Archive for November, 2010

Corrupt Venezuelan officials who ask Rum Santa Teresa Chairman and CEO Alberto Vollmer for bribes get something much different than cash or liquor under the table. The leader of the 200-year-old family distillery offers free enrollment instead to courses on anti-corruption, transparency and human rights. “At first they laugh,” Vollmer said Nov. 16, 2010, during a Thunder Radio interview with MBA student Rodrigo G. Castillo. “But the second or third time you do it, they might go to the course.” Vollmer offered several guidelines for other business leaders facing ethical dilemmas in emerging markets such as Venezuela. | Video: Alberto Vollmer on Thunder Radio (18:55) | Audio Podcast: Alberto Vollmer on Thunder Radio (18:36) | Blog: Alberto Vollmer turns enemies into allies

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High-tech companies need problem solvers, but Google Creative Lab Vice President Andy Berndt says engineers and other creative professionals first need scrappy managers who know how to define the right problems, assemble the right teams and provide the right resources. “Tackling a problem is great,” Berndt said Nov. 9, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in an interview with Thunder Radio. “But actually identifying the problem is often harder.” Berndt said companies get ahead of themselves and waste resources when they assign research and development teams to tackle fuzzy or low-priority problems. “If you can observe a problem that no one else has seen, and define it clearly, it becomes this amazing sort of thing that people can’t stay away from,” Berndt said. “One of the things I love about engineers is how they are drawn to a well-defined problem. They want to solve it.” | Video: Andy Berndt on Thunder Radio (9:35) | Audio Podcast: Andy Berndt on Thunder Radio (9:15)

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A classic Jane Austen story will get a modern Latino makeover with the first release from Pantelion Films, a new Hollywood studio launched by Thunderbird alumnus James McNamara and two big-name partners. Pantelion will premiere “From Prada to Nada” at theaters across the United States on Jan. 28, 2011. Additional movies will follow each month, creating momentum for a brand that McNamara envisions as the new face of Hispanic entertainment in the United States. “The objective is to create the first Hollywood studio focused specifically on the U.S. Hispanic audience,” McNamara said during a campus interview with ThunderRadio on Nov. 4, 2010. | Video: Thunder Radio interview (5:59) | Video: “From Prada to Nada” trailer (2:28) | Audio: Thunder Radio interview (5:44)

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Students who come to Thunderbird School of Global Management tend to have one thing in common. They are misfits. That’s the best description Thunderbird Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., can find. Normal people prefer to live and work in familiar environments surrounded by others who speak the same language, share the same values and eat the same foods. Thunderbird students are different. They prefer cross-cultural adventures in unfamiliar locations. When they come to Thunderbird, they finally find a place where they belong. “You are coming home,” Javidan tells incoming students Aug. 11, 2010, during the orientation for Thunderbird’s Global MBA for Latin American Managers program. “This is your home. We are delighted to be with you for the journey you are starting.” Audio: Thunderbird Misfits (28:27)

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