Archive for May, 2010

One Thunderbird professor made the case for doing business in India, while a colleague did his best to prove the rosy projections wrong during a Thunderbird Executive MBA forum May 20 in Glendale, Arizona. The two Ph.D. professors, Kishore Dash and Sundaresan Ram, assumed the roles of optimist and pessimist during the first installment of a four-part BRIC series organized by Thunderbird Executive MBA faculty and staff. | Video: Why Choose India? (4:00) | Video: India’s Two Biggest Problems (2:37) | Podcast: India’s Promise and Pitfalls (37:54)
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Companies that empower their marketing departments through staff development and other incentive programs save money in the long run and help the bottom line, new research shows. Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor Seigyoung Auh, Ph.D., and a co-author from Brock University in Canada will present the research today at the Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon.
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Thunderbird graduates make significant gains in global business savvy and other key attributes that predict success overseas, new research from the school’s Global Mindset Institute shows. “We now have a scientific way to measure learning outcomes,” says Thunderbird Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., the school’s dean of research and head of the institute. “We show a clear and significant improvement in the scores of our graduating students.”
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People who still view China and India as little more than sources of cheap labor need to look more closely at major shifts in the world economy, Thunderbird School of Global Management President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., said May 19, 2010, at Business Beyond Our Borders, a forum presented by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. | Video: Global Economic Shift (3:57) | Podcast: New frontiers in emerging markets (24:06) | Blog: Dr. Cabrera writes about global leadership
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Canadian entrepreneur Ken Valvur never tasted sushi until he arrived at Thunderbird in 1987 and decided to learn Japanese to boost his international career. “On pure commercial grounds, I picked Japanese,” says the Thunderbird graduate. The decision has paid off for Valvur, who eventually returned from an expatriate assignment in Tokyo with the inspiration for Bento Nouveau. The company, which Valvur founded in 1996, sells more than 10 million servings of sushi per year in Canada and parts of New York. Valvur sold control of the enterprise to a private equity group in 2007 and is now exploring other ventures, including a possible saké brewery in Ontario. | Video: The rise of Canada’s sushi king (2:11) | Podcast: Betting on sushi (12:16)
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Saad Abdul-Latif calls himself “a guy from the neighborhood.” The CEO of PepsiCo’s Asia, Middle East and Africa Division oversees the company’s food and beverage operations in a territory that includes more than 100 countries and about two-thirds of the world’s population. Overall, the division generates nearly $6 billion in annual revenue through global brands such as Pepsi, Frito Lay, Tropicana, Gatorade and Quaker. Abdul-Latif has traveled far from his childhood home, where he grew up in occupied East Jerusalem surrounded by poverty and violence. But he remains mindful of his Palestinian heritage and his home in East Jerusalem, where his mother still lives. | Video: West Bank Childhood (1:44) | Video: Saad Abdul-Latif answers the Thunderbird Question (1:39) | Podcast: Global Citizenship at PepsiCo in Asia, Middle East and Africa (7:54)
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Some social sector leaders challenge the motives of entrepreneurs who make money selling goods and services to desperate families at the base of the pyramid. Thunderbird President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., said people who engage in such debates sometimes lose sight of a more important question: Are essential goods and services reaching the people who need them the most? If so, then it should not matter who gets credit or who makes a profit. Cabrera spoke April 29, 2010, during the second annual American Express Emerging Social Sector Leadership Program at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. | Video: Beyond the Hole in the Wall (5:35) | Video: Empowering Social Sector Leaders (4:56) | Video: Global Mindset in the Social Sector (3:03)
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Business school students looking for overseas employment start at a disadvantage when they carry a U.S. passport, commencement speaker Merle Hinrichs told graduates April 30 at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “It is my belief that some nations impede the competitiveness of their own citizens by the policies they adopt,” said Hinrichs, a 1965 Thunderbird graduate and Thunderbird Board of Trustees member since 1991. “This is unfortunate and maybe not intentional.” Hinrichs is chairman and CEO of Global Sources, Asia’s leading business-to-business media company focused on global trade. | Video: Full speech (13:50) | Video: Merle Hinrich’s Global Career (2:18) | Video: Merle Hinrichs on Emerging Economies (1:37) | Video: Merle Hinrichs answers the Thunderbird Question (2:18)
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By F. John Mathis, Thunderbird Professor

Rather than destroy Goldman Sachs, over-regulate them or view them as the source of the global financial meltdown, the more rational approach would be to create an environment in the United States that rewards financial services innovation and develops more companies like Goldman Sachs. U.S.-based competition at the top of the investment banking pyramid would help create more jobs and stronger economic growth in the U.S. economy that would support more sustainable prosperity worldwide. | Video: Why the World Needs More Goldman Sachs (2:25) | Video: How Does Goldman Make Your Life Better? (2:22) | Video: Do Bank Executives Deserve Big Pay? (3:32) | Podcast: Straight talk on Goldman Sachs Allegations (7:40) | Related Podcasts |
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By Mary Adams ‘82, Thunderbird graduate, and Michael Oleksak

What if one day your phone rings, and it’s a colleague who wants to talk with you about a company. This company has been around for decades and has grown steadily in recent years. It has good people. Although it has had a rough time in the last recession, it is holding its own and believes that it will be able to benefit from a strengthening economy. Its market holds promise of innovation and growth …Would you take the call? Does this sound interesting enough that you would recommend a deeper look to you as a potential partner, investor, board member or employee?
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