Amsterdam - 25 young employees of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), prominent international accountancy and consultancy firm, lent their brains to the recent “Brainshake” event, held on 23 April in Amsterdam. The event, organised by YoungPwC in co-operation with SNV and the Dutch Corporate Responsibility department of PwC, involved four teams working on two real-life case studies drawn from SNV’s experience in Ghana and Cameroon.
Inspired by the slogan “Move your talent, shake your brain” the participants worked towards innovative solutions to development problems while also applying PwC’s core competences in practice. These competences – build and sustain relationships, collaborate and share knowledge, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, enhance value and make an impact – are similar in many respects to SNV’s own objectives. As a result, the solutions presented were not only innovative but also valuable for both organisations.
Maaike Doyer, co-ordinator of the CR department spoke about PwC’s Corporate Responsibility policy. Pieter de Baan, senior advisor with SNV Head Office and with five years experience of leading SNV programmes in Vietnam, Cameroon and DR Congo, explained the work of SNV. Together with PwC partner Ronald van Tongeren, they formed the Brainshake jury, whose job it was to evaluate the best team proposal.
The jury members rated highly proposals that showed the courage to step out of the ‘comfort zone’. They also valued the participants’ intense cooperation and (no less intense) collegial competitiveness. The four case solutions were judged on sharpness, multi-competence, sustainability and relevance for implementation. The winning case revealed both insights and quality solutions that definitely merit being taken forward.
PwC has now decided to put the two SNV cases in the project database of the Corporate Responsibility Department. After the event more than ten of the Young PwC employees subscribed to this so-called “My Project” list to work towards actually implementing the case solutions. This “My Project” will be implemented in the same way as any other PwC project - the only difference being that in this case the client does not have to pay for PwC’s services.
Both SNV and YoungPwC consider the event to have been a great success. The participants’ enthusiasm and creative energy was inspiring, as were the innovative ideas and solutions that they presented. While there could only be one winner on the day, Brainshake showed just how much can be achieved by people working together.