Archive for September, 2010

Should you stay or should you go? Thunderbird Professor Lena Booth, Ph.D., suggests four guidelines for companies considering expansion into a foreign market. “All these things need to be considered,” says Booth, academic director of Thunderbird’s Executive Certificate in Global Finance. | Video: Global Finance in a New Market (2:00) | Video: Manage Financial Risk (2:06) | Video: When financial statements lie (1:30) | Video: Do you really need a loan? (1:55)
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Global organizations that try to implement corporate-wide change without considering the needs of local and regional managers need a reality check, an SAP executive said Sept. 23, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “Local and regional managers sometimes cringe when ‘global’ comes to town,” said Bruce Mihok, Vice President for SAP’s Global Marketing and Demand Management Strategy group. He said global companies benefit from company-wide initiatives, but corporate leaders must understand at least four realities before they show up at the regional or local level to influence change. | Video: Global Planning vs. Local Realities (3:10)
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Businesses that make energy efficiency a low priority will pay a price when the economy recovers and oil prices climb, an environmental building consultant said Sept. 28, 2010, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “We’re going to see oil get more and more expensive,” said Mark Wilhelm, a founding principal of Green Ideas Environmental Building Consultants. “If some organizations don’t get their act together, they’re going to have a rude awakening.” Wilhelm said U.S. consumers and businesses sometimes take cheap energy for granted, but the growing middle class in countries such as China and India will lead to increased demand for oil supplies and higher prices. “China and India already are competing for those wells,” he said. “And they’re closing deals to secure them.” Wilhelm and his team at Green Ideas manage more than 70 LEED, green building and sustainable development projects. He spoke at Thunderbird at the invitation of the Thunderbird Energy Club, Net Impact and ThunderGreen. | Video: The Sustainability Imperative (2:59)
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By Kris Bibler, 1989 Thunderbird graduate

Having attended Thunderbird, most of us are interested and maybe particularly intrigued by cultural difference. We’ve lived, worked and taken holidays all over the world. Some of us, including me, thrive on the adventure and challenge of discovering differences and similarities across the globe. Detecting the nuances of a new place and being able to deduce the underlying cultural values or deeply held beliefs can mean the difference between successful product launches, valuable client/vendor/employee relationships, or money-losing failures.
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CEOs have plenty to worry about in the aftermath of a global recession. What should be on the top of their list? Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor Sundaresan Ram, Ph.D., says the answer should be the customer. “Technology is great,” he says. “But if we don’t think about how we improve the customer experience, it’s irrelevant.” In this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video, Ram gives the examples of Apple and Amazon. Both companies cornered their respective markets by focusing on the customer experience. | Video: Putting the customer first (2:34)
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By Charles Reeves, Thunderbird graduate and TEM Lab program manager

NEW YORK — There has been a lot of action in New York these past few days as the Clinton Global Initiative just got started today. At the top of the list: more than a year of work has culminated in the announcement of a Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory (TEM Lab) partnership with Exxon Mobil, Ashoka’s Changemakers and the International Council for Research on Women (ICRW).  Here’s what it boils down to for TEM Lab: Our MBA consulting teams will be working with three of the innovators identified by the Women | Tools | Technology program sponsored by Ashoka and Exxon Mobil.  The innovators were chosen because they are pioneering approaches that take advantage of recent technology innovations to empower women economically.
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Former Brazilian environmental minister Marina Silva remains an outsider in the presidential elections on Oct. 3, 2010, but her popularity as Brazil’s Green Party nominee shows how far the environmental movement has come in the emerging market. “She is truly committed to the preservation of the Amazon Forest and Brazil’s natural resources, and she already commands 15 percent of the vote,” says Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor John Zerio, Ph.D. “Her platform, her message, has started to travel throughout the country.” Zerio, a Brazilian native who has taught at Thunderbird for more than 20 years, leads a two-week winterim to Brazil each January that studies sustainable business models in the Amazon region. | Video: Brazil’s Green Princess (1:52) | Brazil Winterim: Learn about Professor Zerio’s two-week program
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Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor John Zerio, Ph.D., expects Brazil to regain the World Cup when the event comes to his home country in 2014. But even if that does not happen, Zerio says Brazil will win big when the emerging market hosts the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. “Brazilians are looking at this as their ticket to access the developed community and change the status of the country,” says Zerio, a Brazilian native who has taught at Thunderbird for more than 20 years. He says the biggest benefit will be the infrastructure overhaul that comes as foreign and domestic investment flows into the country. “Brazil will be the center of attention of the whole world for two years,” Zerio says. “But more important, in terms of investment and infrastructure, there will be a tremendous leap for the economy.” | Video: Brazil World Cup and Olympics (1:46) | Brazil Winterim: Learn about Professor Zerio’s two-week program
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By Ángel Cabrera, Thunderbird President and Clinton Global Initiative 2010 Topic Leader

Some nations have oil, some have ore, and others have rich biodiversity and farmland. But the most valuable resource at the disposal of any nation is its human talent. Unlike other natural resources, the benefits of human talent are self-sustaining, self-multiplying and contagious. The more we use it, the more we get. But like other resources, human talent must be refined and harnessed to reach its full potential. The refining process occurs through education, and the harnessing of human talent occurs when well-educated people take their knowledge and put it to work. Leaders from the public and private sectors will pay special attention to these issues during the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, which opens Sept. 21 in New York. | Video: Moving Beyond Microfinance (2:03) | Podcast: Harnessing Human Potential (10:02)
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By Laurence E. Lipsher, 1965 Thunderbird graduate

Fifty years after Mao Zedong founded the People’s Republic of China with a Tiananmen Square ceremony, I attended the anniversary National Day parade. I returned to Beijing again in 2009 for the 60th anniversary parade. Both events offer a lens to view China’s past and reflect on the future. What is on the minds of the Chinese people? What are possible remedies to current and future problems? I will group the concerns that I believe are most important into eight categories, all beginning with the letter C — as in China. These categories include consumption, citificaiton, credit and banking, cars, colleges and careers, carbon emissions, corruption and the Communist Party of China.
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