Archive for September, 2009

China and India will have a head start on the industrialized world as they emerge from the global financial crisis with money to spend, Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., said Sept. 30 at the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook 2010. “The shift in the center of gravity toward China and India is unstoppable,” Cabrera said during the annual meeting of more than 700 community and business leaders at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. | Video: Chamber of Commerce speech (19:34) | President Cabrera’s blog
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Global companies worried about climate change and energy consumption need to consider a third challenge in their sustainability plans, the leader of a Colorado-based engineering firm said Oct. 29 at Thunderbird. “We have a global water crisis,” said Lee McIntire, president and CEO of CH2M Hill and a 1981 Thunderbird graduate. “You’re going to start reading about it in publications like the Wall Street Journal.” | Video: Global Water Crisis (2:31)
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Corporate rebels who want to make a difference in society with game-changing enterprises need to focus on creating sustainable value for their customers, ING Direct Chairman and President Arkadi Kuhlmann said Sept. 18 at Thundebird. “Find a way to connect with your customers to create a value machine,” said Kuhlmann, a Canadian entrepreneur who brought ING Direct to the United States in 2000.
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The best time to think about recycling and disposal of an old product is during the research and development phase before construction begins, environmental engineer Jerry L. Frieling said Sept. 15 at Thunderbird. “Think about how you’re going to take down a building before you build it,” he said during a Global Issues Forum co-sponsored by the ThunderGreen club. “You need to look at everything through the lens of sustainability.” Frieling is chairman of New York-based Malcolm Pirnie, one of the largest engineering firms in the U.S. focused exclusively on environmental issues. | Video: Staying the Course on Sustainability (1:52)
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The Honorable Kathleen Stephens, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, has witnessed a three-pronged transformation in the country since she first arrived as a Peace Corps worker in 1975. But the diplomat rejects the notion of a “Korean Miracle,” as the transformation is sometimes called. “It wasn’t a miracle,” she said Sept. 15 at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. “It was hard work, a lot of determination and good policy.” Stephens visited Thunderbird as part of a U.S. tour organized by the Korea Economic Institute in Washington.
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Huge oil reserves bolstered much of the Middle East during the global recession, but Thunderbird Professor Paul Kinsinger said Sept. 14 in Scottsdale, Ariz., that challenges remain for the region as it moves beyond the crisis. “Middle Eastern countries have taken a dip, but they haven’t taken a dip into the negative,” Kinsinger said during a keynote panel discussion at Frost & Sullivan’s Growth, Innovation and Leadership Global Congress at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch.
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Mattel Chairman and CEO Robert Eckert never delivered the closing remarks he prepared in 2004 for high-potential managers assembled at Thunderbird for a weeklong executive education program on global leadership. Instead, Eckert listened as the managers discussed the need for a clear statement of values at the world’s largest toy company. After months of work, four values emerged: Play to grow, play together, play with passion and play fair. Mattel also plays to win as a truly global company. Under Eckert’s leadership, sales outside the United States grew from 29 percent in 2000 to 49 percent at the end of 2008.
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Thirty years ago as a young polical science student, Thunderbird Professor Karen S. Walch, Ph.D., began a journey to understand the art and practice of power. She studied from sources such as Machiavelli, Sun-Tzu, von Clausewitz and other classical figures who teach “prudence, stealth, and the art of deception and total absence of mercy.” She also read the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene when the book emerged as an encyclopedia about the ways and means of power. But Walch says many of the laws from classical studies are challenged today in the context of globalization. Each Monday for the next 48 weeks in her Thunderbird Knowledge Network blog, the World Café, Walch will present a new law of power for global negotiation in the 21st century. She also will provide an exercise to identify and enhance negotiation power. Learn more and follow the series in the World Café.

By Thunderbird graduate Gary Ranker (with Colin Gautrey)

Corporations around the world are taking drastic action in the economic downturn to shore up their balance sheets, reduce their exposure and make radical moves to ensure they survive the crisis. Some are taking action because they are feeling the pain, while others are taking preemptive steps to reduce the risk of catching a cold later. In these corporations, individuals also are taking stock of their position and starting to worry. It is noticeable that as a recession gathers pace, so too does the amount of political activity at senior levels.
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Investment manager Kurt Gusinde, a 1996 Thunderbird graduate, felt his fingers start to tingle near the pinnacle of Mount Everest in spring 2009 and knew he had to turn back. “I had the beginning of frostbite,” Gusinde said. “I could keep climbing and lose my fingers, or come back down and save my fingers.” The choice was easy for Gusinde, who manages the wealth of high-net-worth clients at Exeter Financial in Scottsdale, Arizona. He said experienced climbers, just like experienced investors, know how to manage risk as they pursue their passions. | Video: Lessons from Everest (4:57)
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