Archive for the ‘FACULTY & STAFF SPEAKERS’ Category

Mavis Leno, wife of “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, first learned about the Taliban’s abuse of Afghan women in 1997 when she joined the Feminist Majority Foundation board in the United States. That was four years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks that jolted the Western world awake to the dangers of the new regime. “This was getting virtually no coverage, no reporting of any kind at the time,” Leno said April 10, 2012, during a YWCA forum with U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett, the Interim President Designate at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “When I learned about it, I shot up out of my seat at the board meeting and said, ‘This is mine. I will tackle it.’” Since then Leno has asserted herself as an advocate for Afghan women. Barrett, who moderated the luncheon discussion, also has served as a champion for Afghan women through programs such as Project Artemis at Thunderbird. The event was part of the YWCA Maricopa County Women’s Empowerment Series at the Renaissance Downtown Phoenix. Watch the video or download the full audio podcast here. | Podcast: Campaign for Afghan Women (43:23)

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Many people use “international” and “global” as interchangeable terms, but Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., makes an important distinction. “Most international organizations have a center of gravity at corporate headquarters,” says Leclerc, who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. “They might sell products around the world, but they truly have a center of gravity.” Global organizations, which have multiplied in the past 10 to 15 years, embed themselves more deeply in the markets where they operate and share knowledge in multiple directions. “Rather than having one center of gravity, they have nodes of knowledge around the world,” Leclerc says. Leclerc says cross-cultural communication skills become increasingly important as companies make the transition from international to global. | Audio: International Versus Global (9:27)

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Anthropologists, economists and linguists all talk about culture. But settling on one clear definition is difficult. “One reason is because culture remains largely invisible, especially when looking inward,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. “It is hard to see one’s own culture.” Culture is often described as a set of shared and learned preferences that bind people together, but Leclerc says his students struggle when he asks them what it means to be from a specific country, organization or group. When pressed, many people mention the importance of family — without realizing that people from all cultures say the same thing. “I have not yet found anybody who says they don’t care about their family,” Leclerc says. Despite the ambiguities, Leclerc says global managers cannot afford to overlook culture because it shapes the way people do business. | Audio: Defining Culture (9:55)

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Western and Eastern European cultures share many things in common, but one distinction is the way people view their ability to change external conditions that affect their lives. “One of the key concepts in defining culture is how people perceive that they can affect their own environment,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D. “Western Europeans have a belief that they can change their environment, while Eastern Europeans see more constraints.” Leclerc discusses European culture in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in Europe (10:01)

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Hierarchy matters in Asia, whether you are doing business in China, Japan or any other country in the region. “The hierarchy really shapes the way people interact with each other,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Asian communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in Asia (9:40)

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Doing business in the Middle East starts with building relationships of trust through face-to-face interaction. “Nothing gets done in any of these countries if you have not spent the time to develop relationships,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Middle East communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in the Middle East (8:22)

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Blending cultures from North and Latin America is a little like mixing oil and water. “There are components of each culture that are almost on opposite ends of the spectrum,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who discusses Canadian, U.S. and Latin American communication styles in this podcast from Thunderbird Online Executive Certificates. Thunderbird Online’s facilitated professional development programs are available to global business professionals around the world. These top-ranked programs are accessible, convenient and up-to-date with the most insightful global business content from the world’s No. 1-ranked school in international business. | Audio: Cross-cultural communications while traveling in the Americas (9:20)

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When Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., arrived in China as a business consultant and researcher in 1978, car factories still relied on donkey power. “The donkeys would move the engines around to different stations to pick up buckets of tool and parts,” she says. “It was primitive at best.” She had to schedule an appointment two days in advance to make an overseas telephone call. And she had to pass through bureaucratic hurdles to use the library. “I had to write a paper about why I needed to use a book,” she says. Conditions have changed dramatically in the 33 years since then. In this podcast, recorded Aug. 5, 2011, Teagarden describes miraculous transformations she has witnessed in four areas: Manufacturing, telecommunications, information access and infrastructure. Learn more Oct. 4, 2011, when Teagarden speaks at the Houston Professional Speaker Series in Texas. Audio: China’s Four Miraculous Transformations (6:13)

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What is the statistical benefit of an international business degree? New analysis of growing survey data at Thunderbird School of Global Management puts the value at roughly eight years abroad in four or more countries. “For the first time ever, we are able to show a return on investment for a global management degree,” said Garvin Distinguished Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., director of Thunderbird’s Global Mindset® Institute in Glendale, Arizona. Javidan’s research team bases its conclusions on more than 10,000 survey results from the Global Mindset Instrument, a scientific self-assessment developed at Thunderbird to measure a manager’s capacity to thrive in unfamiliar environments with people from diverse backgrounds. Javidan said the 10,000 survey milestone — which Thunderbird passed on May 10, 2011 — means the sample size is large enough to identify trends, predict outcomes and make comparisons among subgroups. Audio: Turbo charge your Global Mindset (1:54)

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Sales teams entering developing markets hurt their chances for success when they stay at Western brand hotels, eat familiar food and shield themselves from the local language and culture. “Unless your clients see you as locals — unless they see you interacting and making the effort — they will not think you are interested in what they are doing,” Thunderbird Professor Sundaresan Ram, Ph.D., said April 1, 2011, during a conversation about market entry strategy. Ram said the key is to assemble a team with local mindset. This means embracing local customs, stepping outside your comfort zone and withholding judgment about customer behavior and preferences. He said expatriates who take overseas assignments merely as a way to boost their careers at home give themselves away by the way they bide their time. “You can tell,” Ram said. “Do they go lock themselves up in a hotel room, do they stay within five square miles of where their Western hotel is, do they make a conscious effort to speak the language, do they stay after hours to see how the culture works? All of these are tell-tale signs.” | Podcast: Go local for global sales success (15:00)

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