Archive for August, 2008

Lousy service, me-too products and out-of-touch executives who resist innovation have chased America’s top talent from its biggest companies, Thunderbird graduate Babs Ryan argues in her book, “America’s Corporate Brain Drain.” Ryan has worked in senior leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies and is now a small-business owner with clients in 207 countries.

Title: America’s Corporate Brain Drain: Why We Leave, Where We Go, How We Can Reverse the Flow
Author: Babs Ryan graduated from Thunderbird in 1981 and has traveled in 78 countries and worked abroad for 11 years. She is founder and president of a Chicago-based enterprise helping multinational corporations bloom by forecasting global consumer trends and translating them to new products.
Price: $26.95
ISBN: 978-0981494708
Publisher: Sparks Worldwide LLC; 1st edition (August 2008)
Information: www.braindrain.biz

Thunderbird graduate Frederick Andresen went to Russia in 1991 amid the chaos of the collapsing Soviet Union and the promising dawn of a free-market economy. His goal was to create a telecom company, but he quickly learned that he could not do it until he came to understand the evolving Russian mindset. “Although Russia is in a great state of change, the effects of a thousand years of history are not erased in a decade or two — if ever,” he writes in “Walking on Ice: An American Businessman in Russia.”

Title: Walking on Ice: An American Businessman in Russia
Author: Frederick R. Andresen, a 1958 graduate of Thunderbird School of Global Management, specializes in general business management, marketing, entrepreneurship and relationship building in Russia and other emerging markets.
Endorsement: This book “is mandatory reading for all who contemplate a tour of duty whether government or business in Russia or who have worked there … it brings back memories and reality. With insight, understanding, and a rare degree of humor, Fred Andresen tells us about working with the Russians,” Richard Weden, general director, American Express Russia, 1995 to 2004.
ISBN: 978-1432713522
Publisher: Outskirts Press (September 2007)
Information: www.fandresen.com

In the novel “Mondai Nai,” an American graduate student travels an extraordinary road that melds personal discovery with inner conflict, the search for self with the pressures of the most unique society on earth, and the beauty of friendship and love, with the pain of loss. He does so in Japan, a country where modesty and “saving face” are as important as civic pride, honor, and duty. In the end, the many questions that remain unanswered are as important as what the student learns.

Title: Mondai Nai
Author: David Hurley (pen name King Hurley) is a 1984 Thunderbird graduate. He spent 20 years as a health-care executive and traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia as an executive with Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals. He was also the CEO of companies such as Novartis Nutrition, a $250 million company focused on clinical nutrition; Geneva Pharmaceuticals, a $500 million leader in generic pharmaceuticals and HealthNexis, a technology consortium created by the three largest pharmaceutical wholesalers in the United States. Hurley has finished two Hawaii marathons and lives in Boulder, Colo.
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0977418855
Publisher: Paandaa (March 15, 2007)
Information: http://www.paandaa.com/index.php?load=artists&op=artist&art_id=1

“Global Strategy” deals with the question of how firms can compete in a global environment. Thunderbird professors Andrew Inkpen, Ph.D., and Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D., examine the issues considered central to the study of strategic management in a global context, such as the nature of global advantage, strategic alliances, competing in emerging markets, international corporate governance, global knowledge management and ethical issues in international business.

Title: Global Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Advantage across Borders
Authors: Andrew Inkpen and Kannan Ramaswamy are professors of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. Both have expertise in global stragegy and specialize in working with corporate clients from the oil and gas industry. Inkpen, Ph.D., is the J. Kenneth and Jeanette Seward Chair in Global Strategy, and Ramaswamy, Ph.D., is the William D. Hacker Chair.
Price: $29.95
ISBN: 978-0195167207
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 24, 2005)
Information: www.oxfordscholarship.com

Sanjyot Dunung, a 1987 Thunderbird graduate, has launched and operated a number of successful small businesses throughout her career. Her book, “Straight Talk About Starting and Growing Your Business,” includes solid insider’s advice that can help new businesses survive and succeed, even in a tough economy.

Title: Straight Talk About Starting and Growing Your Business
Author: Sanjyot Dunung is president of Atma Global, a developer of educational products in New York. In addition to appearing periodically on CNBC-TV, CNN International, Bloomberg TV and various radio programs, she often speaks at conferences and seminars addressing international business and entrepreneurship. She is a career entrepreneur who has founded three companies. She is also the author of “Doing Business in Asia.”
Price: $17.95 (£9.49)
ISBN: 978-0071427272
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Higher Education (2005)
Information: http://www.amazon.com