Archive for July, 2010

The following guest post on corporate strategy is written by Executive MBA Europe students  Vinicius Artacho, Paul Mastromatteo, Jean-Jacques Murama, Kamilla Nurbaeva, Farid Saffar and Antonio Solis.

Since the late 14th century, when the Medici bank was created in Florence by a wealthy family of art merchants, with Genoa and Venice as the major centers for banking activity during the Renaissance period, the concept of Wealth Management has been disseminated in every single place in the world. Banking offices used to be located near trade centers and together with Italy, also London, Hamburg and Amsterdam were important business locations.

Creation of wealth has been discussed for many generations, but the maintenance of wealth is another key element that has developed more recently. In 1838, the family of the American banker John Pierpont Morgan created the House of Morgan with the purpose of managing the family’s assets. In 1882 the Rockefellers, who would later be the owners of Chase Manhattan Bank, launched their family office.

Ever since, there has been an improvement in the wealth management services across the globe and a few institutions have successfully achieved a leadership position in this industry. One of the most prominent and efficient is UBS. UBS has been the greatest wealth manager of this century and has created such a strong brand that its name is recognized globally and its presence is massive all over the world. The bank manages money from individual clients, ranging from USD 100’000 to fortunes above USD 100 million. In 2009 UBS generated net income of almost USD 4 billion and the analysts are forecasting around USD 10 billion for 2010.

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The following guest post on corporate strategy is from Thunderbird Executive MBA-Europe students Maria Botta, Sandra Tassilly, Rachel Page, Binu Abraham and James Hosie.

The movie industry might be the ideal industry one would look to for innovation and constant creation of the unexpected, it is also an industry that is extremely competitive, a complex balance between studios, financiers, actors, writers and distributors competing for a piece of the $119 billion global revenues.

Despite the highly competitive environment, the global movie production and distribution industry has relatively few big international players: the top four players only represent 25.0% of the global industry. Furthermore, most countries across the globe have some sort of domestic movie industry; the annual volume of film production is concentrated in India (1325 films), China (406 films), United States (520 films) and the European Union (921 films). Despite the recent economic recession, which resulted in a credit squeeze on finance availability, the global production and distribution of movies is estimated to increase by 4.1% within the next 5 years.

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Guest post by Thunderbird MBA student Emily Eckert, ‘11

Emily is currently working as Reporting Officer Intern for FLAG International in Afghanistan. FLAG is a consulting company that provides technical and management consulting services for companies seeking to generate an above-average return on the capital of their owners and investors.

Like most of the rest of the world – outside of work I’ve been busy watching the World Cup matches. Unfortunately for us, the best games start at 11pm local time! This makes for some very late nights, especially when they go into overtime. But it is a lot of fun watching with co-workers and then we all fall asleep during the 2nd half.

Last weekend, I went to visit the King’s palace just outside of Kabul. It is called Darul Aman Palace and was destroyed during the 30 years of war. In the distance is the queen’s palace and there is supposedly a tunnel connecting the two palaces.

According to the guards that escorted us through the palace, it was designed by a German architect and was modeled after a castle in Germany. The destruction of the palace was absolutely shocking and saddening. There were over 250 rooms, and although everything is gone, you can tell it must have been beautiful during its hey-day. There were bullet holes in the walls and the ceilings were black from fire and explosions. Entire floors and ceilings had collapsed, but we were able to go up to the first floor and walk around a bit. That was a bit nerve-wracking even though the soldiers said it was safe. But obviously, nothing happened and it was cool to get a different view of the palace.

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Guest post by Kelly A. Sheridan, MBA 2011

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation once said, “I like to tell people that all of our products and business will go through three phases. There’s vision, patience, and execution.” After completing my first year as a Thunderbird MBA student in Global Management, I see many parallels between Ballmer’s statement about business strategy and my passion for running.

Vision: I started my MBA at Thunderbird wanting to train both my mind and body. A frequent reader of The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, I was excited to see how I could share my passion for business with those around me.

I also had a goal of running the New York City Marathon – my first marathon – just two months into my MBA. Most of my family and friends thought that I was crazy. But, like business, I wanted to focus on using my drive to execute a shared goal with 42,000 runners in my favorite city.

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By Jeremy Macdonald, MBA 2011

It has taken all of eight weeks, but we are finally settled in Grand Rapids and having a lot of fun.  Does it take everyone this long, or is it just me because of my family?

Over the Independence Day weekend we had a few adventures:  Children’s museum, Lake Michigan beach, Zoo, Swimming in the pool, Meijer gardens and water park.  We even bought some fireworks and set them off.  The kids love the small ones, but were too tired to stay up for the real ones.  It does not get dark enough here till 10:30pm.  Welcome to the 42^nd parallel.

We also had dinner with friends from Michigan and all in all it was a wonderful weekend.  Getting paid for relaxing is really terrific, and Amway offers two days of for every holiday in the summer.

Of course, it seems, that just as soon as we are really starting to enjoy ourselves, the internship ends.  (still have four weeks.)

Grand Rapids has a lot to offer in terms of destinations and people.  There are many good companies here as well.  I hope that the rest of our Thunder-interns are getting along really well.

By Kelly Fuson, MBA in Global Management ‘11

I’m almost half-way through my summer internship so I thought it was a good time to write an update about my experience transitioning to a Mac. Here are a few learnings that I’ve gathered during the last four weeks using my MacBook Pro:

Learning #1: Using a Mac has taught me more about how to use my PC.

Macs are designed for simplicity and I found myself using the Command function for almost everything. I was using it a lot partly because it was simply how I learned how to use my Mac. When I would go home at night I thought, why can’t I use the Command (or in this case “CTRL” – control) function on my PC? Prior to using a Mac I would only use CTRL to copy and paste, now I’m using it for everything on my PC just like I do with my Mac. When it comes down to it, I would rather control my computer than command it.

Learning #2: The Magic Mouse is both a curse and a blessing

I’ve never loved and hated a mouse as much as the Magic Mouse. The last mouse that I used and felt the same way was the orbital mouse. The Magic Mouse is great for scrolling, unless your working in PowerPoint, then I suddenly find myself on slide 20 instead of slide 4. Sensitivity can be a good thing and a bad thing.

Learning #3: It’s not over until you hit Command Q

It’s great that I can quickly toggle from program to program, but quit already! It gets kind of annoying when I only need to use a program for a quick second and then it wants to stay open until I go back and kill it. I like that when I close a program on my PC it knows that I’m done with it. I guess the Mac is just persistent and insists that I keep working.

So I guess I’m still on the fence when it comes to which one I like better. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. But I still have six more weeks to go, plenty of time to pick a side…

(Photo: A useful book that my Mom sent me.)

By Carly E. Brennan, MS in Global Management 2010

Hello and Happy 4th of July weekend, TSV blog readers!

Well, it’s already July, meaning summer is just about halfway over. Time has really flown by, and in the past couple of months I have learned a lot about searching for internships and jobs, and experienced what a true Arizona summer feels like. My summer so far has been pretty relaxing, minus the stress of searching for an internship/job. I floated down the Salt River with some friends on a typical, hot, 104-degree AZ day. The river is not exactly the cleanest, but the water temperature was so refreshing and perfect. I have also gotten the opportunity to explore various hiking trails around the area, including Thunderbird Park, Lookout Mountain, Squaw Peak, Pinnacle Peak, Camelback Mountain, Pima Canyon in Tucson, and some hiking up in Sedona. With the crazy heat, a CamelBak backpack and some good sunscreen are essential investments!

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By Jeremy Macdonald ‘10, MBA in Global Management

My internship officially passed the halfway point; and I had my mid-review.  The update is that I am on-target and progressing well.  I also discovered that communication between me and my mentor is a challenge.  Some things come naturally and some things require development.

When the internship started, one of my tasks was to assign myself objectives for my internship.  I had a lot but you could sum them up into two categories:

1. Prove to Amway that they want me for a full time position and
2. find out if I want a career at Amway (aka culture and professional fit)

Our future depends on a mutual fit.  If it is not a good fit for both parties, no other reward (pay and prestige) can really be a sustainable substitute for a good fit.  I know it and my mentor knows it, but my mentor does not know that I know it.  Too complicated?

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