Archive for February, 2010

What is design thinking?
Why does the ability to be a design thinker matter?
What would the outcomes look like with a world informed by design thinkers?
What if a generation of design thinkers came from Thunderbird Global School of Management?

These are just a few of the questions I’ve been contemplating over the past year.  The more I talked with colleagues and associates, like Thunderbird board of trustee, Dick DeVos, alumni and Global Council members, Jack Taylor ‘71 and David Young ‘91, and family and friends who attended design schools, and the more I read, (A Whole New Mind and Drive, both by Daniel Pink, Out of Our Minds by Sir Ken Robinson, Disrupting Class:  How Disruptive Innovation will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen and The Art of Innovation by IDEO’s general manager, Tom Kelley, among other books and articles), I began to wonder,

What if design schools had access to Thunderbird’s global education and our students had access to design thinkers and methodologies that encouraged and stimulated design thinking? 

What would the world look like if students were encouraged to see problems as design opportunities? What if all students believed in their creative abilities, and had a means to design solutions via alliances with schools of design to productively address any challenge they might identify or dream to solve?

Thunderbird board of fellow and co founder and chairman emeritus of DHL, International, Mr. Po Chung is a perfect example of a design thinker.  He integrated his creative and innovative abilities, with empathy and concern for customers who needed to move their mail internationally.  Mr. Chung built a global business as though it were designed by an artist who sees the angles (perspectives), colors (needs), and shades (possibilities), while paying close attention to the landscape (needs of the client and industry).  And, Po continues to express himself as a design thinker – you can see from his holiday card below that his painting, and his wife, Helen’s calligraphy and poetry are works of design and art and an integral part of their lives.

by Keith C. Kerber, Assistant Director of Annual Giving

I always love to watch the opening of the Olympic Games. It is such a picture of what I’d like the world to be: joyfully and harmoniously celebrating the diversity of cultures around the globe. Save for the unfortunate death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics last Friday was no different.   

Seeing these Olympic ceremonies, I was reminded of my first few days at Thunderbird in Fall 2008.  I was describing the scene at the dining hall to my daughter:  I overheard German spoken over here, Hindi over there, Chinese there, Spanish here. And there were people from dozens of nations working together on group projects or in dialogue. Not something one sees in Phoenix everyday!
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by Gbemi Disu ‘06, Assistant Director of Leadership Annual Giving

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any #1 school of global management should boast of an extensive research library and database (Indeed this is a modified quote from one of my favorite books by Jane Austen – Pride & Prejudice).

I frequently come by many alumni in my line of work who are saddened by the loss of access to the IBIC post graduation. This has been a topic of many discussions at Thunderbird and unfortunately at this time, the additional licensing costs are prohibitive.

As a small, not for profit institution that does not receive any government funding, Thunderbird is solely dependent on the generosity of its alumni and friends to efficiently run. The result of this is having to make tough decisions about resources and put into practice the business concept of cost management that we teach here on campus! As much as we here in the Institutional Advancement and Alumni Relations office would love to offer the IBIC databases as one of the many benefits afforded to our alumni, we are unfortunately not in a position to do so at this time.

My hope in sharing this post rouses us, the alumni community and backbone of Thunderbird, to band together and establish an IBIC Database Fund that will make this available to us all. It will certainly assist us in our varying professions! I believe that if we approach this with the same fervor as we have done for the Tower Restoration, we can be successful in our efforts.  After all, we are T-birds!

While this is percolating in our hearts and minds, I am also aware that we all want a solution for the present. Therefore, if you are in need of information, you can utilize these alternatives provided by the helpful staff at the IBIC.

Happy Researching!