Archive for the ‘Global Mindset’ Category

Toyota wanted a strong Mandarin name for its Prado SUV in China, but the Japanese automaker quickly regretted its choice of 霸道 (bà-dào) during the 2003 product launch. Donny Huang ’94, the founder and managing partner at 4stones Cross-Cultural Consulting Group, said the word roughly means to rule by might like a tyrant. “I cannot find a truly equivalent word for badao in English,” Huang said March 15, 2012, during the Developing Leaders for Global Roles Summit, a two-day event organized by the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Toyota’s ad campaign showed the SUV driving past Chinese stone lions, which salute in respect. Huang said the concept might have worked for a Chinese automaker, but Toyota failed to consider the implications of stone lions saluting a Japanese product in China, where many still resent the Japanese occupation. | Video: Toyota’s Global Mindset Blunder in China (2:37)
Read more »

As the founder and managing partner at 4stones Cross-Cultural Consulting Group, Donny Huang ’94 often meets Western expatriates struggling to understand their Chinese counterparts. “The No. 1 complaint I hear is that Chinese managers lack initiative,” Huang said March 15, 2012, during the Developing Leaders for Global Roles Summit, a two-day event organized by the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management. “They are not proactive.” Western expatriates often interpret the passivity as a sign of poor leadership potential, but Huang said a deeper look at Chinese culture provides better understanding. | Video: Leadership from a Chinese Perspective (1:59)
Read more »

Associates accused Gary Ranker ’67, Ph.D., of being un-American when the California native decided to pursue a career outside the United States in the 1960s. Instead of starting gradually, Ranker dived into his first overseas assignment after finishing an undergraduate degree in economics and psychology at the University of Redlands. He took a job with Mercedes-Benz in Germany, boarded with a local family, and avoided English. “I decided to throw myself into the deep water,” Ranker said March 15, 2012, during the Developing Leaders for Global Roles Summit, a two-day event organized by the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He used different terminology in the 1960s, but he said his goal from the beginning was to acquire global mindset. His personal evolution toward global mindset has been mirrored by corporate and leadership movements that he has witnessed in the recent decades. | Video: A Personal Journey (2:55) | Video: Corporate Evolution (2:18) | Video: Inclusive Leadership (1:58)
Read more »

What is the statistical benefit of an international business degree? New analysis of growing survey data at Thunderbird School of Global Management puts the value at roughly eight years abroad in four or more countries. “For the first time ever, we are able to show a return on investment for a global management degree,” said Garvin Distinguished Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., director of Thunderbird’s Global Mindset® Institute in Glendale, Arizona. Javidan’s research team bases its conclusions on more than 10,000 survey results from the Global Mindset Inventory, a scientific self-assessment developed at Thunderbird to measure a manager’s capacity to thrive in unfamiliar environments with people from diverse backgrounds. Javidan said the 10,000 survey milestone — which Thunderbird passed on May 10, 2011 — means the sample size is large enough to identify trends, predict outcomes and make comparisons among subgroups.
Read more »

Companies that used to send untested expatriates overseas and hope for the best now have a reservoir of scientific data to rely upon when making assignments and preparing managers for success in complex global environments. The Global Mindset® Inventory, a scientific self-assessment developed at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, takes much of the guesswork out of what skills and aptitudes a manager needs to thrive in unfamiliar markets with people from diverse backgrounds. In just three years, a research team at Thunderbird’s Global Mindset Institute has amassed 10,000 survey responses from dozens of companies all over the world.
Read more »

New corporate managers might not need global mindset science to succeed in their first assignment with a multinational team. Many are smart enough to figure things out on their own. “That is probably true,” Thunderbird Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., acknowledges. “But there are two ways you can figure it out. There is a hard way and an easy way.” He says the hard way is to parachute managers into new global environments without any support and hope for the best. The easier way is for companies to take a proactive approach by helping them prepare for the cross-cultural situations they will encounter. Learn about Thunderbird’s Global Mindset® Institute in this Thunderbird Knowledge Network video series. | Video: Global Mindset Advantage (2:18) | Video: Global Mindset Development (2:35) | Video: Global Mindset Investment (2:49) | Video: Global Mindset Inventory (2:20) | Video: Global Mindset Origins (2:13) | Video: Globalization Benefits and Risks (2:41)
Read more »

Understanding cross-cultural differences shouldn’t be that difficult. After all, haven’t most global CEOs been there, done that? But the devil is in the details, as Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., Dean of Research and Garvin Distinguished Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, explains to Ernst & Young’s Billie Williamson, Americas Inclusiveness Officer. “If you’re a U.S. executive working in Russia or China, for example, you must think about what kind of leadership style you should use and how you must adjust your behavior,” Javidan said. He said some leadership attributes are universally desirable and others are universally undesirable, regardless of the country. But many other attributes are culturally specific. “For example, being cunning and self-protective is viewed negatively in the U.S. and Germany,” Javidan said. “But it seen as positive and effective in parts of the Middle East and some other countries.” Read the full question-and-answer session on the Ernst & Young site.

The idea of working abroad can be enticing — perhaps conjuring images of sipping drinks at a charming Old World cafe. But “the romance of an international assignment always exceeds the reality,” said Mary Teagarden, professor of global strategy at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Choosing the wrong person for an overseas job is costly, for both companies and workers. “The failure rate with international assignments is quite high,” said Teagarden, a researcher at the Thunderbird Global Mindset Leadership Institute. She said people come home before their contracted time or they don’t achieve their goals. Business is lost, and professional and personal relationships can be damaged, she said. Read the full article in The New York Times.

Thunderbird Professor Mansour Javidan, Ph.D., delivered this welcome address Aug. 11, 2010, for new students in the Global MBA for Latin American Managers program, a dual degree program at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, and Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico.

By Mansour Javidan, Thunderbird Professor

Welcome home. We are delighted to be with you for the journey you are starting. During the next 22 months, you will participate in more than just an academic program offered by these two great institutions. You are coming home. That is one of the things special about this place: This is your home. The secret to Thunderbird’s success is that our students are special. When other business schools talk like this, they usually refer to their students’ impressive test scores, grade point averages and work experience. Thunderbird students have similar high credentials. But this is not what makes you special. When I call you special, I mean something different. | Podcast: Professor Javidan welcomes Global MBA students (28:27)
Read more »

Right-click here to download

Companies should give their managers three things before turning them loose on any international assignment, Thunderbird Professor David Bowen, Ph.D., said June 29 at the world’s largest human resource management conference. First, companies should give their managers a clear definition of global mindset. Second, companies should help their managers assess their global mindset using a scientific instrument. Third, companies should help their managers develop global mindset. Bowen, the chief academic officer and dean at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, studies global mindset at the Thunderbird Global Mindset Leadership Institute. He explained how companies can deliver all three things at the 2010 Society for Human Resource Management conference in San Diego, California. | Video: Society for Human Resource Management interview (4:06)
Read more »