1M/1M: Ambassador Program

To those of you who have expressed interest in being 1M/1M ambassadors:

Some of you have attended the January 21 roundtable and listened to me discussing the endeavor and the strategy. For those who did not have a chance to attend the roundtable, the recording is here. Before we move forward, please make sure you listen to it and decide if you can make the time commitment of five hours a week to be a 1M/1M ambassador. The slide deck is also enclosed.

Now, if you decide you do want to move forward, then the next few steps are as follows:

1. A LinkedIn group called 1M/1M Ambassadors is in place. Please join the group. We will use this group for administrative purposes.

• We need to pick geographic areas for each ambassador. Pls specify your geographic preferences in the LI discussion thread. We will assign geographies based on that, and try to accommodate preferences. But please be slightly open, since we may have too many for one, not enough for others. This is urgent to get us moving forward. Also, please introduce yourselves in the LinkedIn group.

• I will put in additional information about all aspects of the program in the LinkedIn group and will continue to do so as we go along. Henceforth, the discussion will be moving to that group, and please use it to ask questions, discuss issues, etc. I prefer that you do not use my private email to ask questions about this program, because I would like the Q&A and discussions to be beneficial to all the ambassadors. I want ideas to flow from all of you and enrich one another, not just enrich me.

2. Internship applicants: At this point, my thinking is that if you decide to move forward, I will give you a chance to be an ambassador. But please make sure you evaluate carefully the time commitment, and if you take this on, do it seriously. I will get to know you through your work, and by working with you.

3. Volunteers: Again, if you commit to the time and responsibility, I will try to incorporate as many of you as I possibly can. But please take the time commitment and the responsibilities seriously.

4. I do not want people to open relationships with EDOs and then drop the ball in mid-air, as it will cause huge headaches for me. Every EDO should have a 1M/1M ambassador shepherding it. If an ambassador steps off, you need to let me know, and we need to recruit a replacement and hand over the relationship professionally and systematically. Not abruptly.

5. So. What is my point here? Just that, please take this on IF and ONLY IF you are ready to take this seriously and with commitment. It will take enormous conviction to pull this off.

6. Volunteer requests and internship applications are flowing in, and I sincerely appreciate your interest in the program. But I will not be offended if you decide, after evaluating its needs that you may not have the time to really do justice to it. If you decide not to proceed, just let me know, and I will take you off the list.

7. Most important, we need to have fun with this program. May be it will give us opportunities to travel to interesting places, may be partner with people whom we did not know before. Who knows what lies ahead? I certainly don’t. At best, this is an experiment. But I think, and it seems that you do too, that it is a worthwhile experiment.

8. Finally, I am perfectly okay with your doing business with people you meet through this effort. In fact, I hope you will do a lot of business with one another.

Many thanks, and I look forward to working with you.

This segment is a part in the series : 1M/1M