competencies and willingness of these young people to be and become agents of positive change. In the shadow of the past 12 months, in a world which was shaken by the financial crisis, the food crisis, swine flu, civil unrests, military conflicts and extremist movements; AIESEC was called by our history and our future to be a source of inspiration to our members, alumni, partners and societies. That was our purpose and this report is an insight into
how our members achieved it.
We relied on our belief that the key for the sustainable development of a global organization is the convergence of the right talent, technology, financial resources and information. This was matched with a leadership style that is ambitious, entrepreneurial, responsible, inclusive and self-sustaining.
We realize that our ability to deliver on our commitments defines who we are as an organization and what we can become as individuals. We were relentless in connecting our global network and working with our members to invest and
extract the most value out of our collective potential.
We stepped boldly into the present managing our resources and eagerly searching for gaps in the market. We brought an engineering approach to manage our talent supply and harnessed the social media wave to position our
message. All over the world, our members kept virtually connected and invited our
alumni to rejoin us in our mission.
And our young people responded every day, they did their best to bring the impact of our organization to more young people and more organizations. They managed to deliver exponential and sustained growth quarter after quarter, reaching a collective achievement of 45% growth- growth that our organization hasn’t seen in over 15 years, setting us on track to achieve the yearly goal of our global long term plan.
AIESEC has promised the world generations of change agents and this year our members embraced that ambition more than ever and showed us that hope of a better world can be put on their shoulders. The future brings evolution and also more challenges. It brings the need for higher mobility of people and a review of the policies and supporting process that enables this. It brings the need to change the way we live to reduce the impact that our consumption, production, disposal and delivery processes have on the world. It brings the need for individuals to take action every day.
The future looks bright whilst organizations like AIESEC stand up and live
up to their values. I would like to invite you to explore the way we are making a change and join us in our journey to become what we were born to
be…a legendary organization!
Juan Cajiao. President-AIESEC International
2008-2009
Global Youth to Business Forum June 25, 2009
The Global Youth to Business Forum is a unique meeting point for youth leaders from around the world and leading organizations.
More than 600 youth leaders and selected organizations will meet, share perspectives and propose possible actions around issues of global relevance. The forum will gather youth opinion around the topics of Climate change and Sustainability; Entrepreneurship in the Crisis; Mobility and Diversity.
The output of the discussions around each of those three topics will be later on presented to relevant world institutions and large businesses.
If your organization is working around one of the discussed topics or youth opinion in general, join the youth leaders from around the world in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 25th August 2009 as a corporate delegate. Click HERE
If your organization is interested to:
* Gather global youth opinion regarding the core business/important initiative of your company
* Involve your staff in direct interaction with youth leadership from diverse cultures
* Profile your brand among 600 youth leaders from over 100 countries and thousands more online
* Co-brand a youth statement to the world institutions and business regarding the burning topics of today
Visit our Partner page , and learn more.
To get to know about the program of the event: click HERE
For further information on the events venue and host country: click HERE.
Leading growth, brick by BRIC June 22, 2009
Account for 42% of the world’s population
Contribute one-third of the world’s growth since 2000
Account for 22% of the world’s economy in 2008
Emerging as key players in driving global economic decision making
Relied on by the so-called great economies to rescue the world from the financial meltdown
Leading growth, brick by BRIC – Brazil, Russia, India and China
A few years ago if you had asked me about BRIC, it would have meant nothing more than a normal red brick! And even if you had explained it as Brazil, Russia, India and China, I would have found it hard to draw a connection. Brazil, a splash of color, beach and carnivals; Russia meant freezing cold and vodka; Chop sticks, Kim-chi and lonely one child families was my idea of China.
In 2005 this changed - One of my subjects at university was Psychology. As part of my final year project I did a cross cultural leadership study with subjects from more than 20 countries including BRIC. The study was based on the hypothesis that AIESECers across cultures have improved leadership abilities than young people who have not been through the AIESEC experience. Unknowingly this project became my first step into the fast growing and dynamic world of BRIC talent! I discovered interesting trends between the leadership characteristics of people from emerging economies compared to those of the better developed markets. I didn’t know then that in a couple of years I would get first-hand experience of working with young leaders across BRIC.
Through interactions and observations, there seem to be 3 characteristics that differentiate young people from the BRIC countries (especially Brazil, India & China):
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Ambition
Everything is possible, the sky is the limit! (The number of times I have heard “It is not possible” in the Netherlands in the last one year is more than what I heard my entire life in India!) It’s an attitude – young people from vibrant fast growing environments are born to aspire. The problems and issues surrounding these young people in daily life give them an even stronger sense of practical ambition.
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Competition
Take anything in these countries like demography, geography, politics and the scale is massive! BRIC doesn’t deal in small numbers. It all comes down to the survival of the fittest – when you’re competing with millions for one job or one position in a university, it pushes you to the limit. Competition to be the best, to constantly improve and grow is a driving factor amongst these young people.
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Intuition
When there is a starting point and a goal, you aim at achieving the goal. Young people from BRIC allow their intuition to guide them towards success. Process, structure, plan are secondary, the one thing they will focus on is efficiency – How can I reach my goal with minimum investment and maximum output? Being intuitive allows for flexibility, innovation and focus on implementation, making these young people extremely competitive in today’s market.
…To be continued.
Generation 2010 June 20, 2009
I joined AIESEC because I wanted an international exchange experience – Vishal Jodhani, India/Belgium
I joined AIESEC to be able to explore the world beyond Colombia – Alejandra Laiton, Colombia
I joined AIESEC because I wanted to invest my time into something that makes a difference – Monica Costea, Romania
I joined AIESEC because the best people in my city were part of it – Aditi Bhat, India
A few years ago, these were stories waiting to happen. AIESEC made these stories come alive. Today Vishal, Alejandra, Monica and Aditi are part of AIESEC’s global office working with young people around the world to ensure that they also have A POWERFUL STORY to share tomorrow!
Are you a young person asking these questions?
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How can I make a difference in my community?
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How can I build a network of friends and colleagues around the world?
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How can I develop myself personally and professionally?
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How can I gain international work and leadership experience?
JOIN US! Starting July AIESEC around the world is recruiting new members! Do you want to write your story in this world? AIESEC can offer you international exchange and leadership opportunities which give you a platform to create impact in your society, create a network of friends, mentors and organizations around the world, develop your personal and professional skills, and work in another country!
As a young person who joins AIESEC today, you will be part of AIESEC’s 2010 generation! You will take the final step in leading the organization to achieve its 2010 vision. The result of more than 10 generations of hard work, passion and ambition!
AIESEC’s 2010 vision:
“Every day, AIESEC is enabling the development of agents of positive change who create the needed impact in society. Our rapidly growing network connects high potential people around the world to generate an increasing volume of AIESEC Experiences. Every member in our thriving local and global communities of learning completes a life-changing AIESEC Experience. Our contribution makes us the first choice amongst young people and organizations for activating leadership.”
Who is Generation 2010? Young people who have –
The perseverance to make things happen
The creativity and originality to think differently
The ambition to lead change
If you want to join AIESEC go to http://www.aiesec.org and contact the AIESEC office in your city!
