Archive for March, 2010

Leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations sometimes encroach on state sovereignty in troubling ways when they gather at informal meetings such as the G8 Summit, bestselling author and scholar Kiron Skinner, Ph.D., said March 30 at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Skinner, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, said informal regimes such as the G8 and G20 are no longer content to discuss only economic policy. They now want to set security policy for sovereign nations such as the United States. | Video: Is the G8 Anti-American? (1:47) | Video: Rethinking the G8 Summit (3:01)
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P.F. Chang’s China Bistro has found early success outside the United States and will move forward with at least seven new restaurants in Mexico, the Middle East and the Philippines by early 2011, a company executive said March 25 at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “As we travel the world, we get excited about bringing our brand to new markets and new customers,” said Michael Welborn, president of P.F. Chang’s global brand development. | Video: P.F. Chang’s Goes Global (2:08)
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By Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera

The financial meltdown of 2008 will be remembered as a crisis not only of regulation, but of values; a painful reminder that good markets run on trust, and not only self-interest. Even Adam Smith’s butcher understood that selling unsafe meat, no matter how profitably, was a terribly bad idea, both for his clients and himself. In “The Road from Ruin,” Matthew Bishop and Michael Green argue that business leaders need to put values at the heart of capitalism and suggest that asking managers to commit to a professional code of conduct may be a good start. I agree. Read the rest of my post in the Huffington Post. Or visit my Thunderbird Knowledge Network blog on global leadership.

Thunderbird has teamed with the Business Development Center (BDC) in Jordan to help small and medium-sized businesses succeed. The partnership, which received a boost in 2008 with a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, already has touched the lives of dozens of Jordanian professionals and entrepreneurs through an array of educational programs. In the process, the alliance has helped Thunderbird raise its profile in Jordan and empower a new generation of high-potential Middle East managers. “We are seeing Thunderbird more in the news,” says Ibrahim Fahoum, a 1978 Thunderbird graduate who operates one of Jordan’s top private elementary and secondary schools. “There are stories to tell, and that is wonderful.”
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High-potential managers at Intel China have scientific proof that a 10-month Thunderbird Corporate Learning program in Shanghai has boosted their capacity to succeed as global leaders. Pre- and posttest results from the Global Mindset Inventory, a scientific self-assessment developed at Thunderbird, show dramatic improvements in the intellectual, psychological and social skills needed to thrive in complex global business environments. “We now have a scientific way to measure outcomes,” said Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., academic director of the Intel China program and a researcher at Thunderbird’s Global Mindset Leadership Institute.
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By Mansour Javidan, Mary Teagarden and David Bowen

When Alan, a rising star at a U.S.-based manufacturer, arrived in Beijing to take a position as the general manager for consumer products in China, he was energized and excited. He’d been charged with leading the firm’s expansion in what his bosses kept telling him was the fastest-growing market in the world. He thought the assignment would be straightforward and easy, but roadblocks quickly appeared. Alan’s enthusiasm gave way to frustration, and his company eventually called him back to the States. As it turns out, Alan’s employers had sent him to Beijing for the wrong reason. They’d assumed that a good track record at home is a predictor of success in the global arena. But they failed to consider Alan’s “global mindset.” Our research at the Thunderbird Global Mindset Leadership Institute has allowed us to define global mindset, measure it, and identify ways to improve it. In the end, our research allows companies such as Alan’s to take the guesswork out of expatriate assignments. Read the full article in the April 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.

High-speed ferries operate almost 24 hours a day bringing tourists across the South China Sea to Macau, where upscale casinos and hotels fill the skyline of the special administrative region. A global financial crisis has sapped tourism in other parts of the world, but business is booming in Macau. The region, which passed Las Vegas as the world’s largest gambling market in 2006, stands as a symbol of China’s strength in the post-crisis world. Thunderbird alumni saw firsthand the effects of China’s emerging prosperity during a global reunion Nov. 4-7, 2009, in Macau.
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Making money through financial engineering used to be easy for private equity companies, but those days are gone. “That was the good old days,” Thunderbird Professor Lena Booth, Ph.D., said March 18 during a workshop to help students prepare for the sixth annual Thunderbird Global Private Equity Investing Conference. “You can’t make money that easily anymore, so you have to make money the old-fashioned way — improving operational efficiency.” She said the post-crisis world favors private equity professionals who know how to grow revenue, cut costs, share distribution channels and achieve economies of scale. Private equity professionals will gather on campus April 7-9 to discuss other trends and the future of the industry. | Video: Private Equity Returns to Basics (1:39) | Video: Time to Deleverage (1:55) | Registration: Thunderbird Global Private Equity Investing Conference
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By Gregory Unruh, Thunderbird Professor

Market forces are the ultimate Darwinian competition machine, and many environmentalists blame them for focusing executives on short-term profit maximization at the expense of long-term sustainability. But in talking to several companies, I’ve found that market competition is having the counterintuitive effect of driving business leaders toward sustainability. Read the full article in the Harvard Business Review. For additional research and commentary, visit my Huffington Post blog or read my new book, Earth Inc.: Using Nature’s Rules to Build Sustainable Profits.

Thunderbird Professor Lena Booth, Ph.D., speaks English, Chinese, Malay and few Chinese dialects. She also speaks private equity, a specialized language that includes terms such as distressed debt, mezzanine capital, hurdle rates, limited partners, general partners and a host of acronyms. Booth covered the basic vocabulary March 18 in a workshop designed to help students gear up for the sixth annual Thunderbird Global Private Equity Investing Conference, which will bring industry insiders to campus April 7-9. Highlights of Booth’s presentation are included below in bite-size video segments.
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