Archive for September, 2011

As a white collar criminal defense attorney, Melissa Ho works closely with high-level executives when the “oh no” phone call comes. This is the middle-of-the-night call alerting the CEO about a pending search warrant, lawsuit or crushing media story that will hit newsstands in the morning. “There are so many things that flash through one’s head,” Ho said Sept. 22, 2011, at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Her job at Polsinelli Shughart, a U.S. firm with about 550 attorneys, is to help companies navigate the internal investigation process that often runs concurrently with criminal, civil or media investigations. She spoke with aspiring executives at Thunderbird about what they can expect if they ever find themselves on the receiving end of an emergency phone call from headquarters. | Video: Internal Investigations (2:53)
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By Dr. Eileen Borris, Thunderbird Adjunct Professor

How do Thunderbird instructors keep their classes relevant? One way is by living what they teach. For me — as an instructor in cross-cultural communication and negotiation — this means immersing myself in world cultures and constantly balancing theory with practice. As soon as I finish teaching cross-cultural communication with my full-time students in fall 2011, I will travel directly to Nigeria as a peace facilitator for Christian and Muslim factions. Then I will return home for less than 24 hours and travel to Peru for another assignment. After two more days at home, I will travel to Lebanon. All of these experiences will keep me alert in the classroom and add richness to course discussions. Another way Thunderbird instructors keep their classes relevant is by drawing upon the rich experiences of their students. Thunderbird students come from all over the world, and many have lived and worked outside their native countries. This creates an intercultural laboratory on campus and in our online forums. Learn more in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video. | Video: Teaching the Thunderbird way (2:51)
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Multinational organizations mean well when they promote their best subsidiary managers to corporate headquarters. But Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor Andreas Schotter, Ph.D., says organizations often benefit the most by leaving these people where they are. “That’s the biggest mistake firms do,” Schotter says. “When someone is successful at the subsidiary level, they promote them to headquarters.” Schotter, a global strategy professor with subsidiary experience in China, studies the effects of “boundary spanners” at the corporate and local levels. “Boundary spanners are managers who understand how to identify the best solutions at both ends,” Schotter says. “They push back toward headquarters when an initiative does not make sense for a subsidiary or the company overall. But they also push back toward subsidiaries when a corporate intitiative has the potential to make the network stronger.” Schotter says all boundary spanners share at least two traits in common. First, they possess a high level of functional knowledge and legitimacy in their organizations. “They know their stuff,” Schotter says. “They are not just entertaining.” Second, they have a high level of embeddedness at headquarters and at the subsidiary level. “They have dual embeddedness,” Schotter says. “They have networks. People know and trust them at both levels.” Schotter says multinational organizations need boudnary spanners more than ever as economic power shifts east toward emerging markets such as India, China and Indonesia. Learn more in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video. | Video: Solutions at Both Ends (2:09)
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Direct investment, personal income and tax revenue are rising in the United States — staving off a double-dip recession — but don’t make plans to retire just yet. Thunderbird School of Global Management Professor F. John Mathis, Ph.D., says economic growth of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent will fall “way below the rate we need to grow to absorb the unemployed in any significant way.” He blames the slow recovery on a weak banking system hampered by persistent mortgage delinquency. “This part of the banking system is not functioning,” says Mathis, director of Thunderbird’s Global Financial Services Office. “That’s a long-term problem.” He says slow growth in the United States and other mature markets will drag down the emerging and developing world. “Financial globalization has linked us extremely tightly together,” Mathis says. “We’re all being drawn into the same close performance levels.” He spoke Sept. 14, 2011, during an alumni webinar that included a live question-and-answer session. Watch the full presentation here. | Video: Why You Can’t Retire (1:03:16)
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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. “It is clearly very hard to see one’s own culture,” says Thunderbird Professor Denis Leclerc, Ph.D., who teaches in the Executive Certificate in Global Negotiations program through Thunderbird Online. Culture is often described as a set of shared and learned preferences that bind people together, but Leclerc says his students struggle when asked 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. | Podcast: Defining Culture (9:55)

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Young people with access to social media technology will help transform Middle East culture in the coming months, Thunderbird Professors Paul Kinsinger and Melissa Beran Samuelson said Sept. 13, 2011, in a faculty webinar. “The demographics in much of the Arab world is extremely young,” Kinsinger says. “There is tremendous pressure on these governments and these societies to find opportunities for people coming of age.” Samuelson says the United States saw a similar youth movement in the 1960s. “When you’re young, there is a lot more possibility in the air,” she says. “And that helps drive some of the revolution.” The professors respond to alumni questions about Libya, Syria, Egypt, Israel and other Middle East hotspots in this hourlong webinar. | Webinar: Arab Spring Update (57:54)
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By Dr. Eileen Borris, Thunderbird Adjunct Professor

Working professionals enrolled in Thunderbird Online certificate programs might assume their instructors facilitate the distance learning courses from the school’s home base in Glendale, Arizona. The truth is I am rarely on campus. I correspond with my online classes from Asia, Africa, South America and many places in between. Course participants also are scattered around the globe, which creates ideal circumstances for discussing my specialty: Cross-cultural communication, negotiation and conflict resolution. Participants who post questions in our online forums about specific regions and customs invariably receive responses from classmates with firsthand knowledge. This is a great way to start discussions. I share real-life examples from my cross-cultural adventures and then draw upon the richness within the online community. The result is a learning experience that is never the same twice. Learn more in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video. | Video: Thunderbird Online Experience (2:23)
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By John Hope Bryant, Thunderbird Global Business Dialogue Speaker

One thing that my 19 years as founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE has taught me is that helping folks is not so easy, and that often, “no good deed shall go unpunished.” That said, we should all “do good anyway.” For confirmation of this, just look at many of my heroes, from Jesus Christ, to the more earthly saints such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. All of my heroes and sheroes, long since past in the human body and form we relate to, live on today, arguably larger, more brilliantly and more impactful than ever. In my work, I never doubt that it is all worth it. But boy this work can get so very frustrating at times! And this is why my favorite chapter of my bestselling business book, “Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World” (Jossey-Bass) is “Loss Creates Leaders.”
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People who view the Mideast uprisings as an “Arab Spring” are missing the broader significance of a global movement, U.S. Sen. John McCain said Aug. 29, 2011, at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. “I don’t think Arab Spring is the right name for it,” McCain said. “It obviously has spread throughout the Arab world and is still going on. But I would argue that it’s going on all over the world, not just in the Arab world.” McCain said the only comparable time in recent history might be the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Union. “We live in a time when we should be most excited,” he said. “Never in history have so many hundreds of millions of people had an opportunity to experience freedom and democracy and an observance of human rights.” | Video: Sen. John McCain at Thunderbird (13:13) | Podcast: Sen. John McCain at Thunderbird (13:13)
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