by Stanley Litow, IBM

October 6, 2010

Serving one’s community and country have always been at the heart of our American democracy. The ideals of citizenship and volunteerism were deeply embedded in America’s founding documents, and foreign observers like Alexis de Tocqueville cited Americans’ spirit of community responsibility and civic engagement as a key to our great society.

Fifty years ago this week, when President Kennedy famously launched the Peace Corps, volunteerism attained a new level of prominence in this country. When elected, his famous phrase, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country," inspired generations of Americans to commit themselves to a year of service in communities around the world.

That speech and that program inspired so many to do so much: from Johnson’s Volunteers in Service to America; to Nixon’s Senior Corps; to Bush 41’s Thousand Points of Light; to Clinton’s AmeriCorps; to Bush 43’s Freedom Corps; to Obama’s Social Innovation Fund; and finally, to the passage of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act — a fitting legacy that brings us full circle to his brother’s launch of the Peace Corps.

While these government-sponsored programs are inspiring, I would argue that we can do even more, because service also sparks the ingenuity of the American entrepreneur. Too often we divorce citizenship from private-sector efforts around entrepreneurship and innovation, seeing leadership from the public or voluntary sectors as separate from the private sector’s ability to fuel the economic engine that empowers those very leaders.

They are not separate and different, however. They must be viewed together. At this vital point in our nation’s history, it is our challenge — and our opportunity — to understand and view them as one and then use that knowledge to jumpstart, energize and sustain a new model of citizenship.

IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) was developed with that objective in mind. Often referred to as a “corporate peace corps,” CSC provides IBM’s most skilled employees with unique opportunities to develop and explore their roles as global citizens and use their considerable expertise to make a real impact. Through one month deployments, IBM’s top talent works in teams of roughly twelve to provide in-depth business and IT consulting support to local entrepreneurs and small businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies. Already in its third year, Corporate Service Corps has deployed nearly one thousand IBMers from 50 countries on 90 teams into 18 countries including China, Nigeria, Romania, Poland, and Vietnam. These global teams represent the essence of citizen diplomacy.

The result is a leadership development program that has made strides in answering the economic, social and environmental sustainability challenges faced by many emerging markets. The effort has gone so well that the U.S. Agency for International Development has announced a partnership with IBM to help smaller companies with limited capacity implement their own corporate peace corps.

This initiative only scratches the surface of what innovative private-public partnerships can produce. On October 10th, IBM will dig deeper by sponsoring Service Jam, a web-based town hall over a three-day period. Thousands of motivated citizens will join with service leaders around the world to create an action agenda that can transform citizenship. Participation will be truly global and involve business, government, education and not-for-profit leaders. Through the Jam, we will explore how: innovations are fueling quantum leaps in the service movement; a digital revolution is transforming the service sector through technology; and how replicating, scaling and measuring effective solutions can broaden social impact.

With the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps as our rallying cry and Service Jam as our platform, we have an opportunity to take a new step in America’s proud march of service. Let’s use them to fulfill the promises and hopes of our founders and realize the noble and timeless American spirit of citizenship.

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Stanley S. Litow is President of the IBM International Foundation and IBM’s Vice President for Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs.

Stan’s remarks as a panelist at the 65th Annual National Conference on Citizenship are displayed in the video above. You can read or download his 21st Century Citizenship whitepaper for more on this topic.